Guadeloupe

Guadeloupe is an overseas department and region of France in the Caribbean, between Antigua and Dominica. Basse-Terre is the capital, Pointe-à-Pitre is the business center, French is the official language, and Guadeloupean Creole is the native tongue.

The archipelago has six inhabited islands, led by Basse-Terre and Grande-Terre, which together look like a butterfly, plus Marie-Galante, La Désirade and two of the Îles des Saintes. Its first people may have arrived around 3000 BC, and the Arawak called it Karukera, the island of beautiful waters, before the Kalinago displaced them. Columbus landed in November 1493 and named it after Our Lady of Guadalupe in Extremadura, and the Kalinago beat back Spanish attempts to settle. The Compagnie des Îles de l'Amérique began French settlement in 1635.

Britain held Guadeloupe during the Seven Years' War, and the colony was so rich that France gave up Canada to get it back in the Treaty of Paris of 1763. Britain took it again in 1794, but Victor Hugues retook it that year. Napoleon's forces under Antoine Richepanse restored French control in 1802.

Guadeloupe is an integral part of France and the European Union and uses the euro, and Saint Barthélemy and Saint Martin belonged to it until 2007. La Grande Soufrière on Basse-Terre, the highest peak of the Lesser Antilles, is the only active volcano among the islands. Zouk music grew out of its mix of African, French and Indian cultures, and since the 1970s local musicians have sung mostly in Guadeloupean Creole. The Cousteau reserve protects coral reefs off Basse-Terre.