"Forward Ever, Backward Never" | |||||
| Anthem | "Hail Grenada" | ||||
| Capital (and largest city) |
St. George's | ||||
| Other cities | True Blue, Grenville, Argyle | ||||
| Language | English, Grenadan Creole English, Grenadan Creole French | ||||
| Religion | Christian | ||||
| Ethnic Groups main |
African | ||||
| others | Mixed African-European, Indian, European | ||||
| Demonym | Grenadian | ||||
| Government | Unitary Marxist–Leninist one-party socialist presidential republic | ||||
| Legislature | House of Representatives | ||||
| President | Maurice Bishop | ||||
| Area | 348.5 km² | ||||
| Population | approx. 100.000 | ||||
| Established | 1763 | ||||
| Independence | 7 February 1974 | ||||
| Currency | East Caribbean Dollar | ||||
The People's Revolutionary Republic of Grenada, more commonly known as Grenada, is an island nation in the Lesser Antilles which shares maritime borders with the Caribbean Federation member-states St. Vincent and the Grenadines to the north and Trinidad and Tobago to the south-east, and with Venezuela to the west and south-west.
Formerly a Commonwealth member under British suzerainty, the island nation broke off its ties with the monarchy in the wake of World War III, after having been under the control of the New Jewel Movement since before the war. In 1984, Grenada gave its support to uprisings in the neighbouring Grenadines, ruled by St. Vincent. Instigated by radical elements in the government, the nation helped the revolutionaries form the Marxist-Leninist Grenadines Liberation Front, which led to a war between the neighbouring nations. Barbados, Dominica and St. Lucia executed a joint operation with St. Vincent to retake the islands, leading to a small-scale war lasting for almost half of 1984, but negotiation by Trinidad and Tobago led to the war's end and the consolidation of less radical elements in the government.
Grenada subsequently remained partially isolated, the bad blood from the war harming its relations with its immediate neighbour to the north, but in the post-1983 world, the tiny island needed its neighbours in order to survive, so the government continued to build ties with the other governments of the Caribbean, and led to a normalisation of relations, which remain so to this day. After the re-emergence of Cuba on the regional stage, it has become an ally of Cuba, and they still hold very close relations with them to this very day.
The nation is a member of CSTO and of CARICOM.
History[]
Pre-Doomsday[]
Prior to 1979, Grenada was a newly independent country, which gained its independence from the United Kingdom in 1974 under the leadership of Premier Eric Gairy. However, the new prime minister heavily relied upon his private police force, the Mongoose Gang, to enforce his will and murder political opponents. After using the Gang in order to intimidate voters into voting for him in the 1976 general election, protests against Gairy began to rise, as allegations of fraud were laid at Gairy's feet. The largest voice of opposition to Gairy's Grenada United Labour Party (GULP) was the New Jewel Movement (NJM), led by Maurice Bishop, which opposed his terror tactics in keeping power in Grenada. Both the NJM and the Mongoose Gang began to fight in the streets.
During a 1979 state visit by Prime Minister Gairy to the United Nations headquarters in New York City, rumours that Gairy would use the Mongoose Gang to take out the New Jewel Movement while away began to circulate in the leadership of the NJM, and in response, the New Jewel Movement staged a coup d'état, suspended the constitution and proclaimed the People's Revolutionary Government (PRG), with the party as a vanguard to Marxist ideology. Despite this, it never proclaimed itself as a communist country, and nominally kept the British monarchy. Many members of the Mongoose Gang were arrested and sentenced to up to 14 years in prison.
The PRG introduced Grenadian Creole of both English and French varieties in school and bolstered education, and with the help of its new Cuban ally, managed to introduce free medical check-ups and milk for every pregnant woman. They also began working on new infrastructure projects, including a new airport, created a loan system for farmers, set up agricultural cooperatives and upgraded the power grid. Economically, the island was growing, literacy was increased, women's rights were expanded and unemployment and infant mortality fell. In co-operation with Cuba, it managed to increase the number of doctors in the country. Internationally however, Grenada was growing more and more isolated, with the United Kingdom and the United States cutting aid to the island nation. In particular, the United States accused Grenada of creating an airport good enough for Cuban and Soviet air forces to land there.
Inside the NJM, internal divisions began to be felt, and a faction demanded that Deputy Prime Minister Bernard Coard, an author with some fame for writing a treatise on the discrimination faced by West Indian children in British schools, gain more power and be made equal in power to Bishop. However, the reasons for this malcontent was Bishop's reluctance to formally align himself with Cuba and the Soviet Union, as well as his allowance of nominal continuation of the British monarchy and of private property, viewing this as not Marxist enough. Bishop was concerned about developing tourism in Grenada, and felt private property would be important to that goal. Bishop was nominally in agreement with the power-sharing scheme, but privately wanted to remain the sole man in power. Before tensions could properly escalate, however, came World War III.
