Islands in the West Caribbean - Archipelago of San Andres, Providencia and Santa Catalina (Paperback)

Chapters: Archipelago of San Andres, Providencia and Santa Catalina. Source: Wikipedia. Pages: 47. Not illustrated. Free updates online. Purchase includes a free trial membership in the publisher's book club where you can select from more than a million books without charge. Excerpt: Archipelago of San Andres, Providencia and Santa Catalina or colloquially San Andres y Providencia is one of the departments of Colombia. It consists of two island groups about 775 km (480 miles) northwest of Colombia and 220 km (140 miles) from the coast of Nicaragua, and eight outlying banks and reefs. Its capital is San Andres. In 1630, Providence Island was settled by English Puritans, under the aegis of the Providence Island Company. These Puritans decided to settle this promising tropical island rather than cold, rocky New England, but they did not succeed in building a colony similar to New England. They established slave-worked plantations and engaged in privateering, which led to the capture of the colony by the Spanish in 1641. In the 1640s, the Puritan-controlled Commonwealth government of England tried to regain the island, but without success. In 1670, English buccaneers led by Henry Morgan took over the islands. The buccaneers controlled the islands until 1689. In 1803, Spain assigned the islands and the province of Veraguas (western Panama and the east coast of Nicaragua) to the Viceroyalty of New Granada. The territory was administered from the province of Cartagena. On July 4, 1818, French Corsair Louis-Michel Aury, flying the Argentine flag, captured Old Providence and St. Catherine islands with the help of 400 men and 14 ships. He found the island populated by English-speaking Protestant white persons and their slaves. Aury and his team used the islands as his new base from which to pursue Central American independence. His efforts to also support Bolivar in his fight for Venezuelan and Colombian independence were repeatedly t...More: http: //booksllc.net/?id=54974