"Always shining." | |||||||
| Capital | Castries | ||||||
| Largest city | Castries | ||||||
| Other cities | Gros Islet, Vieux Fort, Soufriere | ||||||
| Language official |
English | ||||||
| others | French | ||||||
| Religion | Roman Catholic | ||||||
| Ethnic Groups main |
Mixed African-European | ||||||
| others | African, East Indian, European | ||||||
| Demonym | Saint Lucian | ||||||
| Legislature | Parliamentary Democracy (under Constitutional Monarchy) | ||||||
| Premier | Robert Cardiff | ||||||
| Area | 620 km² | ||||||
| Population | 200,660 | ||||||
| Established | 1643 | ||||||
| Independence | 22 February 1979 | ||||||
| Currency | East Caribbean Dollar | ||||||
The Commonwealth of Saint Lucia, commonly known simply as Saintt Lucia, is a member state in the East Caribbean Federation, located in the east of the Lesser Antilles, on the boundary of the Atlantic Ocean. It shares maritime borders with the islands of Martinque to the north, St Vincent to the south, and Barbados to the southeast. The island covers an area of 620 sq km. Its capital, also the capital of the ECF, is located at Castries.
History[]
Pre-1983[]
Saint Lucia's first known inhabitants were the Arawak people, who were believed to have arrived on the island from South America around 200 CE. Evidence suggests that they called the island Iouanalao, meaning 'land of iguanas' in their language.
From 800 CE to 1000 CE, the Carib people gradually replaced the Arawaks. They called the island Hewanarau, which later evolved into Hewanorra. The Caribs had a developed society, ruled by a hereditary king and a caste of shamans. They built large, agile war canoes that could hold over a hundred men.
Europeans discovered the island between 1492 and 1502, during the early Spanish exploration of the Caribbean. Multiple attempts to establish trading posts and settlements occurred over the next century and a half, though none were successful until 1643, when the French established a permanent settlement on the island. For the next one hundred and fifty years, the island would be traded back and forth between the English and the French as a bargaining chip in various conflicts, until the British acquired the island permanently in 1814. The islands, by culture and settlement, remained de facto French throughout this period.
The British abolished the slave trade in 1807, after which blacks and freed slaves achieved full freedom in 1838. Saint Lucia was also part of the British Windward Islands until 1885.
Over the next century, the island of Saint Lucia experienced an increasing level of self-government. In 1924, the island's first constitution established its first form of representative government, introducing a small amount of elected members in a previously all-appointment legislative council. In 1951, universal adult suffrage was introduced. At the same time, elected members became the majority of the legislative council. In 1956, ministerial government was brought to the island.
From 1958 to 1962, it took part in the short-lived West Indies Federation. From 1967, it operated as an associated state of the United Kingdom, like some other former members of the Federation. In this state of affairs, Saint Lucia handled all internal self-government, while leaving foreign affairs and defense to the United Kingdom. This lasted until February 22, 1979, when Saint Lucia achieved full independence.
1983 - 1985[]
Though untouched by both direct strikes and fallout spread, Saint Lucia was still severely crippled by Doomsday. With the collapse of most major nations, Saint Lucia lost nearly 75% of its export trade and over 50% of its import trade. Unemployment rose to a catastrophic all-time peak of 70%, and the GDP plummeted to barely 25%. With contact cut off from the world beyond the Caribbean and the major sources of revenue for the island gone, Saint Lucia plunged into a state of crisis.
A state of national emergency was declared. Martial law was instituted by Prime Minister John Compton, and rationing programs for food and water were instituted. Political wrangling by local politicians led to the majority of supplies being funneled to the north, leaving the south to starve. As many residents of the south left their homes for the north, the ability of the northern communities to house them were strained, leading to the growth of shanty-towns and tent cities around the capital city of Castries.
Attempts to contact surviving governments met with limited success. Though communications across the Caribbean Sea were relatively intact, all lines of communication with the world beyond were silent. Only parts of South and Central America showed any signs of life. A trade agreement was made with the nearby government of Barbados, exchanging vital supplies such as medicine and fuel.
The French islands of Martinique, St. Martin, St. Barthelemy, and Guadaloupe had set up a provisional French government in the absence of leadership from the European Mainland. In the North, several former British islands, led by Saint Kitts and Nevis, had bonded together into a economic group that called itself the North Antilles Trade Agreement. To the south, the nation of St Vincent was in dire need of help, struggling with lawlessness and crime in the wake of the global collapse.
The Grenadines were overrun with native insurrectionists and local criminals seeking to expand their power in the wake of disaster. A contingent of Saint Lucian and Barbadian police forces were selected and began training as a paramilitary marine force in late October, with the hopes of serving as a force of order. Reports revealed that the southern island of Grenada, a nation that had recently been wracked by a military coup, was a battlefield for various revolutionaries.
