“Saint Kitts and Nevis”的意思、由来-百科全书

Saint Kitts and Nevis

islands, West Indies

Introduction

officially Federation of Saint Kitts and Nevis, also called Saint Christopher and Nevis,

Saint Kitts and Nevis, flag of

state composed of two islands of the Lesser Antilles in the eastern Caribbean Sea. Their combined area is 104 square miles (269 square kilometres). The capital is Basseterre on the island of Saint Kitts.

Physical and human geography

The land

Saint Kitts (Saint Kitts and Nevis) is 23 miles (37 kilometres) long and five miles wide, is oval in shape, and has an area of 68 square miles (176 square kilometres). A volcanic mountainous ridge down the centre forms a semicircle around a plain in the southeast. Mount Liamuiga (formerly Mount Misery), with a lake in its forested crater, is the highest point (3,792 feet 【1,156 metres】). The soil (except in the mountains) is light and porous. Most of the beaches are of black volcanic sands. The island is well watered and fertile, with a cool, healthy climate. The average temperature is 80° F (27° C), and the annual rainfall averages 55 inches (1,397 millimetres).

Nevis, surrounded by coral reefs, lies two miles southeast of Saint Kitts across a channel known as The Narrows. The island is circular, and it consists almost entirely of a mountain, Nevis Peak (3,232 feet), which is flanked by the lower Round Hill (1,014 feet) on the north and by Saddle Hill (1,850 feet) on the south. Its area is 36 square miles (93 square kilometres). The soil of Nevis is clay studded with volcanic boulders. The climate is similar to that of Saint Kitts. (Saint Kitts and Nevis)

The people

The population is largely black, with a small mulatto minority and other mixtures. There are also very small East Indian and white groups. The official language is English. The main religious denominations are Anglican and Methodist, with small groups of Moravians and Roman Catholics. Both Saint Kitts and Nevis have traditionally had high levels of emigration, offsetting natural increases and enabling the islands to maintain a fairly stable population. Remittances from emigrants form an important source of foreign exchange.

The economy

The narrow coastal plain of St. Kitts, the skirts of the mountains, and the Basseterre Valley are devoted to the cultivation of sugarcane (mainly on large estates), which is the chief product and export. The government has nationalized all sugar plantations and has also purchased the sugar factories. Nevis grows chiefly cotton, vegetables, and coconuts. Light industries in Saint Kitts and Nevis produce items mainly for export from imported materials. Products include electronic equipment, batik-dyed fabrics, and other clothing and furniture. Tourism is also an important sector of the economy. The United States, the United Kingdom, and Trinidad and Tobago are the principal trading partners. There is a deepwater port at Basseterre, and Golden Rock International Airport on Saint Kitts provides service to other islands and to the United States and Canada. Newcastle Airfield on Nevis provides interisland air service.

Administration and social conditions

Since independence in 1983, the Federation of Saint Kitts and Nevis has been an independent member of the Commonwealth, with the British monarch as its head of state. An appointed governor-general represents the crown. The prime minister, who together with other ministers is a member of the Cabinet, is the head of government. The monarch and the National Assembly constitute the parliament, some of whose members are appointed. The island of Nevis enjoys a certain amount of autonomy within the federal structure; it has its own legislature, and the constitution provides for it to secede from the federation if certain procedures are followed. There is universal adult suffrage.

Education is compulsory for all children from the age of five to 16. There are several hospitals and many health centres throughout the islands. Tropical diseases have been virtually eliminated. Most of the state's cultural activity is concentrated in the capital, Basseterre.

History

Early settlement

Christopher Columbus visited Saint Kitts (Saint Kitts and Nevis) on his second voyage in 1493 and found it inhabited by warlike Caribs. He named it Saint Christopher for his patron saint. The name was shortened to Saint Kitts by settlers under Sir Thomas Warner, who, arriving from England in 1623, established the first successful English colony in the West Indies at Old Road on the west coast. The French also settled on the island in 1627 under Pierre Belain d'Esnambuc. Divided during the 17th century between warring French and English colonists, Saint Kitts was given to Britain by the Treaty of Utrecht in 1713 and remained in British possession despite the capture in 1782 of Brimstone Hill by the French. The island was restored to Great Britain by the Treaty of Versailles in 1783.

