Antilla

Antilla ( IPA: /ænˈtɪlə/ ), officially the Commonwealth of Antilla, is a Lesser Antilles island nation in the Eastern Caribbean. The country consists of an archipelago of 33 inhabited and over 100 uninhabited islands, the largest and most populous of which is Marquesa, which accounts for about 45% of the country's total land area and 80% of its population. Its capital and largest city is Christiansby, located on Marquesa's southwestern coast. Antilla's 2021 population is estimated at 776,800, nearly two thirds of whom reside in the capital or its suburbs. The country's sole official language is English, while the primary spoken language is Antillan Patois, an English-based creole language with significant West African influences, especially from the Bantu languages of the Gold Coast, the primary ancestral homeland of the multiple generations of slaves brought to Antilla during the more than three centuries of the transatlantic slave trade's existence.

Antilla was first populated by the indigenous peoples of the Americas, the first known group being the Arawak, who arrived on the islands from Guadeloupe as early as 3000 BC. The Arawak were displaced from the archipelago by the Kalinago (Island Caribs) circa the early 15th century AD, who were the islands' primary inhabitants upon the arrival of Christopher Columbus in 1493. Columbus claimed the islands for Spain, which for the next two centuries administered the archipelago as a crown colony using Columbus' name for the archipelago, Las Marquesas. Under Spanish rule, the archipelago became a major hub of the Atlantic slave trade, with colonists establishing large cotton, maize and rubber plantations on the islands using slave labour. In the early 18th century, ineffective colonial administration caused by a series of political and economic crises at home resulted in a progressively weaker Spain unable to properly defend its colonial possessions, and the islands soon came under French rule; however, the French made little effort to replace the islands' Hispanic colonial society with Frenchmen, and this Spanish colonists and their descendants continued to constitute the majority of colonial settlers through the 18th century. The islands were occupied by Britain in 1760 during the Seven Years' War, and were confirmed as a British colony under the 1763 Treaty of Paris. British rule brought the abolition of slavery, and the newly free African majority quickly succeeded the earlier Hispanic colonists as the archipelago's mainstream culture. Through the 18th century, English gradually supplanted Spanish and French, and intermarriage became common; by the start of the 19th century, the majority of the population were mixed-race descendants of European settlers, African slaves and indigenous Caribs.

In 1881, the British colonial administration decreed the archipelago's formal name as Antilla, reflecting the British view of the archipelago as a quintessential colony of the wider Antilles region; prior to the 1881 decree, the islands went by several informal historic names, with the new name being the colony's first formal designation under British rule. In 1913, about a year before the start of World War I, the Royal Navy established a permanent base on English Bay, immediately south of the small fishing village and trading post of Christiansby. During and after the war, the presence of the naval base spurred rapid industrial development of Christiansby, which by the start of World War II had become the most populous community of Antilla and its de facto capital; in 1939, nearly a quarter of the archipelago's total population of approx. 11,000 lived in the Christiansby area. Antilla was granted Dominion status in 1933, which in theory afforded the country a greater degree of autonomy. Following World War II, the British sought to grant more autonomy to their colonial possessions, including Antilla: in 1948, Christiansby was formally designated as capital and the Parliament of Antilla established in the city. In 1949, Parliament elected Antilla's first prime minister, Charles Snow, and from 1949 to 1955 the islands functioned as a self-governing Dominion, similar to Canada during the interwar period. In 1955, Antilla's status was further upgraded to a Commonwealth realm, a sovereign state under the British crown legally independent of and equal to the United Kingdom.

In March 1961, Antilla's second prime minister, Marcus Sullivan, spearheaded a referendum asking whether the country should remain a Commonwealth realm or transition to a republican form of government. The referendum was tabulated on 30 April, with 77.6% of respondents favouring a republic. The following day, 1 May 1961, Antilla declared itself a republic independent of the British crown. The British did not formally recognise the new republic until 1970, but no attempt of force was made to bring the islands to heel. In September 1962, Antilla held its first presidential election, with former prime minister Sullivan receiving 58.8% of the popular vote alongside four other candidates. On 1 January 1963, Sullivan was inaugurated as the first President of Antilla. One of President Sullivan's first acts was to call a constituent assembly, drafting the Constitution of Antilla which was signed by Parliament on 1 August 1963; the constitution declared Antilla a parliamentary republic, leaving intact the country's established Westminster system: Parliament thus retained its authority to elect the prime minister, who would remain an executive head of government, with the President of Antilla a mostly ceremonial head of state.

Today, Antilla is a relatively well-developed island country, with a high human development index, healthy and well-educated population and large middle class. Poverty has been all but eliminated, with even the poorest citizens having access to sufficient food, appropriate shelter, clean water, modern sanitation and a decent quality of life, due primarily to a generally stable economy, low unemployment rate and reliable social safety net. Indeed, Antilla is counted among the top five Lesser Antilles countries with regard to median income, standard of living, social mobility, quality and accessibility of public services, life expectancy and public health. The country's economy is primarily centred on tourism (including medical tourism due to its large and well-funded healthcare system), fishing and natural resources, with the majority of food and other consumer goods being imported. The economy's largest sectors are food service and hospitality, import–exports, petroleum refining, healthcare, education and public administration. Antilla also has a diverse art and music scene with a strong local tradition dating back several centuries, and a small but quickly growing academic sector. The archipelago is also a regional hub of green energy development, namely solar and geothermal energy, as well as other environmental protection initiatives, inspired at least in part by the islands' stunning natural beauty and rich marine environment. While the relatively flat southern third of Marquesa consists mostly of urban–suburban sprawl and agriculture, the island's mountainous northern two thirds and surrounding smaller islands remain mostly covered by lush tropical rainforest, home to countless rare species of flora and fauna, including multiple organisms unique to the country and some limited to only one or two islands. The archipelago is also home to nine UNESCO World Heritage Sites.