In the meantime, efforts were made to diversify the agricultural production of the island, which met with limited success, creating a small amount of industry in fruit orchards. Other minor crop businesses began to appear, bolstered by a large amount of government support for the establishment of food production industry. Meanwhile, economic cooperation with Barbados led to the introduction of a hearty corn crop.
By early January 1984, the Saint Lucia-Barbados Peacekeeping Task Force, consisting of three hundred police-turned-soldiers was ready for action. They were deployed to the Grenadines on 17 January 1984, where they swept across the islands in a one week operation, purging the militants and restoring control of the islands to St Vincent. They established a position on the southernmost island, where a fifty-man contingent would remain in order to defend against any violent overflow from Grenada.
In early March of 1984, after half a year of harsh rationing, a group of rebels, lead by a local man named Albert Sorrel, took control of the southern port of Vieux Fort, demanding that the government redistribute supplies to better aid the suffering southern half of the island. The Prime Minister issued a statement in response, declaring that “In these troubling times, everything that can be done to aid the people is being done. Harsh measures are necessary to survive. By taking up arms and using violence as a bargaining chip, Albert Sorrel and his thugs have lost all legitimacy.”
On 22 March, 1984, a small group of SSU agents, authorized by the Prime Minister's office, infiltrated Vieux Fort. They managed to infiltrate his headquarters and, after a brief firefight, took Sorrel into custody. Three rebels were killed and eight wounded in the conflict. He was transported to the capital of Castries, where he was held in prison, to await trial. The rebellion fractured and dissolved in the wake of his capture, and in the following months order was restored to Vieux Fort and seventy-four men, including Sorrel, were convicted on charges of treason and imprisoned for twenty years. Outrage over the events of the insurrection, however, eventually led to an inquiry into corruption and the proper distribution of food supplies.
Reports continued to trickle in from the far reaches of the Caribbean. By late May of 1984, the vast majority of the Caribbean, had been accounted for. Cuba had been one Caribbean nation to actually be struck by nuclear weapons. Puerto Rico, too, suffered a strike against a military base. There was widespread crisis around the sea, even without more direct attacks.
With a wide cycle of trade agreements and a slowly growing industry of food crops, the government of Saint Lucia officially ended rationing in late June. John Compton, bolstered by stellar approval ratings, pushed westernizing legislation through the parliament, aimed at creating a wide amount of infrastructure on the island. Plans were laid for the establishment of a shale-burning power plant on the island, to be completed by 1990.
Trinidad and Tobago, as well as St Vincent and the Grenadines, petitioned to join the Saint Lucia-Barbados Trade agreement, called the Lesser Antilles Trade and Support Agreement (LATSA) in early August, and after a month of deliberation in parliament, the government of Saint Lucia officially voted to allow admission, joining Barbados in approval. A four member council was set up to guide matters of multinational importance, consisting of one representative of each nation working in concert.
On 17 November 1984 a seven-hundred man force from the growing Cooperative Defense Force, the result of the combination of the Saint Lucia-Barbados Protective Force with military troops from the other two nations, landed on Ronde Island, a northern part of Grenada. They established control over the island and established a basing ground for their forces.
The next two months consisted of a fiercely escalating conflict for control of the island. By 24 December 1984 the capital of St George's was captured and the warlords officially surrendered. An interim government was established over the island by the LATSA council until order was restored and democratic elections could be held.
1986 - 1987[]
By 1986, the foundation laid by years earlier by Saint Lucian food industry came to fruition. What had once been a fragile industry dominated by bananas had expanded. The eastern fields of the island boasted a strong crop of bananas, mangoes and other fruits, while the southern fields had been dedicated to the production of corns, yams, and sweet potatoes. The establishment of a strong food base allowed the Saint Lucian economy to prosper. When up for election again, Sir John Compton won a majority government for his party, reorganized and renamed as the United Federation Party.
Taking this as a mandate for his pro-western, pro-unity policies, he pushed strongly in the LATSA council to expand LATSA from an economic agreement into a true federation. His proposal gained support with Barbados and St Vincent, but Trinidad and Tobago, in control of a considerable amount of the fuel supplies in the region, stalled the talks. Only after months of negotiation and a promise that the individual states of the federation would retain sovereignty over their own territory did Trinidad and Tobago accept the proposal.
On 1 January, 1987, the East Caribbean Federation was officially established, its territory at first consisting of the states of Saint Lucia, Barbados, St Vincent and the Grenadines, Grenada, and Trinidad and Tobago.
