Central America · The modern Caribbean and isthmus states
Saint Lucia
1979–present
Saint Lucia, a mountainous Windward island famed for the twin volcanic Pitons, changed hands between Britain and France fourteen times (earning the sobriquet "Helen of the West Indies"), leaving a strong Francophone-Creole cultural imprint on an English-speaking state.
- Existed
- 1979–present
- Shown on the map
- 1979–2024
- Peak area
- 795 km²
- Region
- Central America
Overview
Saint Lucia, a mountainous Windward island famed for the twin volcanic Pitons, changed hands between Britain and France fourteen times (earning the sobriquet "Helen of the West Indies"), leaving a strong Francophone-Creole cultural imprint on an English-speaking state. It gained independence from the United Kingdom on 22 February 1979, with Sir John Compton — the dominant figure of late-colonial and post-independence politics — as its first prime minister; the capital is Castries. It is a constitutional monarchy under King Charles III.
Later history and present status
Its economy rests on tourism and, historically, bananas. Saint Lucia has an extraordinary intellectual reputation for its size, having produced two Nobel laureates: the economist Sir Arthur Lewis and the poet Derek Walcott. Philip J. Pierre (Saint Lucia Labour Party) has been prime minister since 2021.
Common questions
- What was Saint Lucia?
- Saint Lucia, a mountainous Windward island famed for the twin volcanic Pitons, changed hands between Britain and France fourteen times (earning the sobriquet "Helen of the West Indies"), leaving a strong Francophone-Creole cultural imprint on an English-speaking state.
- When did Saint Lucia exist?
- Saint Lucia existed 1979–present. On this map it is drawn 1979–2024.
- How large was Saint Lucia?
- At its greatest extent drawn on this map, Saint Lucia covered about 1,000 km². That is the largest area the border data gives it across the years it is drawn, not necessarily its greatest extent in history.
- What is the present status of Saint Lucia?
- Its economy rests on tourism and, historically, bananas. Saint Lucia has an extraordinary intellectual reputation for its size, having produced two Nobel laureates: the economist Sir Arthur Lewis and the poet Derek Walcott.
Sources
This compendium cites its sources once for the whole document rather than per territory. Its bibliography names the English Wikipedia articles for each polity and for the key figures and events as the basis of these profiles, supplemented by Encyclopaedia Britannica, the Metropolitan Museum of Art, National Geographic, EBSCO Research Starters and academic sources. The article this entry is anchored on:
- Wikipedia — Saint Lucia en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Saint_Lucia
This entry was last updated .
This entry was researched and drafted with AI from the sources above, and has not been reviewed by a historian. How entries are made
Text available under CC BY-SA 4.0: reuse it with a credit to The World Through Time and a link to this page. Passages drawing on the Wikipedia articles listed above are also licensed CC BY-SA 4.0 by their contributors.
Border geometry for the map itself comes from Cliopatria v0.12 (Seshat Global History Databank, CC-BY-4.0).
See Saint Lucia in its world
Open the atlas at 2002 and every neighbour, rival and successor is on screen with it — then drag the slider and watch what happens next.
Open the map at 2002 →