VIRGIN ISLANDS

group of about 90 small islands, islets, cays, and rocks in the West Indies, situated some 40 to 50 miles (64 to 80 kilometres) east of Puerto Rico. The islands extend from west to east for about 60 miles and are located west of the Anegada Passage, a major channel connecting the Atlantic Ocean and the Caribbean Sea. Their combined land area is about 195 square miles (505 square kilometres). The islands are administered in two groupsthe British Virgin Islands and the Virgin Islands of the United States. The former is a British colony consisting of four larger and 32 smaller islands and islets. Their total area is 59 square miles, and they lie to the north and east of the U.S. islands. The latter group, administered by the U.S. Department of the Interior as an incorporated territory, consists of three larger islands and some 50 smaller islets and cays, with a total area of 133 square miles. The Virgin Islands are noted for their inviting subtropical climate, which attracts a large number of tourists each year to swim in the warm aquamarine waters and frequent the sandy beaches and harbours. Apart from the tourist industry, the islands have few economic resources; financial aid is provided by the United Kingdom and the United States, respectively. Fresh water is scarce. In recent years some tension has arisen between the inhabitants of the islands and people from other parts of the Caribbean who have immigrated, particularly to the Virgin Islands of the United States, to seek jobs and secure better living conditions. Additional reading There are few works that treat all the islands of the Lesser Antilles or describe a particular island comprehensively, although a number of broad overviews are listed in the earlier section on the region. An informative geologic survey, covering locations from both the Lesser Antilles and the Netherlands Antilles, is offered in J.H. Westermann and H. Kiel, The Geology of Saba and St. Eustatius, with Notes on the Geology of St. Kitts, Nevis, and Montserrat, Lesser Antilles (1961). Guy Lasserre, La Guadeloupe: tude gographique, 3 vol. (1978), is a detailed geography. Studies of flora include Clarissa Thrse Kimber, Martinique Revisited: The Changing Plant Geographies of a West Indian Island (1988); and David Watts, Man's Influence on the Vegetation of Barbados, 1627 to 1800 (1966).The people of Barbados are discussed in Jill Sheppard, The Redlegs of Barbados, Their Origins and History (1977), which explores the history of indentured servants; Farley Brathwaite (ed.), The Elderly in Barbados (1986), a survey of social and economic conditions of the elderly; and Graham M.S. Dann (ed.), Everyday in Barbados: A Sociological Perspective (1976), which discusses social structures and recreational activity. Jean Benoist (ed.), L'Archipel inachev: culture et socit aux Antilles franaises (1972), is an anthropological study of the French islands of Martinique, Guadeloupe, La Dsirade, Marie-Galante, and Saint-Barthlemy. Stuart B. Philpott, West Indian Migration: The Montserrat Case (1973), explores the impact of migration on village population. Bonham C. Richardson, Caribbean Migrants: Environment and Human Survival on St. Kitts and Nevis (1983), focuses on migration as a response to degradation of environment. Karen Fog Olwig, Cultural Adaptation and Resistance on St. John: Three Centuries of Afro-Caribbean Life (1985), examines the society of one of the Virgin Islands.Analyses of economic conditions include Delisle Worrell (ed.), The Economy of Barbados, 19461980 (1982), a study of the trends of the major sectors; Bonham C. Richardson, Panama Money in Barbados, 19001920 (1985), which discusses the impact of remittances on a wide range of economic activities and social attitudes; Michel-Rolph Trouillot, Peasants and Capital: Dominica in the World Economy (1988), which explores patterns of land ownership and agricultural production; and C. Bourne, E.R. Lefranc, and F. Nunes (compilers), Small Farming in the Less Developed Countries of the Commonwealth Caribbean (1980), which provides information on Grenada, Saint Vincent and the Grenadines, Saint Lucia, Dominica, Saint Kitts and Nevis, Montserrat, and Antigua. Studies of individual island-state economies include John S. Brierley, Small Farming in Grenada, West Indies (1974); Deirdre M. Kelly, Hard Work, Hard Choices: A Survey of Women in St. Lucia's Export-Oriented Electronics Factories (1987); and Hymie Rubenstein, Coping With Poverty: Adaptive Strategies in a Caribbean Village (1987).Historical works which concentrate mostly on slavery and plantation life include the following: Vincent T. Harlow, A History of Barbados, 16251685 (1926, reprinted 1969), an examination of the period of the early British colonies; Gary A. Puckrein, Little England: Plantation Society and Anglo-Barbadian Politics, 16271700 (1984), a revisionist economic history, particularly strong on the creolizing process; Hilary Beckles, Black Rebellion in Barbados: The Struggle Against Slavery, 16271838 (1984), a provocative interpretation of slave resistance. Jerome S. Handler, The Unappropriated People: Freedmen in the Slave Society of Barbados (1974), which fills a gap in historiography; Karl Watson, The Civilised Island, Barbados: A Social History, 17501816 (1979), a study of the mature slave society; Claude Levy, Emancipation, Sugar, and Federalism: Barbados and the West Indies, 18331876 (1980), on postslavery adjustments; Gordon C. Merrill, The Historical Geography of St. Kitts and Nevis, the West Indies (1958), which discusses the colonial period on the islands; Lennox Honychurch, The Dominica Story: A History of the Island, 2nd ed. (1984), a well-illustrated study covering developments up to the 1980s and benefiting from the author's personal involvement in the constitutional changes leading to independence; and George Brizan, Grenada, Island of Conflict: From Amerindians to People's Revolution, 14981979 (1984), the work of a Grenadian historian and politician. History Pre-Columbian inhabitants of the islands probably included the Arawak, who were displaced by the Caribs; the latter had reached the stage of stone polishing and pottery making when Christopher Columbus arrived. On his second voyage, in 1493, Columbus dropped anchor at what is now known as Salt River Bay, St. Croix (which he called Santa Cruz), and sent a landing party ashore in search of fresh water and fruit. After a skirmish, the Caribs repulsed the Spanish. Columbus later encountered some of the other islands and named the group Santa Ursula y las Once Mil Virgenes (St. Ursula and the Eleven Thousand Virgins). In 1555 the Holy Roman emperor, Charles V (Charles I of Spain), sent forces that defeated the Caribs, claimed the territory, and ordered the annihilation of the natives. By 1596 most of the natives had been killed or had left. Settlement and history of the British Virgin Islands Tortola was first settled in 1648 by Dutch buccaneers who held the island until it was taken over in 1666 by a group of English planters. In 1672 Tortola was annexed to the British-administered Leeward Islands. In 1773 the planters were granted civil government, with an elected House of Assembly and a partly elected Legislative Council, and constitutional courts. The abolition of slavery in the first half of the 19th century dealt a heavy blow to the agricultural economy. In 1867 the constitution was surrendered and a legislative council was appointed that lasted until 1902, when sole legislative authority was vested in the governor-in-council. In 1950 a partly elected and partly nominated legislative council was reinstated. Following the defederation of the Leeward Islands colony in 1956 and the abolition of the office of governor in 1960, the islands became a crown colony. In 1958 the West Indies Federation was established, but the British Virgin Islands declined to join, in order to retain close economic ties with the U.S. islands. Under a constitutional order issued in 1967, the islands were given a ministerial form of government. The constitution was amended in 1977 to permit a greater degree of autonomy in internal affairs.