Nevis was also sighted by Columbus in 1493. The island's name derives from Columbus' description of the clouds atop Nevis peak as las nieves, or “the snows,” when he sighted the island. It was settled by the English in 1628 and soon became one of the most prosperous of the Antilles. Although it suffered from French and Spanish attacks in the 17th and 18th centuries, it maintained a sound economic position until the mid-19th century.

Federation and independence movements

The islands of St. Kitts, Nevis, and Anguilla were united by federal act in 1882 and became an independent state in association with the United Kingdom on Feb. 27, 1967. The islands were granted full internal self-government, with the United Kingdom retaining responsibility for defense and foreign affairs.

After the islands had assumed the status of associated states, Anguilla complained of domination by the Saint Kitts administration. In May 1967 the Anguillans ejected the Saint Kitts police and established their own council. In July of the same year, they proclaimed their independence. After unsuccessful negotiations, the Anguilla Act of July 1971 placed Anguilla directly under British control. On Feb. 10, 1976, Anguilla was granted a constitution and its union with Saint Kitts and Nevis was formally severed in 1980.

A constitutional conference was held in London in 1982, and, in spite of disagreement over special provisions for Nevis, Saint Kitts and Nevis became independent on Sept. 19, 1983. A drop in world sugar prices hurt the nation's economy through the mid-1980s, and the government sought to reduce the islands' dependence on sugar production and to diversify the economy.

Gladstone E.M. Mills Janet D. Momsen

Additional Reading

There are few works that treat all the islands of the Lesser Antilles or describe a particular island comprehensively, although a number of broad overviews are listed in the earlier section on the region. An informative geologic survey, covering locations from both the Lesser Antilles and the Netherlands Antilles, is offered in J.H. Westermann and H. Kiel, The Geology of Saba and St. Eustatius, with Notes on the Geology of St. Kitts, Nevis, and Montserrat, Lesser Antilles (1961). Guy Lasserre, La Guadeloupe: Étude géographique, 3 vol. (1978), is a detailed geography. Studies of flora include Clarissa Thérèse Kimber, Martinique Revisited: The Changing Plant Geographies of a West Indian Island (1988); and David Watts, Man's Influence on the Vegetation of Barbados, 1627 to 1800 (1966).The people of Barbados are discussed in Jill Sheppard, The “Redlegs” of Barbados, Their Origins and History (1977), which explores the history of indentured servants; Farley Brathwaite (ed.), The Elderly in Barbados (1986), a survey of social and economic conditions of the elderly; and Graham M.S. Dann (ed.), Everyday in Barbados: A Sociological Perspective (1976), which discusses social structures and recreational activity. Jean Benoist (ed.), L'Archipel inachevé: culture et société aux Antilles françaises (1972), is an anthropological study of the French islands of Martinique, Guadeloupe, La Désirade, Marie-Galante, and Saint-Barthélemy. Stuart B. Philpott, West Indian Migration: The Montserrat Case (1973), explores the impact of migration on village population. Bonham C. Richardson, Caribbean Migrants: Environment and Human Survival on St. Kitts and Nevis (1983), focuses on migration as a response to degradation of environment. Karen Fog Olwig, Cultural Adaptation and Resistance on St. John: Three Centuries of Afro-Caribbean Life (1985), examines the society of one of the Virgin Islands.Analyses of economic conditions include Delisle Worrell (ed.), The Economy of Barbados, 1946–1980 (1982), a study of the trends of the major sectors; Bonham C. Richardson, Panama Money in Barbados, 1900–1920 (1985), which discusses the impact of remittances on a wide range of economic activities and social attitudes; Michel-Rolph Trouillot, Peasants and Capital: Dominica in the World Economy (1988), which explores patterns of land ownership and agricultural production; and C. Bourne, E.R. Lefranc, and F. Nunes (compilers), Small Farming in the Less Developed Countries of the Commonwealth Caribbean (1980), which provides information on Grenada, Saint Vincent and the Grenadines, Saint Lucia, Dominica, Saint Kitts and Nevis, Montserrat, and Antigua. Studies of individual island-state economies include John S. Brierley, Small Farming in Grenada, West Indies (1974); Deirdre M. Kelly, Hard Work, Hard Choices: A Survey of Women in St. Lucia's Export-Oriented Electronics Factories (1987); and Hymie Rubenstein, Coping With Poverty: Adaptive Strategies in a Caribbean Village (1987).Historical works which concentrate mostly on slavery and plantation life include the following: Vincent T. Harlow, A History of Barbados, 1625–1685 (1926, reprinted 1969), an examination of the period of the early British colonies; Gary A. Puckrein, Little England: Plantation Society and Anglo-Barbadian Politics, 1627–1700 (1984), a revisionist economic history, particularly strong on the creolizing process; Hilary Beckles, Black Rebellion in Barbados: The Struggle Against Slavery, 1627–1838 (1984), a provocative interpretation of slave resistance. Jerome S. Handler, The Unappropriated People: Freedmen in the Slave Society of Barbados (1974), which fills a gap in historiography; Karl Watson, The Civilised Island, Barbados: A Social History, 1750–1816 (1979), a study of the mature slave society; Claude Levy, Emancipation, Sugar, and Federalism: Barbados and the West Indies, 1833–1876 (1980), on postslavery adjustments; Gordon C. Merrill, The Historical Geography of St. Kitts and Nevis, the West Indies (1958), which discusses the colonial period on the islands; Lennox Honychurch, The Dominica Story: A History of the Island, 2nd ed. (1984), a well-illustrated study covering developments up to the 1980s and benefiting from the author's personal involvement in the constitutional changes leading to independence; and George Brizan, Grenada, Island of Conflict: From Amerindians to People's Revolution, 1498–1979 (1984), the work of a Grenadian historian and politician.