Survival and the Grenadines War[]
Grenada was unsurprisingly spared the horrors of Doomsday, although, due to the US' hostility towards the unfinished airport, the population was ordered to hunker down in case of a nuclear attack as soon as word of the war came to it. There were a few painful hours of panic in St. George's, the nation's capital, until it became clear that no attack was incoming. Bishop, despite knowing many of the governments in the Caribbean were not friendly to his, made contact with many to see what information there was out there. From the friendlier regime of Milton Cato in St. Vincent and the Grenadines, the Grenadian government learned more details, namely that reports came in that Puerto Rico had been nuked but had a surviving government, and that Cuba and the mainland United States were apparently gone.
Given the situation, a special meeting of NJM party leadership was called, where, in order to ensure the survival of Grenada, Bishop and Coard agreed to a compromise and shared leadership. Given that the survival of the United Kingdom was deemed unlikely, the monarchy would be abolished and the office of the Governor-General abolished, and Bishop would become the new President of the People's Revolutionary Republic of Grenada, while leaving the post of Prime Minister to Coard, giving him ultimate legislative power. These changes went into effect by October, being one of the first official government changes in the world after the war. As part of the takeover, the incumbent Governor-General, Paul Scoon, was put under house arrest. In addition, the country would enter a period of national emergency, with all arable private property used for agriculture and all boats required to be turned over to the state. The vast majority of agricultural territory was set aside for growing vegetables and other foods, while boats of all types were requisitioned for either fishing or trade.
Several foreign citizens were present in Grenada, including citizens of the United States, Cuba, East Germany, Bulgaria, the Soviet Union and Libya. While the citizens of the latter four were only involved as military advisors for the Grenadian People's Revolutionary Army, those of the former had more complex tales. The majority of the US citizens were faculty, students and family of the former two at St. George's University, a private university established primarily for medical education in True Blue, while the Cuban nationals were construction workers brought to help build a new airport for the country at Point Salines or medical workers brought as part of Cuba's diplomatic efforts. The government granted all foreign residents stranded in Grenada asylum, but in return they were contracted in aiding in farm work and fishing to supply the nation with food or were asked to help as doctors or as advisors to the army.
Contact was quickly re-established with the rest of the Caribbean, and prioritisation of trade, particularly of oil from Trinidad and Tobago, and in turn with South America and other nations in the area. On October 15th, a vessel originating from Puerto Rico and the US Virgin Islands, representing the surviving governments of those US territories, arrived to enquire about the status of the around 1,000 US citizens on the island. After their safety was established, the authorities in the US Virgin Islands and Puerto Rico proposed the transfer of US citizens to their territory. Bishop came up with a solution, offering St. George's University's as much funding as could be made available in the moment, in return for Grenadian citizens and asylum status holders being able to attend for free. A good chunk of the faculty agreed, and only about 200 US citizens decided to relocate to the US Caribbean territories.
After the island's agricultural refocus led to more production of food, enough to feed the population due to the nation's fertile soil, Grenada began to aid other Caribbean nations with food, starting in December of 1983. The last months of 1983 were spent refocusing on national survival and on Caribbean collaboration. However, events in neighbouring St. Vincent and the Grenadines changed the course. Strikes against ruling Prime Minister Milton Cato due to unemployment, food shortages and his continuous grip to power led to violent suppression of dissent, and Grenada denounced these tactics by their neighbour, leading to a cooling with their more friendly northern neighbour. When movements in the southern Grenadines, such as in Union Island, started to agitate for independence due to their neglect by the government in St. Vincent, major debates started to erupt within the Grenadian government as to what to do. While Bishop was reluctant to aid these movements at this time, citing concerns of survival, Prime Minister Coard and Chairman of the Revolutionary Military Council of Grenada Hudson Austin pressured Bishop into supporting aid to the revolutionary movements in the Grenadines, including the formation of a unified Marxist-Leninist Grenadines Liberation Front. This would leave Bishop no choice but to assent to this.
