The Caribbean has a fascinating history. The glorious events are discussed in A History of St. Kitts: The Sweet Trade by Vincent K. Hubbard. The book is wonderfully comprehensive, starting in the Pre-Colombian era (i.e. before the Spanish arrival) and finishing in the 1990s. Hubbard takes the reader to Indian Wars, sugar plantations, and WW2 battlefronts. It’s a real page turner.
Here’s the rundown from Major Styles…
The Indians of the Caribbean Were a Warlike People
I wrote about Pre-Colombian violence in a recent post. Despite what history teachers have taught us, the Native Americans were not all peaceful. The Caribs were a prime example. They were the dominant tribe when the Spanish arrived (thus the term “Caribbean”). They rose to the top with the Ultra-Violence (to quote Alex the Droog). For them, New Years in Cologne was the work of amateurs.
“…the Caribs had attacked and killed all the Arawak males and taken their women as slaves…During wars there is good evidence that parts of the enemies’ bodies were eaten, the theory being that consuming these parts would impart the courage of the vanquished to the victors,” (p. 11).
So the Caribs committed genocide against the Arawak, ate their bodies, and turned their wives and daughters into sex slaves. Nice…what a group of guys.
I guarantee that you won’t hear that story in your American History class.
As I’ve told you before, America is controlled by Cultural Marxism – the theory of oppressor/oppressed. Historically speaking, this means that every event must have the same conclusion: evil Europeans destroyed the noble, indigenous tribes. Subsequently, because of Cultural Marxism, your children will never be taught an accurate history in a public school.
St. Kitts Was the Most Valuable Spot on Earth…and it Was All Because of Sugar
We forget the power of sugar; there was a time it was the most valuable product on earth. And little St. Kitts – with a unique soil and climate – was able to produce a high-quantity of sugar. So the battle was on…the country that had St. Kitts would rule the world. And that country was England.
A West Indian sugar planter was rich. No, scratch that…filthy rich:
“At a time when a person in England with an income of 100 a year was considered well off, some of the richest West Indian planters had incomes of thousands of pounds per annum…There was a saying in seventeenth-century England that a wealthy person was ‘As rich as a West Indian Planer’.”
At one point, tiny St. Kitts was generating more cash than all of England. Needless to say, the profits were boosted by slave labor. That’s a story in and of itself (and a brutal one, no doubt).
The Modern World Was Shaped by Geopolitical Treaties
Many of the nations that we currently know were formed via precarious treaties. An example of this was The Treaty of Breda, signed between the warring factions in the Leeward Islands: England, France, the Netherlands and Denmark. What caught my attention was a detail in the treaty, where the future territories were divided:
“In order to regain their half of St. Kitts, the English gave the French all of Nova Scotia in Canada. The Dutch had the choice of keeping either Surinam or New York. They selected Suriname,” (p.50).
What if New York City became a Dutch colony? Would there be a Manhattan? It’s a question worth asking. Clearly, Suriname was never able to achieve economic greatness. And the same can be said for the Dutch nations of Aruba and St. Martin.
History often hinges in a single event. And millions of people can be affected by the signing of a pen or the casting of a vote.
Summary
I highly recommend A History of St. Kitts: The Sweet Trade. Moreover, I encourage people to read more on the history of the Caribbean. It’s a unique place with a history that’s intriguing and, most importantly, rarely told.
Major Styles 