Îles des Saintes
The Îles des Saintes, also known as Les Saintes, is a group of small islands in the archipelago of Guadeloupe, an overseas department of France. It is part of the Canton of Trois-Rivières and is divided into two communes: Terre-de-Haut and Terre-de-Bas. It is in the arrondissement of Basse-Terre and also in Guadeloupe's 4th constituency.
Etymology
named the islands "Los Santos" or "Todos los Santos", in reference to All Saints' Day. He and his crew first sighted the islands in November of 1493, just after All Saints' Day. When the area became a French colony, the Spanish name was retained – but with French orthography and phonology.History
Pre-Columbian
Les Saintes, due to their location in the heart of the Lesser Antilles, were frequented first by Indian tribes coming from Caribbean and Central America. Caaroucaëra, although uninhabited due to the lack of spring water, were regularly visited by Arawak peoples then Kalinagos living on the neighbourhood islands of Guadeloupe and Dominica around the 9th century. They went there to practise hunting and fishing. The archaeological remains of war axes and pottery dug up on the site of Anse Rodrigue's Beach and stored at "Fort Napoléon" museum testify the visits of these populations.Discovery and colonisation
It was during his second expedition for America, that Christopher Columbus discovered the small archipelago, on 4 November 1493. He named them "Los Santos", in reference to All Saints' Day which had just been celebrated. Around 1523, along with its neighbours, these islands, which were devoid of precious metals, were abandoned by the Spanish who favoured the Greater Antilles and the South American continent.On 18 October 1648, a French expedition led by Sir du Mé, annexed les Saintes, already under English influence, at the request of the governor of Guadeloupe, Charles Houël. From 1649, the islands became a colony exploited by the French West India Company which tried to establish agriculture. However, the inhospitable ground and the aridity of "Terre-de-Haut" halted this activity, though it persisted for a while on Terre-de-Bas, which was wetter and more fertile, under the orders of Sir Hazier du Buisson from 1652.
In 1653, the Kalinagos slaughtered the French troops in Marie-Galante. Sir du Mé decided to respond to this attack by sending a punitive expedition against the tribes in Dominica. Following these events, the Kalinagos, invaded les Saintes to take revenge. Sir Comte de l'Etoile tried to repel the Caribs who were definitively chased away in 1658. In the name of the King of France, les Saintes were acquired in the royal domain by Jean-Baptiste Colbert when the French West India Company was dissolved in 1664.
On 4 August 1666, while the English were attacking the archipelago, their fleet was routed by the passage of a hurricane and some British who besieged this "Gibraltar of the Antilles" were quickly expelled by the troops of Sir du Lion and Sir Desmeuriers, helped by the Caribs. The English surrendered on 15 August 1666, the day of the Assumption of Mary, and a Te Deum was intoned at the request of Sir du Lion who founded an annual remembrance in honour to this victory – this is celebrated ardently on the island of Terre-de-Haut to this day. Our-Lady-of-Assumption became the Patron saint of the parish.
To protect the French colonies of the area, the English were repelled to Barbados by the governor of Santo Domingo, Jean-Baptiste Ducasse in 1691.
18th century
From 1759 to 1763, the British took possession of Les Saintes and a part of Guadeloupe.Les Saintes were restored to the Kingdom of France only after the signature of the Treaty of Paris on 10 February 1763, by which France gave up Île Royale, Isle Saint-Jean, Acadia and Canada, the Great Lakes region and the left bank of the Mississippi to the British.
To prevent further British ambitions, King Louis XVI ordered the construction of fortifications on Les Saintes. Thus began the construction of "Fort Louis" on the Mire Hill, "Fort de la Reine" on Petite Martinique island, the watchtowers of "Modele tower" on Chameau Hill, the artillery batteries of Morel Hill and Mouillage Hill, in 1777.
On 12 April 1782, after the military campaign of January in Basseterre on the island of Saint Christopher, the French fleet of Comte de Grasse, which aimed to capture British Jamaica, left Martinique and headed towards the archipelago of les Saintes, where it arrived in the evening. Caught in the Dominica Passage by the British and inferior in number, it was engaged and defeated by the ships of the line of George Brydges Rodney aboard the Formidable and Samuel Hood aboard the Barfleur. According to legend, after he had fired the last of the ammunition of his carronades, de Grasse fired off his silverware. In a little more than five hours, 2,000 French sailors and soldiers were killed and wounded, and 5,000 men and 4 ships of the line captured and one ship of the line sunk. The defeat resulted in Îles des Saintes coming under British rule for twenty years.
In 1794, France's National Convention, represented by Victor Hugues, tried to reconquer the islands but succeeded in occupying them only temporarily, the islands being recaptured away by the powerful British vessel Queen Charlotte.
