The
peaceful calm of St. Kitts suggests nothing of the
extraordinary history of the island. For centuries,
St. Kitts occupied a critical position in the European
struggle for the West Indies, combining exceptional
wealth as sugar colonies with a vital strategic
position as gateways to the Caribbean. As a result,
the struggles and conflicts that marked their history
are among the most decisive episodes in Caribbean
history.
St. Kitts is a volcanic island,
a fact to which it owes its dramatic central mountains,
its rather unpredictable geologic history, and
its lush tropical vegetation. In fact, St. Kitts'
pre-Columbian Carib inhabitants knew their island
as Liamuiga, or "fertile land," a reference
to the island's rich and productive volcanic soil.
Today that name graces St. Kitts' central peak,
a 3,792-foot extinct volcano.
The recorded history of St.
Kitts begins with the second voyage in 1493 of
Christopher Columbus who sailed past the island
but did not land. There is some doubt as to whether
it is this island that Columbus gave the name
St. Christopher (after himself ). In any case,
by the time the Englishman Thomas Warner arrived
with fourteen other settlers in 1624 to found
the first non-Spanish European colony in the Caribbean,
the island was known as St. Christopher's.
Thomas Warner chose St. Christopher
for its abundant forests and fresh water, its
fertile easily worked soil, its accessible physical
structure, and the presence of salt.
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Island History 
