Guadeloupe

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Région Guadeloupe
(Region flag)	(Region logo)
Location
Administration
Capital	Basse-Terre
Regional President	Victorin Lurel (PS) (since 2004)
Departments	Guadeloupe
Arrondissements	2[1]
Cantons	40[1]
Communes	32[1]
Statistics
Land area1	1,628 km²[1]
Population	(Ranked 23rd)
- January 1, 2006 est.	ca. 405,000[1]
- March 8, 1999 census	386,566[1]
- Density (2006)	249/km²[1]
1 French Land Register data, which exclude lakes, ponds, and glaciers larger than 1 km² (0.386 sq. mi. or 247 acres) as well as the estuaries of rivers

Guadeloupe is an archipelago located in the eastern Caribbean Sea at 16°15′N 61°35′W, 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 its currency is the euro.^[2] Guadeloupe is however not party to the Schengen Agreement.

[edit] History

Main article: History of Guadeloupe

During his second trip to America Christopher Columbus became the first European to land on Guadeloupe in November 1493, seeking fresh water. 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. However, the expedition set ashore just south of Capesterre but did not leave any settlers ashore.

After successful settlement on the island of St Christophe (St Kitts), the French American Islands Company delegates Charles Lienard and Jean Duplessis, Lord of Ossonville to colonise one or any of the region’s islands, Guadeloupe, Martinique or Dominica. Due to Martinique’s inhospitable nature, the duo resolves to settle in Guadeloupe. The French took possession of the island in 1635 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. One indication of Guadeloupe's prosperity at this time is that in the Treaty of Paris (1763), France, defeated in war, accepted to abandon its territorial claims in Canada in return for British recognition of French control of Guadeloupe.

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, wich resulted 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 April 21 to June 2. 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 American 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.

On February 5, 1813 the British once again seized the island and held it until March 3, 1813, when it was ceded to Sweden as a consequence of the Napoleonic Wars. Sweden already had a colony in the area, but merely a year later Sweden left the island to France in the Treaty of Paris of 1814. 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. Lebanese, Chinese, and people of many other origins are also present.

On February 22, 2007 the communes of Saint-Martin and Saint-Barthélemy were officially detached from Guadeloupe and became overseas collectivities separate from Guadeloupe.

[edit] Geography

In green (with red legend) are the former constituent parts of the Guadeloupe region/department among the Leeward Islands . On February 22, 2007, Saint-Martin and Saint-Barthélemy seceded from Guadeloupe, but Marie-Galante, La Désirade, and Les Saintes are still part of the Guadeloupe region/department.

Map of the Guadeloupe archipelago

Guadeloupe comprises five islands: Basse-Terre, 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 December 7, 2003, both of these areas voted to become an overseas territorial collectivity. [1]
On February 22, 2007 they officially became overseas collectivities of France.

[edit] 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)

[edit] Administrative divisions

View from Guadeloupe

Administratively, Guadeloupe is divided into arrondissements, cantons and communes:

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

See also: Overseas departments and territories of France and Administrative divisions of France

[edit] Politics

Guadeloupe

This article is part of the series: Politics and government of Guadeloupe

Political parties Elections See also: Politics of France

Other countries · Politics Portal view • talk • edit

See also: Colonial and Departmental Heads of Guadeloupe

[edit] Culture

Beach in Guadeloupe

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 Maryse Condé, Ernest Pépin and Simone Schwartz-Bart.

Also culturally important are the arts, particularly painting and sculpture. Famous painters and/or sculptors include Michel Rovelas, Claudie Cancellier, Jean-Claude Echard, Christian Bracy, Roger Arekian, les Frères Baptiste, Michelle Chomereau-Lamothe, Léogane, Pédurand, Nicole Réache, Victor Sainsily. Photographer and visual effects artist Karim Sahai of Weta Digital, New-Zealand, has worked on the visual effects of The Lord of the Rings, King Kong, X-Men, etc.

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, toumbélé, as well as all the modern international dances. Typical Guadeloupean music includes la biguine and gwo ka à la base. 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 colorful 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 is also important, mainly of gold, in the Guadeloupean lady's dress, a product of European, African and Indian inspiration. Many famous couturiers like Devaed or Mondelo are Guadeloupeans.

Football (soccer) is popular in Guadeloupe. Thierry Henry, a star of the French National Team and English Premiership club Arsenal FC, often visits, as his father Antoine was originally from the island. Lilian Thuram, a star football defender for France and FC Barcelona, was born in Guadeloupe. The French national team and Manchester United striker, Louis Saha, is also of Guadeloupean descent as is Swansea City goalkeeper Willy Gueret.

[edit] Economy

Carbet Falls

Main article: Economy of Guadeloupe

The economy of Guadeloupe depends on tourism, agriculture, light industry and services. It also 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.^[9] 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".

[edit] Footnotes

[edit] See also

• Communications in Guadeloupe
• Military of Guadeloupe
• Music of Martinique and Guadeloupe
• Transportation in Guadeloupe
• Région Guadeloupe et Saint Martin (Scouting)
• Martinique

[edit] External links

Wikimedia Commons has media related to:

Guadeloupe

• Préfecture de la région Guadeloupe - Official site of the prefecture of Guadeloupe (in French)
• Guadeloupe - Official site of the Council of Guadeloupe
• Les Iles de Guadeloupe - Official site of the Guadeloupe Islands Tourism Board
• 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

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Guadeloupe International Airport