19th century
In 1802, the First French Empire under Napoleon launched a successful operation to recapture the archipelago from the British. On 14 April 1809, the British fleet of Admiral Sir Alexander Forrester Inglis Cochrane reconquered the archipelago. Three young people from les Saintes, Mr. Jean Calo, Mr. Cointre and Mr. Solitaire, succeeded in guiding three French vessels commanded by the infantry division of Admiral Troude which were caught unawares inside the bay and helped them to escape back to France through the North Passage called "La baleine". These men were decorated with the Legion of Honour for their actions.Guadeloupe island was also conquered on 26 February 1810 by the British.. The French Governor Jean Augustin Ernouf was forced to capitulate.
By a bilateral treaty signed in Stockholm on 3 March 1813, Sweden promised the British that they would make a common front against Napoleon's France. In return, the British would have to support the ambitions of Stockholm on Norway. Pragmatically, Karl XIV Johan indeed understood that it was time for Sweden to abandon Finland and to spread the kingdom westward. Besides, Great Britain offered the colony of Guadeloupe to Karl XIV Johan personally to seal this new alliance.
Under the Treaty of Paris signed on 30 May 1814, the United Kingdom accepted to give Guadeloupe back to France. King Karl XIV Johan of Sweden retroceded Guadeloupe to France and earned in exchange the recognition of the Union of Sweden and Norway and the payment to the Swedish royal house of 24 million gold francs in compensation. However, the French only came back to les Saintes on 5 December, when the General Leith, commander in chief of forces in the West Indies and governor of the Leeward Isles accepted it.
The new governor of Guadeloupe and dependencies, the Commodore Sir Comte de Linois and his deputy governor Sir Eugène-Édouard Boyer, Baron de Peyreleau, sent by Louis XVIII to repossess the colony were quickly disturbed by the return of Napoleon I in April 1815. A conflict broke out between Bonapartists and monarchists.
On 19 June 1815, Sir Comte de Linois forced by Sir Boyer de Peyreleau, rejoined the Bonapartists and sent away a British frigate dispatched by the governor of the Windward Islands in Martinique, Sir Pierre René Marie, Comte de Vaugiraud to bring back the monarchical order of Louis XVIII.
Sir Comte de Vaugiraud relieved them of their duties and the British took the offensive.
Les Saintes were captured again by the crown of Great Britain on 6 July 1815, Marie-Galante on 18 July and Guadeloupe on 10 August.
Despite the defeat of the Bonapartists and the restoration of Louis XVIII, on the request of the slave planter of Guadeloupe and by order of General Leith the British stayed to purge the colony of Bonapartism. The Bonapartists were judged and deported.
The British troops left the colony to the French on 22 July 1816. Sir Antoine Philippe, Comte de Lardenoy was named by the King, Governor and Administrator of Guadeloupe and dependencies on 25 July 1816.
It was in 1822 that the Chevalier de Fréminville legend was born. Christophe-Paulin de la Poix, named Chevalier de Fréminville, a sailor and naturalist in a military campaign to les Saintes aboard the vessel La Néréïde shared a dramatic love story with a Saintoise named Caroline. She committed suicide down from the artillery battery of Morel Hill which bears her name today, thinking her beloved man dead at Saint-Christopher, not seeing him come back from campaign. This condemned the knight to madness; taken by sorrow, he took Caroline's clothes and returned to Brest, where he stayed until the end of his days. Engravings and narratives are kept at Fort Napoléon museum.
In 1844, during Louis Philippe I's reign, the construction of a fort began on the ruins of the old Fort Louis. The fortification was built to the technique of Vauban to protect the archipelago against a possible reconquest.
In 1851, a penitentiary was built on Petite Martinique island, which became renamed îlet à Cabrit; in 1856 a prison reserved for women replaced it. It was destroyed in 1865 by a hurricane. The fort, begun during Louis-Philippe's reign, was finished in 1867 in the reign of Napoleon III who baptised it Fort Napoléon in honour of his uncle, Napoleon I. Fort de la Reine was renamed Fort Joséphine at the same time. A lazaretto was opened in 1871 instead of the penitentiary.
On 9 August 1882, under Jules Grévy's mandature, at the request of the municipal councillors and following the church's requirements asking for the creation of Saint-Nicholas's parish, the municipality of Terre-de-Bas was created, separating from Terre-de-Haut which also became a municipality. This event marked the end of the municipality of les Saintes. The patron saint's day of Terre-de-Bas was then established on 6 December, St Nicholas'Day.
In 1903, the military and disciplinary garrisons were definitively given up. It was the end of the "Gibraltar of the Antilles", but in honour of its military past, the ships of the navy made a traditional stopover. In 1906, the cruiser Duguay-Trouin stopped over at les Saintes. In September 1928, les Saintes, like its neighbouringislands of Guadeloupe, were violently struck by a strong cyclone which destroyed an important part of the municipal archives. From 1934 the first inns were built, which marked the beginning of visits to the island by the outside world.