Saint Barthélemy

Saint Barthélemy is a French overseas collectivity in the Caribbean, about 30 km (19 mi) southeast of Saint Martin. Gustavia is its capital and main harbor, and the island, also called St. Barts, is French in language and culture.

Taíno and Arawak people may have visited the island, which they called Ouanalao, but its lack of fresh water kept them from settling. Christopher Columbus named it in 1493 after Bartholomew the Apostle, and by 1648 French settlers under the patronage of Phillippe de Longvilliers de Poincy were growing cacao there. Caribs attacked the settlement in 1656. The island passed to the Order of Saint John, then to the French West India Company, and in 1674 to the French crown as part of the Guadeloupe colony; British forces held it from 1744 to 1764.

In 1784 Louis XVI traded the island to Sweden for trading rights in Gothenburg. The Swedes made Gustavia, named after King Gustav III, a free port, and no other Caribbean island stayed under Swedish rule for so long; the three crowns of Sweden still appear on its coat of arms. Sweden sold the island back to France in 1878 following a referendum held in 1877, and it was run as part of Guadeloupe.

Islanders gained full French citizenship in 1946, and many men worked on Saint Thomas until tourism grew from the 1960s, helped by an airstrip for mid-sized planes; electricity reached the island only in the 1980s. Voters chose to leave Guadeloupe in a 2003 referendum, and separate collectivity status followed in February 2007, keeping its free port status. In 2012 it left the European Union as an outermost region to become an overseas country and territory. Gustavia hosts sailing events such as the St Barths Bucket Regatta and Les Voiles de St. Barth.