1988 - 2012[]
In late 1989, the oil-shale burning power plant, located on the outskirts of Castries, was completed one year ahead of schedule. The Castries Shale Power Station had a nameplate capacity of 35 MW. Energy prices settled into much more affordable rates for the majority of St. Lucians, and for the first time since Doomsday electricity was feasible in some of the smaller communities outside of the capital. Small business and light manufacturing were suddenly much more fiscally feasible ventures, leading to a wealth of capital being injected into the Saint Lucian market.
In 1990, Hurricane Klaus struck the island of Saint Lucia, destroying about 20% of the fruit crop on the island and causing a number of injuries and deaths across the island. Saint Lucian politicians pushed for funding from the federation to expand their healthcare infrastructure, and construction began on a modernized hospital in Castries, to be completed in 1998.
Seeking to diversify the economy to prevent such disasters, a number of prominent citizens formed Light Island Manufacture, an electronic component manufacturing company. Their first property was a small factory in Soufriere. It primarily built radio and telephone components, with a tenative amount of business dedicated to computer components. Investors were confident, but cautious about the computer component wing of the business, fearing that computers were too complex and expensive of a technology in the Post-Doomsday world. Limited, yet enthusiastic trade with South American nations, however, proved the wisdom of investing in computer technology.
In 1991, construction began on a East Caribbean Federation naval base at Gros Islet. Completed in 1996, CNB Compton is the largest naval force in the Federation, tasked with the defence and patrol of the entire Lesser Antilles. It plays host to ECN Second Task Force, the largest force by sailors assigned in the East Caribbean Federation.
In 1994, Grenada was released from direct ECF control, with the four-nation council in charge of its government being dissolved. It remained, however, a protectorate state of the Federation, with its foreign policy and national defence under the command of the ECF. Furthermore, a number of officials from ECF states were appointed as an advisory council to guide the island's government.
In the same year, Saint Lucia was struck by Tropical Storm Debby, which washed out a number of roads and severely damaged the island's banana crop. A number of villages were isolated because of the destruction of bridges across the island.
In 1998, George Charles National Hospital opened in Castries.
In 2001, exploration of geothermal reserves on Saint Lucia yielded a proven reserve of 30 MW of geothermal energy, with potential reserves being estimated as up to 140 MW. As of 2012, 90 MW of those reserves have been exploited, in three a series of 3 power stations with a capacity of 30 MW, which began construction in 2003 and completed construction in 2011.
In 2002, Castries Academy of Medicine was opened. A medical university, its graduates are highly sought-after in modern hospitals throughout the region.
In 2004, Hurricane Ivan struck Saint Lucia. Hurricane preparations were made well in advance, and no deaths and less damage than usual was reported in the wake of the storm.
Demographics[]
Population[]
The population of Saint Lucia was 200,660 in 2013, with a population growth of 1.7%. The population of Saint Lucia has grown steadily since the beginning of the ECF Census in 1988, with a reported figure of 131,640 in that year.
Politics[]
The Commonwealth of Saint Lucia is a parliamentary democracy under a constitutional monarchy and a member state in the East Caribbean Federation. The Parliament of Saint Lucia consists of thirty-two seats, each representing roughly five thousand citizens. An entire thirteen seats represent the capital of Castries, where more than a third of the population live. The government is dominated by a number of political parties; the pro-Federation left-centre United Democratic Party, the right-wing Forward Conservative Party, and the ultraleft-wing Social Responsibility Party. The American Interest party, whose platform advocates for the interests of those USAR American citizens who live within the ECF, has almost no presence on St Lucia. This is thought to be due to the overwhelming support and pride in Federation unity and sovereignty on the island.
The government is currently a majority formed by the United Democratic Party, which holds seventeen seats in parliament. The opposition is formed by the Forward Conservative party, which holds ten seats, while the Social Responsibility only holds five seats. The Premier is Robert Cardiff, while the opposition is led by Stephenson King. The Governor-General is currently Emma Hippolyte.
Economy[]
Saint Lucia has a capitalist mixed economy fueled by high productivity and readily available tertiary education. The economy is at an industrial level of development, with manufacturing and power generation slowly eclipsing agriculture as the primary economic contributor.
The Gross Domestic Product (PPP) of Saint Lucia in 2013 was $1.91 Billion, or roughly $9,500 per capita.
Industry[]
Fruit and nut farming is the leading primary industry, making up more than two-thirds of the primary sector. Saint Lucia maintains a policy of mid-level subsidies in their agricultural sector to prevent shrinkage of the available domestic food supply, a common policy among nations after Doomsday. In 2013, the primary sector made up 28% of the Saint Lucian economy.