词条	Saint Kitts and Nevis
释义	Saint Kitts and Nevis islands, West Indies Introduction officially Federation of Saint Kitts and Nevis, also called Saint Christopher and Nevis, Saint Kitts and Nevis, flag ofstate composed of two islands of the Lesser Antilles in the eastern Caribbean Sea. Their combined area is 104 square miles (269 square kilometres). The capital is Basseterre on the island of Saint Kitts. Physical and human geography The land Saint Kitts (Saint Kitts and Nevis) is 23 miles (37 kilometres) long and five miles wide, is oval in shape, and has an area of 68 square miles (176 square kilometres). A volcanic mountainous ridge down the centre forms a semicircle around a plain in the southeast. Mount Liamuiga (formerly Mount Misery), with a lake in its forested crater, is the highest point (3,792 feet 【1,156 metres】). The soil (except in the mountains) is light and porous. Most of the beaches are of black volcanic sands. The island is well watered and fertile, with a cool, healthy climate. The average temperature is 80° F (27° C), and the annual rainfall averages 55 inches (1,397 millimetres). Nevis, surrounded by coral reefs, lies two miles southeast of Saint Kitts across a channel known as The Narrows. The island is circular, and it consists almost entirely of a mountain, Nevis Peak (3,232 feet), which is flanked by the lower Round Hill (1,014 feet) on the north and by Saddle Hill (1,850 feet) on the south. Its area is 36 square miles (93 square kilometres). The soil of Nevis is clay studded with volcanic boulders. The climate is similar to that of Saint Kitts. (Saint Kitts and Nevis) The people The population is largely black, with a small mulatto minority and other mixtures. There are also very small East Indian and white groups. The official language is English. The main religious denominations are Anglican and Methodist, with small groups of Moravians and Roman Catholics. Both Saint Kitts and Nevis have traditionally had high levels of emigration, offsetting natural increases and enabling the islands to maintain a fairly stable population. Remittances from emigrants form an important source of foreign exchange. The economy The narrow coastal plain of St. Kitts, the skirts of the mountains, and the Basseterre Valley are devoted to the cultivation of sugarcane (mainly on large estates), which is the chief product and export. The government has nationalized all sugar plantations and has also purchased the sugar factories. Nevis grows chiefly cotton, vegetables, and coconuts. Light industries in Saint Kitts and Nevis produce items mainly for export from imported materials. Products include electronic equipment, batik-dyed fabrics, and other clothing and furniture. Tourism is also an important sector of the economy. The United States, the United Kingdom, and Trinidad and Tobago are the principal trading partners. There is a deepwater port at Basseterre, and Golden Rock International Airport on Saint Kitts provides service to other islands and to the United States and Canada. Newcastle Airfield on Nevis provides interisland air service. Administration and social conditions Since independence in 1983, the Federation of Saint Kitts and Nevis has been an independent member of the Commonwealth, with the British monarch as its head of state. An appointed governor-general represents the crown. The prime minister, who together with other ministers is a member of the Cabinet, is the head of government. The monarch and the National Assembly constitute the parliament, some of whose members are appointed. The island of Nevis enjoys a certain amount of autonomy within the federal structure; it has its own legislature, and the constitution provides for it to secede