Commonwealth country profile: Antigua & Barbuda
<b>Antigua & Barbuda</b><br>THE islands are under the same government but to get from one to the other, one has to either take a flight or boat ride. Antigua and Barbuda are located in the middle of the Leeward Islands in the Eastern Caribbean.
Antigua & Barbuda
THE islands are under the same government but to get from one to the other, one has to either take a flight or boat ride. Antigua and Barbuda are located in the middle of the Leeward Islands in the Eastern Caribbean.
Headed by Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth II, the two have different capitals. Antigua’s capital is Saint John’s, while Barbuda’s is Codrington.
Antigua’s population is 68,000. Antigua, the largest of the English-speaking Leeward Islands, is about 14 miles long and 11 miles wide, encompassing 108 square miles. Literacy level is at 89%.
The two islands’ history has been intimately tied for centuries. The first attempts to settle in Barbuda (by the British and French) was futile. It was not until 1666 that the British established a colony strong enough to survive the ravages of both nature and the Caribbeans.
Long after independence, the island apparently is undeveloped. Barbuda is home to thousands of bird species.
For Antigua, the once unnavigable waters with coral reefs, have become a popular destination for scuba divers from all over the world. The expansive and winding coastline, once unreachable, is now covered with several powdery beaches.
Most Antiguans are of African lineage, descendants of slaves brought to the island to labour in the sugarcane fields started in 1684. However, the country’s history extends as far back as two-and-a-half millennia Before Christ. Known as the “gateway to the Caribbeanâ€, Antigua became a strategic port that controlled major sailing routes to and from the region’s rich island colonies.
Until the development of tourism in the past decades, Antiguans struggled for prosperity. The rise of a strong labour movement in the 1940s reportedly provided the impetus for independence. In 1967, with Barbuda and Redonda Islands as dependencies, Antigua became an associated state of the Commonwealth, and in 1981 it achieved full independent status.
GDP: C$1.023 billion
Major Canadian imports from Antigua & Barbuda: machinery, arts and antiques, yarn, fruits and nuts and vegetables.
Major Canadian exports to Antigua & Barbuda: machinery (gas turbines), furniture and bedding, fish and seafood, computers, meat, dairy products and preserved food.
Compiled by Elizabeth Agiro
THE islands are under the same government but to get from one to the other, one has to either take a flight or boat ride. Antigua and Barbuda are located in the middle of the Leeward Islands in the Eastern Caribbean.
Headed by Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth II, the two have different capitals. Antigua’s capital is Saint John’s, while Barbuda’s is Codrington.
Antigua’s population is 68,000. Antigua, the largest of the English-speaking Leeward Islands, is about 14 miles long and 11 miles wide, encompassing 108 square miles. Literacy level is at 89%.
The two islands’ history has been intimately tied for centuries. The first attempts to settle in Barbuda (by the British and French) was futile. It was not until 1666 that the British established a colony strong enough to survive the ravages of both nature and the Caribbeans.
Long after independence, the island apparently is undeveloped. Barbuda is home to thousands of bird species.
For Antigua, the once unnavigable waters with coral reefs, have become a popular destination for scuba divers from all over the world. The expansive and winding coastline, once unreachable, is now covered with several powdery beaches.
Most Antiguans are of African lineage, descendants of slaves brought to the island to labour in the sugarcane fields started in 1684. However, the country’s history extends as far back as two-and-a-half millennia Before Christ. Known as the “gateway to the Caribbeanâ€, Antigua became a strategic port that controlled major sailing routes to and from the region’s rich island colonies.
Until the development of tourism in the past decades, Antiguans struggled for prosperity. The rise of a strong labour movement in the 1940s reportedly provided the impetus for independence. In 1967, with Barbuda and Redonda Islands as dependencies, Antigua became an associated state of the Commonwealth, and in 1981 it achieved full independent status.
GDP: C$1.023 billion
Major Canadian imports from Antigua & Barbuda: machinery, arts and antiques, yarn, fruits and nuts and vegetables.
Major Canadian exports to Antigua & Barbuda: machinery (gas turbines), furniture and bedding, fish and seafood, computers, meat, dairy products and preserved food.
Compiled by Elizabeth Agiro