History of Guadeloupe

The earliest settlers on Guadeloupe arrived around 300 AD and developed agriculture on the island. They were removed by the more warlike Caribs. It was the Caribs who called the island "Karukera," which is roughly translated as "island with beautiful waters." They were also the tribe to meet all of the later settlers to the island. Archaeologists suggest that between 800 and 1000 AD drought, desertification and expansion of sand dunes on Guadeloupe led to a period with no active habitation based on the scarcity of remains from the period; this period coincides historically with the droughts and subsequent collapse of the Mayan civilizations in Mesoamerica. Gradual resettlement and recultivation of the land on Guadeloupe occurred between 1000 AD and the arrival of Columbus.

Columbus' second journey brought him to this island on November 14, 1493. He named it for an image in a Spanish monastery he had visited: Santa María de Guadalupe de Extremadura, an image of the Virgin Mary venerated at Villuercas, in Guadalupe, Extremadura.

No settlements were established on the island for many years but it was used as a trading post until 1635 after Captain Pierre Belain d’Ensambuc had sent explorers to Guadeloupe and decided it would be lucrative to settle and cultivate tobacco on the island; thus his corporation, the French Compagnie des Îles de l'Amérique sent 550 men under the leadership of Charles Liénard de l’Olive to Guadeloupe on June 27, 1635. De L’Olive waged brutal war against the Caribs in Guadeloupe from 1636 to 1639, throughout which only 30 to 40 French died. Then in 1640, reinforcements from St. Christophe of Frenchmen allowed for the colonists to completely crush Carib resistance except for some few who fled to Basse-Terre and would sign a peace treaty with the French colonists in 1641.

Early tobacco cultivation in Guadeloupe through the first half of the 17th century was sustained by relatively small numbers of indentured servants and European laborers under small scale proprietors, and in 1654 80% of the population of Guadeloupe was of European origin, with two-thirds being indentured servants. Both the numbers of Europeans and the proportion of indentured labor would drop dramatically over the second half of the 17th century with the importation of African slaves: in 1654 67% of the population was of European origin, by 1671 that number dropped to 13%.

From 1672 until 1678–allied with Britain until 1674–France was at war with the Dutch and faced enormous difficulty defending its colonies in the Caribbean; it was in this context of defense that Guadeloupe was royally annexed into the Kingdom of France in 1674. In 1714, the French general government of the American islands divided in two, and Guadeloupe was placed under the control of the governor on Martinique.

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