As such, advisors began to be sent out, primarily from the stranded Eastern bloc advisors, but also Grenadians directly, to advice the different groups in the Grenadines to unite into one front and supply them with guns to fight against the government in St. Vincent. The capture and interrogation of an East German advisor on Bequia lead to the reveal of the plot, but by then the plan had been set into motion: the various rebellions in the Grenadines had united under one leader, namely that of the freed leader of the 1979 insurrection on Union Island, Lenox Charles, and they had been supplied with guns. This escalated into a diplomatic stand-off where Prime Minister Milton Cato of St. Vincent, with the backing of Prime Ministers Eugenia Charles of Dominica, John Compton of St. Lucia and Tom Adams of Barbados demanded that Grenada remove any advisors and troops from the Grenadines or they will cut off any trade with Grenada and consider them a hostile power. However, Grenada's military power was unparalleled in the Lesser Antilles, and as such they refused, saying that revolution against a tyrannical government is just. Trinidad and Tobago immediately stepped in and began to be the mediator between the two sides, trying to achieve peace.
While the insurgency was having successes in the southern Grenadines, a coalition force of Vincentian, Dominican and Barbadian troops and policemen invaded the northern Grenadines, slowly pacifying Bequia and Mustique islands. In addition, other nations in the Caribbean joined in denouncing the actions of Grenada and embargoing them, chief among them Jamaica, and while the American remnant government in the Caribbean didn't outright denounce them due to fears for the US citizens remaining in Grenada, they still expressed their disapproval. As less and less countries began to continue talks with them, a message was received that soon Trinidad and Tobago would cut off oil exports to the country, thus leading to a national crisis. Having not been especially for the war from the start and backed into a corner, Bishop rallied his supporters and arrested Prime Minister Coard, Chairman Austin and several other leaders of the more radical faction within the New Jewel Movement and ordered any remaining Grenadian troops to return to Grenada immediately. Unison Whiteman, Minister of Foreign Affairs and close friend of President Bishop, became the new Prime Minister. Calling the arrested officials imperialist agitators wishing to attract negative attention to Grenada, Coard and Austin, along with twelve other ringleaders of the radical faction, were executed on September 3rd 1984, and soon after Bishop's government signed a peace agreement with St. Vincent, St. Lucia, Barbados and Dominica in the Treaty of Port of Spain.
Rebuilding of trust, new constitution and renewed contact with Cuba[]
While the conflict with St. Vincent had been averted, and the position of Maurice Bishop secured on the island, Grenada's relations with all its neighbours had soured considerably due to the conflict. As such, Grenada dedicated time to repairing relations with its neighbours. Despite the raw feelings of the other Lesser Antilles towards Grenada and vice-versa, collaboration had to be established for the sake of survival, with agricultural supplies being traded to the rest of the Caribbean in return for oil and other products. The army was also offered to help with establishing law and order in the Caribbean, but this was refused by its neighbours. With whatever boats it had available, Grenada also began policing the waters for pirates, something initially seen with much suspicion by its neighbours, but was warily accepted later on. Due to lingering misgivings due to Grenada's involvement in the Grenadines War, Grenada was not invited to join the Caribbean Federation in 1987. This would have massive consequences in the future, as Grenada would never join the Federation and would instead retain its full sovereignty, the only Lesser Antilles to do so.
During these years, continuous contact with Cuba is reestablished, where Fidel Castro was able to survive and keep the country together, much to the surprise of many in Grenada. Though distance and the horrible situation in Cuba prevented more collaboration, many Cuban refugees in Grenada return to Cuba in order to help with the rebuilding of the broken Cuban nation. In addition, Bishop visited Castro in Cienfuegos, and the nations expressed themselves to be brotherly nations. However, despite the clear alliance between the leaders of Cuba and Grenada, the distance forced Grenada to remain dependant on the Caribbean Federation, and thus it continued to remain friendly towards it and its member-states.
With stability internationally and the nation surviving, Bishop could now turn his eyes to his prize, namely the writing of a new Grenadian Constitution. Heavily inspired by the Cuban one, it established a central economy and a commitment to free education and free healthcare, as well as entrenching the power in the presidency and the party, the New Jewel Movement. Elections would happen, but the only legal party would be the NJM, and while there would be discourse and debate over policy, ultimately the new constitution instituted a one-party state. While there would be some condemnation of the constitution as being undemocratic and authoritarian from the political elite of its Caribbean neighbours, these calls were ignored or dismissed as propaganda.
As things stabilised in the Caribbean, Grenada emerged, largely due to the retained medical hub of St. George's University, as a leader in the medical field in the Caribbean, and Grenada instituted a form of medical internationalism, in the footsteps of pre-war Cuba. Though limited in its scope and success initially, it would grow in time to be the most prestigious thing attached to Grenada's reputation, even surpassing the nutmeg it used to be known for. St. George's also began attracting many students from all over the Caribbean as the premier English-language medical school, and thus many students from the Caribbean Federation and other Caribbean nations began attending St. George's, leading to more normalised relations.
Dawn of the millennium and into the modern day[]
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