from the federation if certain procedures are followed. There is universal adult suffrage. Education is compulsory for all children from the age of five to 16. There are several hospitals and many health centres throughout the islands. Tropical diseases have been virtually eliminated. Most of the state's cultural activity is concentrated in the capital, Basseterre. History Early settlement Christopher Columbus visited Saint Kitts (Saint Kitts and Nevis) on his second voyage in 1493 and found it inhabited by warlike Caribs. He named it Saint Christopher for his patron saint. The name was shortened to Saint Kitts by settlers under Sir Thomas Warner, who, arriving from England in 1623, established the first successful English colony in the West Indies at Old Road on the west coast. The French also settled on the island in 1627 under Pierre Belain d'Esnambuc. Divided during the 17th century between warring French and English colonists, Saint Kitts was given to Britain by the Treaty of Utrecht in 1713 and remained in British possession despite the capture in 1782 of Brimstone Hill by the French. The island was restored to Great Britain by the Treaty of Versailles in 1783. Nevis was also sighted by Columbus in 1493. The island's name derives from Columbus' description of the clouds atop Nevis peak as las nieves, or “the snows,” when he sighted the island. It was settled by the English in 1628 and soon became one of the most prosperous of the Antilles. Although it suffered from French and Spanish attacks in the 17th and 18th centuries, it maintained a sound economic position until the mid-19th century. Federation and independence movements The islands of St. Kitts, Nevis, and Anguilla were united by federal act in 1882 and became an independent state in association with the United Kingdom on Feb. 27, 1967. The islands were granted full internal self-government, with the United Kingdom retaining responsibility for defense and foreign affairs. After the islands had assumed the status of associated states, Anguilla complained of domination by the Saint Kitts administration. In May 1967 the Anguillans ejected the Saint Kitts police and established their own council. In July of the same year, they proclaimed their independence. After unsuccessful negotiations, the Anguilla Act of July 1971 placed Anguilla directly under British control. On Feb. 10, 1976, Anguilla was granted a constitution and its union with Saint Kitts and Nevis was formally severed in 1980. A constitutional conference was held in London in 1982, and, in spite of disagreement over special provisions for Nevis, Saint Kitts and Nevis became independent on Sept. 19, 1983. A drop in world sugar prices hurt the nation's economy through the mid-1980s, and the government sought to reduce the islands' dependence on sugar production and to diversify the economy. Gladstone E.M. Mills Janet D. Momsen Additional Reading There are few works that treat all the islands of the Lesser Antilles or describe a particular island comprehensively, although a number of broad overviews are listed in the earlier section on the region. An informative geologic survey, covering locations from both the Lesser Antilles and the Netherlands Antilles, is offered in J.H. Westermann and H. Kiel, The Geology of Saba and St. Eustatius, with Notes on the Geology of St. Kitts, Nevis, and Montserrat, Lesser Antilles (1961). Guy Lasserre, La Guadeloupe: Étude géographique, 3 vol. (1978), is a detailed geography. Studies of flora include Clarissa Thérèse Kimber, Martinique Revisited: The Changing Plant Geographies of a West Indian Island (1988); and David Watts, Man's Influence on the Vegetation of Barbados, 1627 to 1800 (1966).The people