Guadeloupe

Guadeloupe
—  Overseas region of France  —
Flag Logo
Country	France
Capital	Basse-Terre
Government
- President	Victorin Lurel (PS)
Area
- Total	1,628 km2 (628.6 sq mi)
Population (1 January 2008)[1]
- Total	405,500
- Density	249.1/km2 (645.1/sq mi)
Time zone	UTC-4 (UTC-4)
GDP/ Nominal	€ 7.75 billion (2006){{{GDP_ref}}}
NUTS Region	FR9
Website	cr-guadeloupe.fr

Guadeloupe (Antillean Creole: Gwadloup ; Tamil: குவாதலூப்பே) is an archipelago located in the eastern Caribbean Sea at 16°15′N 61°35′W / 16.25°N 61.583°W / 16.25; -61.583, with a land area of 1,628 square kilometres (629 sq. mi).^[1] It is an overseas department of France. As with the other overseas departments, Guadeloupe is also one of the twenty-six regions of France (being an overseas region) and an integral part of the Republic. As part of France, Guadeloupe is part of the European Union; hence, as for most EU countries, its currency is the euro.^[2] However, Guadeloupe does not fall under the Schengen Agreement. The prefecture of Guadeloupe is Basse-Terre.

History

During his second trip to America, seeking fresh water in November 1493, Christopher Columbus became the first European to land on Guadeloupe. He called it Santa María de Guadalupe de Extremadura, after the image of the Virgin Mary venerated at the Spanish monastery of Villuercas, in Guadalupe, Extremadura. The expedition set ashore just south of Capesterre but did not leave any settlers ashore.

Christopher Columbus is credited with discovering the pineapple on the island of Guadeloupe in 1493, although the fruit had long been grown in South America. He called it piña de Indes meaning "pine of the Indians."^[3]

Guadeloupe in 1865

After successful settlement on the island of St Christophe (St Kitts), the French Company of the American Islands delegated Charles Lienard and Jean Duplessis, Lord of Ossonville to colonize one or any of the region’s islands, Guadeloupe, Martinique or Dominica. Due to Martinique’s inhospitable nature, the duo resolved to settle in Guadeloupe in 1635, took possession of the island and wiped out many of the Carib Amerindians. It was annexed to the kingdom of France in 1674. Over the next century, the island was seized several times by the British. The economy benefited from the hugely lucrative sugar trade introduced during the closing decades of the seventeenth century: one indication of Guadeloupe's prosperity at this time is that in the Treaty of Paris (1763), France, defeated in war, agreed to abandon its territorial claims in Canada in return for British return of Guadeloupe which was captured in 1759.

In 1790, the upper classes of Guadeloupe refused to obey the new laws of equal rights for the free colored and attempted to declare independence, resulting in great disturbances; a fire broke out in Pointe-à-Pitre and devastated a third of the town, and a struggle between the monarchists (who wanted independence) and the republicans (who were faithful to revolutionary France) ended in the victory of the monarchists, who declared independence in 1791, followed by the refusal to receive the new governor appointed by Paris in 1792. In 1793, a slave rebellion started, which made the upper classes turn to the British and ask them to occupy the island.

In an effort to take advantage of the chaos ensuing from the French Revolution, Britain attempted to seize Guadeloupe in 1794 and held it from 21 April until December 1794, when Victor Hugues obliged the English general to surrender.^[4] The French retook the island under the command of Victor Hugues, who succeeded in freeing the slaves. They revolted and turned on the slave-owners who controlled the sugar plantations, but when French interests were threatened, Napoleon sent a force to suppress the rebels and reinstitute slavery. Louis Delgrès and a group of revolutionary soldiers killed themselves on the slopes of the Matouba volcano when it became obvious that the invading troops would take control of the island. The occupation force killed approximately 10,000 Guadeloupeans in the process of restoring order to the island.

Map of the Guadeloupe archipelago

On 4 February 1810 the British once again seized the island. By the Anglo-Swedish alliance of 3 March 1813, it was ceded to Sweden but the British administration continued in place while Swedish commissioners were sent to make arrangements for the transfer. Sweden already had a colony in the area, but then by the Treaty of Paris of 1814, ceded Guadeloupe once more to France. An ensuing settlement between Sweden and the British gave rise to the Guadeloupe Fund. French control of Guadeloupe was finally acknowledged in the Treaty of Vienna in 1815. Slavery was abolished on the island in 1848 at the initiative of Victor Schoelcher.

Today the population of Guadeloupe is mostly of African origin with an important European and Indian active population. There are also Lebanese, Syrians, Chinese and others.

