Saint Barthélemy

( Called German St. Bartholomew, also St. Barths, St. Barts, St. Barth or Saint -Barth ) Saint -Barthélemy is an island of the Lesser Antilles. She's since February 2007, a French overseas collectivity ( collectivité d' outre- mer). Since 1 January 2012, it is one of the overseas countries and territories of the European Union.

Geography

To the northwest lies the Franco- Dutch island of Saint Martin (Dutch Sint Maarten ), in the south of St. Kitts and the Dutch islands of St. Eustatius and Saba. In east-southeast lies Barbuda.

The island has an area of ​​21 km ² and 8673 inhabitants (1 January 2008 ), so that 413 inhabitants per km ². The highest point is Morne Vitet in the east of the island, with 286 meters.

At Saint -Barthélemy, except the main island are also several smaller uninhabited smaller islands, u a Ile Fourchue, Ile Chevreau (Île Bonhomme ), Ile Fregate, La Tortue ( l' Ecalle ), Île Toc Vers, Île Le Boulanger, Ile Coco, Mancel ou la Poule, Ile Pele, Le Pain de Sucre, Ile Petit -Jean and Les Grenadins.

Policy

The island is next to Saint -Martin, a single authority with the competence of a municipality, a department and a region. Capital is Gustavia.

Political status

Until 2007, Saint -Barthélemy was a church, and together with the French part of the neighboring island of Saint -Martin, a district of the overseas departments of Guadeloupe, the Arrondissement of Saint- Martin -Saint- Barthélemy ( also Arrondissement des Îles du Nord " district of the northern islands" ).

Following a referendum held in 2003, Saint -Barthélemy separated - next to Saint -Martin - February 22, 2007 from Guadeloupe and became a separate collectivity d' outre mer. The administration will also correspond to the future of a French commune. Please do not use non-French, but which come from an EU country, also participate in future municipal elections. Saint -Barthélemy is since 1 January 2012 as an associated overseas territories (OCTs ) are no longer part of the European Union, however, reserves the euro as legal tender.

Michel Magras represents since October 1, 2008, the island in the French Senate, where it is a member of the UMP.

History

The island was originally inhabited by indigenous people of the Caribbean, who gave her the name Ouanalao. In 1493 she was discovered by Christopher Columbus on his second voyage and in honor of his brother Bartolomeo after its patron saint, the apostle Bartholomew, named. However, the Spaniards colonized the island in a row, and it was only on paper in Spanish possession. Little is known about the whereabouts of the original population. On the one part, they probably died from Europe introduced diseases that spread to the island even without the help of Spaniards from the island, on the other part, she was also actively fought by them and probably deported as numerous other Lesser Antilles islands also to forced labor in Hispaniola.

1648 settled mainly from Normandy and Brittany coming French colonists under the Knights of Malta Phillippe de Villiers de Long Poincy on the island, which was previously only inhabited by 170 Europeans and 50 African slaves. 1651 sold the French crown their claims to the island to the Order of Malta. The local climate was too dry for the time very profitable cultivation of sugar cane and so this colonization experiment was abandoned in 1659. For the same reason, no greater number of African slaves were executed there, done what the demographics of today differs from neighboring islands. However, the situation in the north of the Lesser Antilles was strategically interesting, so with its naturally protected harbor in the capital of Le Carénage (literally: place for repairing the keel ), Saint- Barthélemy became a port of call for pirates. The few inhabitants lived from fishing, the raising of farm animals, the production of salt and the cultivation of cotton and indigo. It was not until in 1763 a new attempt to bring the island for France under control and use it economically.

1784, King Louis XVI. the current relatively worthless island in exchange for a Commercial Law in Gothenburg King Gustav III. from Sweden. On March 7, 1785, the island was taken by the Swedes in possession and the name of the main resort of Le Carénage was renamed in honor of the Swedish king in Gustavia. However, Saint -Barthélemy did not even own drinking water resources so that water had to be imported from neighboring islands. By granting a free trade status of the port flourished (see also Swedish slave trade and Swedish West India Company ), until 1852 a large fire destroyed major parts of Gustavia. In U.S. trade statistics from that time the island is run as a " Swedish - West India." The majority of the population remained under Swedish rule French -born Europeans and their slaves, thereby further a French patois was spoken.

