The Caribbean - Antigua
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Antigua is 108 square miles in size, the land is largely rolling hills on a limestone
base (from reefs that grew to cover an original volcanic outcrop on the colliding
crusts of the Caribbean and Atlantic tectonic plates). As a low lying island, it
is mainly open land and has little forest.
Due to its geographical position and its extraordinary natural harbours, Antigua
has had strategic importance since the days of empire. In the 1700s it was a British
naval base and the island simply bristled with forts and barracks. These are still
visible around the coastline, and include Nelson’s Dockyard, the only restored Georgian
naval repair station in the world. Inland the plantation history of the island is
src="/images clearly visible.
The island retains its strategic value (it has had an American airbase since the
Second World War), bu
t in
these more peaceable times it is because Antigua is one of the main hubs for arrival
into the Caribbean, from Europe at least.
After many years under the Bird family and the Antigua Labour Party, Antigua and
Barbuda now has a new government in the United Progressive Party, led by Prime Minister
Baldwin Spencer. There has been greater attention to public works, with improvements
to the hospitals, roads and assistance for pensioners, but the changes have not
been greeted with universal approval. After years of paying no Income Tax (Antiguans
were taxed through goods and services), it has been recently introduced, affecting
around a quarter of the population.
Antigua’s past as one of the most heavily defended places on earth, with soldiers
and sailors manning fortresses to ward off invading armies, is now gone. But a few
things remain the same. The island is still busy and a lynchpin in the area. Antigua
is still one of the heartlands of Caribbean sailing, home to the region’s most famous
sailing regatta, Antigua Race Week.
Some of this information has been provided by
Wikipedia.
Region Information - Antigua
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Barbados |
Grand Bahama | St Lucia
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Turks and Caicos Islands