British Virgin Islands

The British Virgin Islands are a British Overseas Territory in the Caribbean, east of Puerto Rico and the US Virgin Islands. Road Town on Tortola, the largest island, is the capital, and the territory takes in Virgin Gorda, Anegada, Jost Van Dyke and more than 50 smaller islands and cays.

Arawak people from South America probably settled the islands between 100 BC and AD 200, though traces of Amerindians go back to 1500 BC. Columbus passed in 1493 and named them after Saint Ursula and her 11,000 virgins, later shortened to the Virgin Islands. Spain claimed them but never settled, while English, Dutch, French and Danish powers competed for the region. The Dutch had a settlement on Tortola by 1648, the English took it in 1672 and annexed Anegada and Virgin Gorda in 1680.

Sugar plantations made the islands rich until the middle of the 19th century, when competition from sugar beet ended the trade. After the United States bought the neighboring Danish islands in 1917, trade ties led the British islands to adopt the US dollar in 1959. They were run with the Leeward Islands or with Saint Kitts and Nevis until they became a separate colony in 1960, and in 1967 they gained self-government under a chief minister. Islanders have held full British citizenship since 2002.

Tourism and financial services dominate the economy, and licence fees from offshore companies fund much of the government. Visitors come for The Baths on Virgin Gorda, the reefs off Anegada, a flat island of limestone and coral, and the bars of Jost Van Dyke. The islands are a leading sailing area, where charter boats reach the smaller islands, and the BVI Spring Regatta has been held since 1972. Mount Sage on Tortola, at 521 m (1,709 ft), is the highest point.