On 22 February 2007 the island communes of Saint-Martin and Saint-Barthélemy were officially detached from Guadeloupe and became two separate French overseas collectivities with their own local administration, henceforth separated from Guadeloupe. Their combined population was 35,930 and their combined land area was 74.2 km² (29 sq mi) at the 1999 census. Guadeloupe thereby lost 8.5 percent of its population and 4.36 percent of its land area, based upon numbers from that census.

On 20 January 2009, an umbrella group of approximately fifty labour union and other associations known in the local Antillais, Creole as the Liyannaj Kont Pwofitasyon (LKP) led by Élie Domota called for a 200 Euro ($260 USD) monthly pay increase for the island's low income workers. The protesters have proposed that authorities "lower business taxes as a top up to company finances" to pay for the 200 Euro pay raises. Employers and business leaders in Guadeloupe have said that they cannot afford the salary increase.

Geography

Location of Guadeloupe in the Caribbean.

Guadeloupe comprises five islands: Basse-Terre Island, Grande-Terre (separated from Basse-Terre by a narrow sea channel called Salt River) with the adjacent islands of La Désirade, Les Saintes and Marie-Galante.

Basse-Terre has a rough volcanic relief while Grande-Terre features rolling hills and flat plains.

Further to the north, Saint-Barthélemy and the French part of Saint Martin once came under the jurisdiction of Guadeloupe but on 7 December 2003, both of these areas voted to become an overseas territorial collectivity, a decision which took effect on 22 February 2007. [1]

Hurricanes

The island was devastated by several hurricanes in modern times:

• On 12 September 1928, a hurricane caused extensive damage and killed thousands of people.
• On 22 August 1964, Guadeloupe was ravaged by Hurricane Cleo which killed 14.
• Two years later, on 27 September 1966, Hurricane Inez caused extensive damage and killed 27, mostly in Grande Terre. Charles De Gaulle visited the island after the hurricanes and declared it a disaster area.
• On 17 September 1989, Category 4 Hurricane Hugo caused very extensive damage, left more than 35,000 homeless, destroyed 10,000 homes, 100 percent of the banana crops and 60 percent of the sugarcane crops.
• From late August to mid September, 1995, the island was in the path of three successive cyclones: Tropical Storm Iris on 28 August—caused minor damages; Hurricane Luis on 5 September—caused moderate damages in north coast of Grande-Terre; Hurricane Marilyn on 15 September—caused moderate damages in Basse-Terre.
• On 21 September 1998, Hurricane Georges pounded the islands causing moderate damages and destroyed 90 percent of the banana crops.

Climate

Demographics

(July 2006 estimates from the CIA World Factbook; note that these estimates disagree with official INSEE estimates and that they also include Saint-Martin and Saint-Barthélemy)

Arrondissements, cantons, and communes

Islands and communes of the Guadeloupe département.

Guadeloupe is divided into arrondissements, cantons and communes:

• Arrondissements of the Guadeloupe department
• Cantons of the Guadeloupe department
• Communes of the Guadeloupe department

Major Urban Areas

Politics

Guadeloupe sends four deputies to the French National Assembly and three senators to the French Senate. One of the four National Assembly constituencies still includes Saint-Martin and Saint-Barthélemy even though they have seceded from Guadeloupe in 2007. This situation should last until 2012 when Saint-Martin and Saint-Barthélemy will send their own deputies to the French National Assembly.

Culture

Typical beach scenery of Guadeloupe.

View of La Désirade from Pointe des Châteaux, the easternmost part of Grande Terre.

Guadeloupe's culture is probably best known for the islanders' literary achievements, particularly the poetry of Saint-John Perse, the pseudonym used by Alexis Léger. Perse won the 1960 Nobel Prize in Literature "for the soaring flight and the evocative images of his poetry which in a visionary fashion reflects the conditions of our time."

Guadeloupe has always had a rich literary production prolonged today by many living writers, poets, novelists, essayists and journalists, among them Mesdames Maryse Condé and Simone Schwartz-Bart, M. Ernest Pépin.

Also culturally important are the arts, particularly painting and sculpture. Famous painters and/or sculptors include Michel Rovelas, Claudie Cancelier, Jean-Claude Echard, Christian Bracy, Roger Arekian, les Frères Baptiste, Michelle Chomereau-Lamothe, Léogane, Pédurand, Nicole Réache, Victor Sainsily.

