In the 19th century, Anguilla's major product was salt produced by evaporation on the shores of the island's lakes, which was exported to the United States. Sugar, cotton, sweetcorn, and tobacco were also grown. By the beginning of World War I, the island had been almost entirely deforested by charcoal-burners. Most of the land was held by black sustenance farmers producing sweet potatoes, peas, beans, and corn and rearing sheep and goats. Salt continued to be exported to nearby Saint Thomas, along with phosphate of lime and cattle.
Anguilla’s official history began about 4,000 years ago, when the Taino people first arrived from South America to this island they called ‘Malliouhana’ because of its arrow shape. The stalagmite created to look like their supreme being, Jocahu, at the former Taino pilgrimage and worship site at Fountain Cavern National Park (Shoal Bay) is among the few surviving remnants of Anguilla’s first civilization.
It’s believed that Christopher Columbus named Anguilla after the Italian word for ‘eel’ because of the island’s narrow shape when he discovered it during his 1493 New World voyage. Anguilla’s first permanent European settlement was not established until the English arrived in 1650, but six years later, Indians destroyed the first corn and tobacco plantations established by the foreign settlers.
Except for a brief French occupation in 1666, Anguilla remained British territory and its economy was thriving by the 1800’s. Although the plantations were smaller than those on many other Caribbean islands due to Anguilla’s sporadic rainfall and poor soil, they nonetheless prospered thanks to its mahogany, indigo, rum, sugar, and cotton exports. The only surviving plantation house is Wallblake House (The Valley).
Many of Anguilla’s former plantation workers successfully established independent careers as sailors, fishermen, or entrepreneurs. Anguilla enjoyed several decades of peace until 1958, the year the island joined the Federation of the West Indies. The most violent time in the island’s history, the Anguilla Revolution began in 1967 after citizens ousted police forces from neighboring St Kitts and Anguilla.
Anguilla wanted to become independent from St Kitts and Nevis, but this goal was not accomplished until 1980, when the island became a separate dependent territory of Great Britain following over a decade of debates and interventions. Today, Anguilla is both a popular tourism destination and tax haven. The three percent interim stabilization levy imposed in 2011 was Anguilla’s first income tax of any kind.
