Pre-20th century

The islands' first permanent residents are thought to have been migrating Arawaks, who established agricultural communities on both Antigua and Barbuda about 2000 years ago. Around 1200 AD, the Arawaks were forced out by raiding Caribs, who used the islands as bases for their forays but apparently didn't settle them.

Columbus sighted Antigua in 1493 and named it after a church in Seville, Spain. The British colonised Antigua in 1632, establishing a settlement at Parham on the eastern side of the island. The settlers started planting indigo and tobacco, but a glut in the market for these crops soon undermined prices.

In 1674, Sir Christopher Codrington arrived on Antigua and established the first sugar plantation. By the end of the century, a plantation economy had developed, slaves were imported and the central valleys were deforested and replanted with sugarcane. To feed the slaves, Codrington leased the neighbouring island of Barbuda from the British Crown and planted it with food crops.

As Antigua prospered, the British built fortifications around the island, turning it into one of their most secure bases in the Caribbean. The military couldn't secure the economy, however, and in the early 1800s the sugar market began to bottom out. With the abolition of slavery in 1834, the plantations fell apart. Antigua's former plantations were consolidated under the control of a handful of landowners rather than parcelled out to former slaves, as happened on other Caribbean islands. Consequently the lot of most local people only worsened. Many former slaves moved off the plantations and into shantytowns, while others crowded onto properties held by the church.

Modern history

A military-related construction boom during WWII and the post-war development of tourism helped spur economic growth, although the shantys still present along the outskirts of St John's show that the prosperity has yet to trickle down to the bottom rungs of the population. In 1967, after more than 300 years of colonial rule, Antigua achieved a measure of self-government as an Associated State of the United Kingdom; the country achieved full independence in 1981. In early September 1995, Hurricane Luis hit Antigua & Barbuda with winds in excess of 125mph (210kmh). All the hotels on Barbuda were damaged and half of the homes were destroyed. On Antigua, nearly 75% of the homes received significant damage and many public buildings, including schools and the hospital, were rendered unsafe. The recovery was a slow one, but most homes were subsequently rebuilt, and the majority of hotels and guesthouses reopened.

In 1997, Prime Minister Lester Bird announced that a group of ecologically sensitive islands just off Antigua's northeastern coast, previously proposed for national park status, were being turned over to Malaysian developers. The Guiana Island Development Project deal, calling for a 1000-room hotel, an 18-hole golf course and a world-class casino, sparked widespread criticism by environmentalists, minority members in parliament, and the press. The issue came to a head when a local resident shot the PM's brother. Today, the proposed development is mired in lawsuits and politics.

Recent history

More recently, Antigua played host to about 3000 residents of Montserrat who were evacuated from the island when the Soufriere Hills volcano exploded in 1995. The influx placed considerable strain on the nation, which had been experiencing cashflow problems. Antigua was named on an OECD list of 35 tax havens, from which it has since managed to be removed.

In 2004, Prime Minister Lester Bird was defeated in elections, ending 24 years of the Bird family's father-and-son domination of the political scene. The United Progressive Party, under Baldwin Spencer, took government. New attorney-general Justin Simon announced in August of that year that the government would be seeking to repeal the Guiana Island Development Project.