Music and dance are also very popular, and the widely accepted interaction of African, French and Indian^[8] cultures has given birth to some original new forms specific to the archipelago. Islanders enjoy many local dance styles including the quadrille "au commandement", zouk, zouk-love, kompa toumbélé, as well as all the modern international dances. Typical Guadeloupean music includes la biguine and gwo ka à la base. Kassav' and Admiral T embody the traditional and the new generation of music. Many international festivals take place in Guadeloupe, like the Creole Blues Festival, the Marie-Galante Festival, Festival Gwo-Ka Cotellon, etc. It goes without saying that all the Euro-French forms of art are also omnipresent in the melting pot.

Another element of the Guadeloupean culture is its dress. Women in particular have a unique style of traditional dresses, with many layers of colourful fabrics, now only worn on special occasions. On festive occasions they also wore a madras (originally the 'kerchief' from South India) head scarf tied in many different symbolic forms. The headdress could be done in many styles with names like the "bat" style, or the "firefighter" style, as well as the "Guadeloupean woman." Jewelry, mainly of gold, is also important in the Guadeloupean lady's dress, a product of European, African and Indian inspiration. Many famous couturiers like Devaed and Mondelo are Guadeloupeans.

Football (soccer) is popular in Guadeloupe. Thierry Henry, a star of the French National Team and Spanish League club FC Barcelona, often visits, as his father Antoine was originally from the island. William Gallas, whose parentage is Guadeloupean, visits the island when not playing for Arsenal or the French National team. Lilian Thuram, a star football defender for France and FC Barcelona, was born in Guadeloupe. The French national team and Everton F.C. striker, Louis Saha, is also of Guadeloupean descent, as is MK Dons goalkeeper Willy Gueret. Pascal Chimbonda of Tottenham was also born in Guadeloupe. The region's football team experienced recent success, advancing all the way to the 2007 CONCACAF Gold Cup semi-finals, where they were defeated just 1-0 by CONCACAF powerhouse Mexico. Many fine track and field athletes, such as Marie-José Perec, Patricia Girard-Léno, and Christine Arron are also Guadeloupe natives. The NBA players Mickaël Piétrus and Mickaël Gelabale were born in this island. Famed Bodybuilder Serge Nubret also hails from Guadeloupe.

Economy

Carbet Falls, one of the most popular visitor sites in Guadeloupe, with approximately 400,000 visitors annually.

Pointe des Châteaux in Guadeloupe.

In 2006 the GDP per capita of Guadeloupe at market exchange rates, not at PPP, was €17,338 (US$21,780).^[9]

The economy of Guadeloupe depends on tourism, agriculture, light industry and services. But it especially depends on France for large subsidies and imports.

Tourism is a key industry, with 83.3% of tourists visiting from metropolitan France, 10.8% coming from the rest of Europe, 3.4% coming from the United States, 1.5% coming from Canada, 0.4% coming from South America and 0.6% coming from the rest of the world.^[10] An increasingly large number of cruise ships visit the islands.

The traditional sugarcane crop is slowly being replaced by other crops, such as bananas (which now supply about 50% of export earnings), eggplant, guinnep, noni, sapotilla, paroka, pikinga, giraumon squash, yam, gourd, plantain, christophine, monbin, prunecafé, cocoa, jackfruit, pomegranate, and many varieties of flowers. Other vegetables and root crops are cultivated for local consumption, although Guadeloupe is still dependent on imported food, mainly from France.

Light industry features sugar and rum, solar energy, and many industrial productions. Most manufactured goods and fuel are imported. Unemployment is especially high among the youth. Hurricanes periodically devastate the economy.

The country code top-level domain (ccTLD) for Guadeloupe is ".gp".

Sport

Even though Guadeloupe is part of France, it has its own sports teams. For example, Guadeloupe has its own national football team, the Guadeloupe national football team.

There is also a rugby union in Guadeloupe, a small, but rapidly growing sport in Guadeloupe.

See also

• List of Guadeloupe-related topics
• Colonial and Departmental Heads of Guadeloupe

France portal

Caribbean portal

Notes

External links

Find more about Guadeloupe on Wikipedia's sister projects:

Definitions from Wiktionary
Textbooks from Wikibooks
Quotations from Wikiquote
Source texts from Wikisource
Images and media from Commons
News stories from Wikinews
Learning resources from Wikiversity

Government

• Préfecture de la région Guadeloupe—Official site of the prefecture of Guadeloupe (in French)
• Région Guadeloupe—Official site of the Regional Council of Guadeloupe