Slavery existed in the now Swedish Saint- Barthelemy initially on. Instead of the previously valid code Noir a " Ordonnance de la police générale " was by Pehr Hermann Rosén Rosenstein, the Swedish interim administrator of the island, adopted in 1787, which regulated the treatment of slaves by law. Which was adopted in the wake of the French Revolution 4th February 1794 abolition of slavery was not effective through the transition into Swedish possession, a law that was not executed well in the French Antilles islands. From 1814 onward, there was a discussion about slavery in Sweden itself, and even the Swedish imperial estates dealt with the issue. From 1844 started with a program in which with funds from the Swedish state treasury at the time still 529 people living on the island slaves were ransomed gradually. For a child 45 Gourdes were paid and accrue for every man 71 160 of these slaves came directly from Africa before the Swedish ban on the import of slaves in 1831, the rest was born on the island. A portion of the black population had been previously released by their owners or had ransomed himself. For the final abolition of slavery did not occur until October 9, 1847 by King Oscar I and its local governor James Haarlef Haasum. The majority of former slaves left in the following years the island, bringing the total population almost halved.

On August 10, 1877, the French the island for 80,000 francs bought back and placed them in the following year, the administration of Guadeloupe, of which she was a commune in 1946.

In 1957, the American banker David Rockefeller bought an estate on the island ( now owned by Roman Abramovich ) and Saint -Barthélemy evolved from there to a destination for luxury tourism, again and again the European jet set and U.S. Stars spend their holidays. Exclusivity, beautiful beaches and good facilities for sailing draw from Saint Barthélemy continue.

Between 1962 and 2007, Saint -Barthélemy formed, along with the French part of Saint Martin, which belongs to Arrondissement Guadeloupe Saint -Martin -Saint- Barthelemy. In 2003 there was a referendum in which the majority voted for separation from Guadeloupe, and so the island since February 22, 2007 shall be deemed collectivité d' outre- mer (COM). Both areas have since also commune, department and region and direct part of France, which also many of the provisions of the European Union apply to Saint -Barthélemy. However, both collectives have on fiscal autonomy, which French tax laws do not automatically apply there. Both islands are trying since then to position as an offshore financial center and tax haven.

Territorial outline

Saint -Barthélemy is divided into two paroisses with 40 quarters:

Infrastructure

On the island there is an airport, the airport Saint- Barthélemy ( IATA: SBH). The length of the runway is 640 meters and ends directly in the water. A special pilot license. The approach is challenging due to the ever-changing winds and the mountainous location.

Demography

According to the census conducted in January 2007, Saint -Barthélemy has 8,450 inhabitants. The majority of today's population are descendants of French settlers from the colonial era, most of which, Brittany and other regions in the north and west of France came from Normandy. The majority of former African slaves who left the island after the abolition of slavery in 1847 in the direction of other Caribbean islands, making Saint- Barthelemy is one of the Lesser Antilles islands with a majority white population. Therefore, French is the most spoken language, which the locals also partially speak a French patois. To the west of the island has this similar to the French, which is spoken in Quebec and other Native American language islands. To the east of the island, the part where the plantation economy was operated to a limited extent, it is more like an archaic variant of the African-influenced Caribbean patois of Martinique. The Swedish left except for a few place names, no significant traces in the language. A large part of the inhabitants speak today also English as a second language in order to communicate on the one hand with the international tourists, on the other hand with the inhabitants of the neighboring islands can, on which a Caribbean English is spoken (St. Kitts and Nevis, Antigua and Barbuda, Anguilla, Virgin Islands, etc.)

On Saint- Barthelemy lived Eugénie Blanchard, who was born on February 16, 1896, the oldest living citizen of France and was on 6 January 2009, oldest citizen of the European Union since the death of the Spanish Manuela Fernández- Fojaco. With the death of Kama Chinen Japanese woman, born on May 10, 1895 May 2, 2010, she was also the oldest person in the world, until they themselves died on November 4, 2010.