Electronics and component manufacturing and is the leading secondary industry in the Saint Lucian economy, contributing 29.4% of the economy. Pharmaceutical manufacturing comes second, at 11.1%. A relaxing of corporate regulations in Saint Lucia during the late 1990s led to an influx of businesses headquartering in the small nation. As of 2013, the secondary sector made up 37% of the Saint Lucian economy.
Services[]
Tourism, once a booming economy in Saint Lucia, experienced a complete collapse post-Doomsday. It resurged in the early 2000s, and continues to grow as global politics continue to stabilize. As of 2013, the tertiary sector made up 35% of the Saint Lucian economy.
Electricity[]
The island of Saint Lucia consumed 1103 GWh of electricity in 2013. In the same year, it produced 1245 GWh of electricity. 27.8% of all power consumed on Saint Lucia is generated in the Castries 35 MW Shale Power Station alone. Meanwhile, electricity from the three 30MW Geothermal Power stations provide a 62.5% of all domestic energy consumption. By treaty, 100 GWh of power is reserved for discounted sale to Barbados each year.
Military[]
Saint Lucia is serviced and protected by the East Caribbean Defense Force. It hosts a single ECN naval base at Gros Islet. CNB Compton hosts the ECN Second Task Force, consisting of 598 sailors, assigned to four patrol ships and four auxiliary ships. It is tasked with the oversight of the Lesser Antilles, and is a second-wave response station to the other two ECN Task Forces.
The following ships are assigned to CNB Compton, as part of the Second Task Force:
- CNS Bridgetown: Snakehead-Class Patrol Ship.
- CNS San Juan: Snakehead-Class Patrol Ship.
- CNS Cockburn: Snakehead-Class Patrol Ship.
- CNS Great Abaco: Snakehead-Class Patrol Ship.
- CNS Lee Moore: Clownfish-Class Support Ship (Tugboat Outfit.)
- CNS Cambridge: Clownfish-Class Support Ship (Buoy Tender Outfit.)
- CNS Kingston: Clownfish-Class Support Ship (Training Ship Outfit.)
- CNS Lionel Town: Palm-Class Support Ship (Replenishment Oiler Outfit.)
Culture[]
Post-Doomsday, Saint Lucian culture has undergone a radical shift. The people of Saint Lucia consider themselves to be the founders of the East Caribbean Federation. They have strong British roots and consider the ECF to be the foremost English community in the post-war world. Education is free and mandatory from the ages of 5 to 15, and there are a number of medical schools across the island. Folk music and traditional dances are still celebrated parts of the island culture.
Holidays[]
Typically, every holiday in Saint Lucia is celebrated with a festival that lasts at least one day.
Federation Day (1 January) is a federal holiday, established in 1987 to celebrate the establishment of the East Caribbean Federation. Celebrated on New Year's Day, it consists of ceremonies in the first half of the day and informal street festivals throughout the night. It is often paired with New Year's Eve to make a two-day event.
Saint Lucia Day (22 February) is a national holiday, established in 1984 to celebrate the island's independence from Great Britain. It generally consists of ceremonies and events celebrating the role of Saint Lucia in Caribbean history and culture.
John Compton Day (29 April) is a national holiday, established in 1992 to celebrate the birthday of former Premier and Prime Minister John Compton, a national hero who led Saint Lucia through both independence from Britain and the establishment of the East Caribbean Federation. All non-essential services and private businesses are closed on John Compton Day, and street parties are a common tradition.
Worker's Day (1 May) is a national holiday, celebrating the role of the worker in Saint Lucia society. It is a public holiday, on which schools, businesses, and non-essential services are closed.
Carnival (1 July - 7 July) is a national festival, established at its current time in 1994, that celebrates Caribbean culture. The festivals are typically held in every major city, and run constantly for one week. The festivals typically consist of music, dancing, food carts, and fair rides. Alcohol is typically abundant, and liquor laws are commonly relaxed in practice during Carnival.
Observance Day (19 September) is a federal holiday, established in 1987 to observe and remember the tragic events of Doomsday and the events that followed. All non-essential services and private businesses are closed between 8:00 PM and 9:00 PM, marking the hour in which the war began. During this time, municipalities participate in a ceremony of remembrance.
Jounen Kweyol (30 October) is a federal holiday, established in 1989, to celebrate Creole heritage and language throughout the East Caribbean Federation. Festivals are held in every municipality, where traditional music and dancing is organized. Food stands and festival games are a common sight.
Christmas Day (25 December) is a national holiday that celebrates the winter season, and, for Christian Saint Lucians, the birth of Jesus Christ. Schools are closed for two weeks around Christmas, and businesses and non-essential services are closed on Christmas Day.
See Also[]
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