General information

• Guadeloupe at the Open Directory Project
• Wikimedia Atlas of Guadeloupe

Travel

• Les Îles de Guadeloupe—Official site of the Guadeloupe Islands Tourism Board
• Guadeloupe travel guide from Wikitravel
• Travel Pages - Guadeloupe
• Office du Tourisme de Marie-Galante—Official site of the Tourist Board of Marie-Galante
• Office Municipal du Tourisme de Terre de Haut, Les Saintes—Official site of the Tourist Board of Les Saintes
• Office du Tourisme du Moule—Official site of the Tourist Board of Le Moule
• Guadeloupe Islands—site of the Guadeloupe Islands Tourism Board
• Bouillante—site of Bouillante Tourism Board
• Guadeloupe—Guadeloupe Islands Tourism Board
• Guadeloupe West Islands—Guadeloupe West Islands
• Guadeloupe 2007—Guadeloupe travel photos
• A Guadeloupe video report

Geographic locale v • d • e Countries and territories of the Caribbean   Sovereign states Commonwealth Realms Antigua and Barbuda · Bahamas · Barbados · Grenada · Jamaica · St. Kitts and Nevis · St Lucia · St. Vincent and the Grenadines Commonwealth republics Dominica · Trinidad and Tobago Other republics Cuba · Dominican Republic · Haiti   Dependencies and other areas by parent state United Kingdom Anguilla · Bermuda · British Virgin Islands · Cayman Islands · Montserrat · Turks and Caicos Islands Netherlands Aruba · Netherlands Antilles (Bonaire · Curaçao · Saba · Sint Maarten · Sint Eustatius) France Guadeloupe · Martinique · St. Barthélemy · St. Martin United States Navassa Island · Puerto Rico · U.S. Virgin Islands v • d • e Countries and dependencies of North America Several nations listed here straddle both North and South America or can also be considered Caribbean. Sovereign states Antigua and Barbuda · Bahamas · Barbados · Belize · Canada · Costa Rica · Cuba · Dominica · Dominican Republic · El Salvador · Grenada · Guatemala · Haiti · Honduras · Jamaica · Mexico · Nicaragua · Panama · St. Kitts and Nevis · St. Lucia · St. Vincent and the Grenadines · Trinidad and Tobago · United States Dependencies Denmark Greenland France Guadeloupe · Martinique · Saint Barthélemy · Saint Martin · Saint Pierre and Miquelon · Clipperton Netherlands Aruba · Netherlands Antilles United Kingdom Anguilla · Bermuda · British Virgin Islands · Cayman Islands · Montserrat · Turks and Caicos Islands United States Navassa Island · Puerto Rico · U.S. Virgin Islands v • d • e Demographics of North America Sovereign states Antigua and Barbuda · Bahamas · Barbados · Belize · Canada · Costa Rica · Cuba · Dominica · Dominican Republic · El Salvador · Grenada · Guatemala · Haiti · Honduras · Jamaica · Mexico · Nicaragua · Panama1 · Saint Kitts and Nevis · Saint Lucia · Saint Vincent and the Grenadines · Trinidad and Tobago1 · United States Dependencies and other territories Anguilla · Aruba1 · Bermuda · British Virgin Islands · Cayman Islands · Greenland · Guadeloupe · Martinique · Montserrat · Netherlands Antilles1 · Puerto Rico · Saint Barthélemy · Saint Martin · Saint Pierre and Miquelon · Turks and Caicos Islands · United States Virgin Islands 1 Territories also in or commonly considered to be part of South America.

v • d • e Overseas departments and territories of France   Inhabited areas Overseas departments1 French Guiana · Guadeloupe · Martinique · Réunion Overseas collectivities French Polynesia · Mayotte2 · Saint Barthélemy · Saint Martin · Saint Pierre and Miquelon · Wallis and Futuna Special status New Caledonia   Uninhabited areas Pacific Ocean Clipperton Island French Southern and Antarctic Lands Île Amsterdam · Île Saint-Paul · Crozet Islands · Kerguelen Islands · Adélie Land Scattered islands in the Indian Ocean Bassas da India3 · Europa Island3 · Glorioso Islands2, 3, 4 · Juan de Nova Island3 · Tromelin Island5 1 Also known as overseas regions.  2 Overseas department by 2011, claimed by Comoros.  3 Claimed by Madagascar.  4 Claimed by Seychelles.  5 Claimed by Mauritius.

v • d • e Outermost regions of European Union states Portugal Azores • Madeira Spain Canary Islands France French Guiana • Guadeloupe • Martinique • Réunion UK Anguilla • Bermuda • British Virgin Islands • Cayman Islands • Falkland Islands • Montserrat • Pitcairn Islands • Saint Helena • South Georgia and the South Sandwich Islands • Turks and Caicos Islands •

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