Some of you probably looked at the title in complete confusion. France? How could Kosmos be in France when they just crossed the Atlantic? France is in Europe and Kosmos is in the Caribbean! What the heck? Believe it or not, Guadeloupe is an official overseas department of France and an integral part of the French Republic. Guadeloupe is to France what Hawaii is to the USA. And, as an FYI, the correct pronunciation is Gwah-dah-loop, with no A sound at the end.

Guadeloupe is comprised of five islands. The largest two islands are so close together that they appear to be one island, separated only by a very narrow sea channel. The two islands together make a distinctive butterfly shape (granted, it looks like a butterfly our 4 year old nephew would draw).

The information on the indigenous peoples of the islands is limited. Pretty much every source we have referenced has given us conflicting information. All the sources agree there were two main tribes that inhabited the Eastern and Southern Caribbean Islands we will be visiting, the Arawaks and the Caribs. Both were Amerindian groups believed to have migrated from the mainland, the Arawaks from Venezuela and Guyana and the Caribs from the Orinoco River area in South America. All sources agree that the Arawaks were a peaceful farming people group who arrived in the islands before the Caribs did. All sources agree that the Caribs were a warrior people with superior seafaring skills and weapons. The Caribs were cannibalistic and would kill and eat Arawak men and enslave the women. One piece of conflicting information is when the islands were first settled, the range is between 4,000 BC and 2,000 BC. Some believe that the Arawaks were the first to settle the islands, others think different people groups had settled the islands before the Arawaks arrived. The dates the Caribs arrived on the scene vary from around 1200 AD to right before Columbus arrived. Some sources say the Caribs wiped out the Arawaks completely before the Europeans arrived, others say it was the Europeans that wiped them out. From what we can tell, it looks as if Arawaks did live on Guadeloupe at some point in time, but explanations about when and why they vanished is also conflicting.

Christopher Columbus “discovered” Guadeloupe in November 1493, on his second voyage to the Americas. He stopped at the island in search of fresh water. Columbus named it Santa María de Guadalupe de Extremadura, after the image of the Virgin Mary venerated in Guadalupe, Extremadura, Spain. Over time the name was abbreviated. Columbus supposedly also discovered pineapple during his brief stay on Guadeloupe. Columbus made no effort to settle the island.

In the 1500’s, the Spanish attempted to the settle the island twice, but the local Caribs put up a fierce resistance. In 1604, the Spanish abandoned their claim to the island. In 1635, some French entrepreneurs decided they needed to get into the Caribbean colonization game, so they arrived in Guadeloupe, claimed it for France, and managed to establish a settlement there. Depending on whose version of history you’re reading, the French either drove out or wiped out the entire Carib population. They imported slaves from Africa, planted crops, and had a well established plantation system by the time France officially annexed the islands in 1674.

Over the next century, the island was invaded several times by the British. The British managed to successfully seize control from 1759 1763. Their rule had a massive positive economic impact on the island. The British developed Point a Pitre into a major harbor, opened up new markets for sugar trade, and allowed the islanders to import cheap lumber and food from the British colonies in mainland America. The French landowners were prosperous and happy under the British. The French got Guadeloupe back by trading it for French Canada in 1763.

In 1790, a new law was passed by the French granting equal rights for the free colored people. The upper classes refused to accept this and started an independence movement. There was internal conflict between the locals who were for and against independence. In 1791, the pro-independence group won the internal fight and declared independence from France in 1791. France ignored the decree. In 1793, a slave rebellion started, which made the upper classes turn to the British and ask them to occupy the island. The British were more than happy to comply and invaded in 1794. The French Revolution was going on, so it seemed an ideal time to strike. The British only had control for five weeks when the French retook the island under the command of Victor Hugues, a black nationalist, who freed and armed all the slaves. Hugues led the former slaves in a rampage that killed 300 upper class people, many of them plantation owners. Hugues also attacked some USA ships, so the new fledgling country declared war on France, the ally that was so instrumental in helping the USA establish itself as a nation only a few years prior.

In 1802 Napoleon sent troops to put down the uprising, restore the old government system, and reinstitute slavery, which they succeeded in doing at the cost of 10,000 Guadeloupean lives. In 1810 the British once again seized the island and offered to give it to the Swedes as a repayment of debt, but in 1814 the Treaty of Paris was enacted. The Treaty of Paris marked the official end of Napoleon’s reign and the return of the French Monarchy. Remember that Napoleon had conquered a huge chunk of Europe, and part of the treaty was redistributing the land back to the “rightful” owners. Somehow, in this distribution, the French managed to get Guadeloupe back. The French have ruled there ever since.

In 1848 slavery was abolished. Afterwards, 40,000 indentured servants were brought in from India, half of whom were literally worked to death and died of exhaustion. Guadeloupe was given representation in the French parliament in 1871 and in 1946 was given the status of overseas department. Today the population is about 451,000, and ¾ of them are of mixed ethnicity, a combination of African, Eastern Indian, and European ancestry.

Guadeloupe’s primary industries are agriculture, tourism, and “light industry”, including sugar and rum production facilities. They also rely heavily on subsidies from France. The island has been hit by a number of hurricanes in recent years, including Hurricane Dean in August 2007.