History of St. Vincent & the Grenadines
St. Vincent was inhabited by numerous people prior to European arrival, but it was the Carib people who lived on the islands when the Europeans arrived in the early 1500s. The Europeans though had little success in settling on the islands since the Caribs fought any attempts at settlement.
Throughout the 1500s, 1600s, and even into the early 1700s the Caribs held St. Vincent & the Grenadines. During this time they rejected the Europeans, but welcomed many former African slaves who had escaped from neighboring islands. These former slaves and the Caribs regularly intermarried, later calling themselves Garifuna.
The success of the Carib and Garifuna ended in 1719 when the French succeeded in taking the islands. They used the islands as a base to product numerous crops, most notably coffee, tobacco, indigo, cotton, and sugarcane. In order to profit from these industries, the French brought in African slaves to work the plantations.