Montserrat

Montserrat has the remains of Native American settlements dating from around 500 bc to ad 500. The island was sighted by Christopher Columbus in 1493; he named it after a noted monastery on Montserrat, a mountain in Spain with a similar jagged outline. It was first colonized in 1632 by Irish and English Catholics fleeing persecution on nearby St Kitts; more Irish settlers later came from the Virginia colony on the American mainland. Plantations to grow tobacco, later sugar and cotton, were set up; from 1664 slaves were imported from Africa to work them. The French repeatedly attacked the settlers, holding the island for four years in the 1660s and again from 1782 to 1783, when it came under definitive British control. The abolition of slavery in 1834 combined with a decline in sugar prices to bring about the collapse of the planter economy. In an attempt at revival, lime production was introduced in the second half of the century and plots of land from the abandoned estates were sold to smallholders. From 1871 to 1956 Montserrat was administered as part of the Federation of the Leeward Islands. In 1958 it became a member of the Federation of the West Indies. Following the dissolution of the federation in 1962, the inhabitants of the island voted to remain a dependency of Britain. Between 1978 and 1991 internal politics was dominated by the People’s Liberation Movement (PLM), led by John Osbourne, an advocate of independence from the United Kingdom. A referendum on the issue was planned for 1990, but was indefinitely postponed following Hurricane Hugo, which devastated the island in September 1989. Earlier in 1989 the financial services sector was hit by allegations that foreign banks registered in Montserrat were being used to process funds gained from criminal activities. Following an investigation by British police most licences were revoked and several arrests made. Subsequently, in an attempt to restore credibility, more stringent regulations were introduced and offshore finance was placed under the direct supervision of the governor. In 1991 rifts within the PLM forced early elections for the Legislative Council. Held in October, they resulted in the victory of the newly formed National Progressive Party (NPP), led by Reuben Meade. Local anger at the NPP’s handling of the results of the eruption of the Soufriere Hills Volcano—loss of jobs, overcrowding of evacuees in emergency shelters, pollution, and respiratory problems caused by the dust and ashes—was expressed in the November 1996 elections. Three parties and ten independents contested the seven elected seats, and Meade was the only NPP candidate to retain his seat.

During June 1997 a series of eruptions from Soufriere Hills and Chance's Peak volcanoes killed 19 people and destroyed Plymouth and several other towns. Two thirds of the town was left uninhabitable causing thousands of islanders to seek refuge in temporary accommodation. In September the United Kingdom government announced an aid plan for the development of housing and a new infrastructure in the unaffected northern part of the island. A further housing aid package was announced in February 1998. Previously, the United Kingdom had been criticized by Montserrat's government and the Caribbean community for its slow response to the crisis and delaying the release of funds that would have enabled people to leave the island.