Antigua and Barbuda is an independent nation in North America. With the capital city of Saint John’s, Antigua and Barbuda 2020 population is estimated at 97,940 according to countryaah. The first people are believed to have settled on the island of Antigua at least 4,000 years ago. They were followed by agricultural taino, which in the 12th century AD was chased away by the caribou. In 1493, the explorer Christofer Columbus reached Antigua, but the island was not colonized until after 1632, when a group of Englishmen settled there.
In the late 1600s, the Englishman Christofer Codrington founded sugar plantations on the island. Slaves were brought from Africa to work on the plantations. The sugar and strategically located port made Antigua one of the most successful British colonies in the Caribbean. The island of Barbuda was rented by the Codrington family. It was not until 1860 that Barbuda formally merged with Antigua.
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The sugar industry weakened in the late 19th century and suffered a severe crack in the 1930s, when the price of sugar fell sharply. Antigua experienced a recession and social unrest. In 1940 the island’s first trade union was formed.
In 1946, the bourgeois Labor Party of Antigua was founded (abbreviated to ALP in English). The party’s candidates were elected to the local parliament, including party leader Vere Bird. In the 1951 parliamentary elections, the Labor Party won and Vere Bird became prime minister.
