Grenada

Christopher Columbus discovered Grenada in 1498. Due to the hostility of the Carib Indians the island was not colonized until 1650, when the French founded St. George. The British conquered the island in 1762. In 1779 it was taken back by the French but it was ceded to Britain in 1783. The island became a British possession in the 18th century. The Caribs are members of the indigenous population belonging to the linguistic family “CARIBE” they occupied different regions in the American continent though they are probably original from the Valley of the Orinoco river. Towards the end of the 15th century they settled in the majority of the Lesser Antilles and the coast of the present Venezuela from where they expelled the original people the Arawaks. The Caribs were not organized in hierarchical structures but in various groups related by blood on the maternal line. When in land they lived in small settlements, they practiced agriculture and fishing they hunted animals with blowguns, sticks, stone axes, bow and arrows which point they poisoned with curare. Like the Arawaks, the Caribs were skilled in handling the canoe and their fleet sometimes had up to 100 piraguas equipped with sails. They weren’t under the command of a chief but fought like lonely warriors and assaulted other populations. They valued above all the skill in combat. The Caribs spread through terra firma and nowadays they form a group of about 40000 individuals whose nucleus is located in Venezuela and Guyana.