of Barbados are discussed in Jill Sheppard, The “Redlegs” of Barbados, Their Origins and History (1977), which explores the history of indentured servants; Farley Brathwaite (ed.), The Elderly in Barbados (1986), a survey of social and economic conditions of the elderly; and Graham M.S. Dann (ed.), Everyday in Barbados: A Sociological Perspective (1976), which discusses social structures and recreational activity. Jean Benoist (ed.), L'Archipel inachevé: culture et société aux Antilles françaises (1972), is an anthropological study of the French islands of Martinique, Guadeloupe, La Désirade, Marie-Galante, and Saint-Barthélemy. Stuart B. Philpott, West Indian Migration: The Montserrat Case (1973), explores the impact of migration on village population. Bonham C. Richardson, Caribbean Migrants: Environment and Human Survival on St. Kitts and Nevis (1983), focuses on migration as a response to degradation of environment. Karen Fog Olwig, Cultural Adaptation and Resistance on St. John: Three Centuries of Afro-Caribbean Life (1985), examines the society of one of the Virgin Islands.Analyses of economic conditions include Delisle Worrell (ed.), The Economy of Barbados, 1946–1980 (1982), a study of the trends of the major sectors; Bonham C. Richardson, Panama Money in Barbados, 1900–1920 (1985), which discusses the impact of remittances on a wide range of economic activities and social attitudes; Michel-Rolph Trouillot, Peasants and Capital: Dominica in the World Economy (1988), which explores patterns of land ownership and agricultural production; and C. Bourne, E.R. Lefranc, and F. Nunes (compilers), Small Farming in the Less Developed Countries of the Commonwealth Caribbean (1980), which provides information on Grenada, Saint Vincent and the Grenadines, Saint Lucia, Dominica, Saint Kitts and Nevis, Montserrat, and Antigua. Studies of individual island-state economies include John S. Brierley, Small Farming in Grenada, West Indies (1974); Deirdre M. Kelly, Hard Work, Hard Choices: A Survey of Women in St. Lucia's Export-Oriented Electronics Factories (1987); and Hymie Rubenstein, Coping With Poverty: Adaptive Strategies in a Caribbean Village (1987).Historical works which concentrate mostly on slavery and plantation life include the following: Vincent T. Harlow, A History of Barbados, 1625–1685 (1926, reprinted 1969), an examination of the period of the early British colonies; Gary A. Puckrein, Little England: Plantation Society and Anglo-Barbadian Politics, 1627–1700 (1984), a revisionist economic history, particularly strong on the creolizing process; Hilary Beckles, Black Rebellion in Barbados: The Struggle Against Slavery, 1627–1838 (1984), a provocative interpretation of slave resistance. Jerome S. Handler, The Unappropriated People: Freedmen in the Slave Society of Barbados (1974), which fills a gap in historiography; Karl Watson, The Civilised Island, Barbados: A Social History, 1750–1816 (1979), a study of the mature slave society; Claude Levy, Emancipation, Sugar, and Federalism: Barbados and the West Indies, 1833–1876 (1980), on postslavery adjustments; Gordon C. Merrill, The Historical Geography of St. Kitts and Nevis, the West Indies (1958), which discusses the colonial period on the islands; Lennox Honychurch, The Dominica Story: A History of the Island, 2nd ed. (1984), a well-illustrated study covering developments up to the 1980s and benefiting from the author's personal involvement in the constitutional changes leading to independence; and George Brizan, Grenada, Island of Conflict: From Amerindians to People's Revolution, 1498–1979 (1984), the work of a Grenadian historian and politician.
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