Anguilla is a British Overseas Territory of the Caribbean region in the North Atlantic Ocean. It is one of the most northerly of the Leeward Islands in the Lesser Antilles, lying east of Puerto Rico and the Virgin Islands and directly north of Saint Martin. The territory consists of the main island of Anguilla, approximately 16 miles (26 kilometres) long by 3 miles (5 km) wide at its widest point, together with a number of much smaller islands and cays with no permanent population. The territory's capital is The Valley. The total land area of the territory is 35 square miles (91 km2), with a population of approximately 15,753 in 2021.
The Indigenous Arawakan name for the island was Malliouhana.
In reference to the island's shape, the Italian anguilla, meaning "eel" (in turn, from the Latin diminutive of anguis, "snake") was used as its name. Anguillan tradition holds that Christopher Columbus named the island.
Anguilla was first settled by Indigenous American peoples who migrated from South America. The earliest Native American artefacts found on Anguilla have been dated to around 1300 BC; remains of settlements date from AD 600.
There are two known petroglyph sites in Anguilla: Big Spring and Fountain Cavern. The rock ledges of Big Spring contain more than 100 petroglyphs (dating back to AD 600–1200), the majority consisting of three indentations that form faces.
Precisely when Anguilla was first seen by Europeans is uncertain. Some sources claim that Columbus sighted the island during his second voyage in 1493, while others state that the first European explorer was the French Huguenot nobleman and merchant René Goulaine de Laudonnière in 1564. The Dutch West India Company established a fort on the island in 1631, but the Company withdrew after the fort was destroyed by the Spanish in 1633.
Traditional accounts state that Anguilla was first colonised by English settlers from Saint Kitts, beginning in 1650. The settlers focused on planting tobacco and, to a lesser extent, cotton. The French temporarily took over the island in 1666, but returned it to English control in the next year, under the terms of the Treaty of Breda. Major John Scott, who visited in September 1667, wrote of leaving the island "in good condition" and noted that, in July 1668, "200 or 300 people fled thither in time of war". The French attacked again in 1688, 1745 and 1796, causing much destruction but failing to capture the island.
It is likely that the early European settlers brought enslaved Africans with them. Historians confirm that African slaves lived in the region in the early 17th century, with slaves from Senegal living on St Kitts by the mid 17th century. By 1672, a slave depot existed on the island of Nevis, serving the Leeward Islands. While the time of African arrival in Anguilla is difficult to place precisely, archival evidence indicates a substantial African presence of at least 100 enslaved people by 1683. They seem to have come from Central Africa as well as West Africa. The slaves were forced to work on plantations growing sugar, which had begun to replace tobacco as Anguilla's main crop. Over time, the African slaves and their descendants came to vastly outnumber the white settlers. In 1807, the African slave trade was terminated within the British Empire, and slavery was outlawed completely in 1834. Many planters subsequently sold up or left the island.
During the early colonial period, Anguilla was administered by the British through Antigua but, in 1825, it was placed under the administrative control of nearby Saint Kitts. Anguilla was federated with St Kitts and Nevis in 1882, against the wishes of many Anguillans. Economic stagnation, the severe effects of several droughts in the 1890s, and then the Great Depression of the 1930s, led many Anguillans to emigrate for better prospects elsewhere.
In 1952, full adult suffrage was introduced to Anguilla. After a brief period as part of the West Indies Federation from 1958 to 1962, the island of Anguilla became part of the associated state of Saint Kitts-Nevis-Anguilla, which was granted full internal autonomy in 1967. Many Anguillans had no wish to be a part of that union, however, resenting the dominance of St Kitts within it.
On 30 May 1967, Anguillans forcibly ejected the St Kitts police force from the island and, following a referendum, declared their independence from St Kitts.
The events, led by Atlin Harrigan and Ronald Webster, among others, became known as the Anguillan Revolution. Its goal was not independence per se, but rather to gain separation from Saint Kitts and Nevis and a return to being a British colony.
With negotiations failing to break the deadlock, a second referendum was held, which confirmed the desire for separation from St Kitts, and the Republic of Anguilla was declared unilaterally, with Ronald Webster as president. Efforts by British envoy, William Whitlock, failed to break the impasse.
In March 1969, 300 British troops were sent to the island. British authority was restored, and confirmed by the Anguilla Act 1971 (c. 63) of July 1971.
In 1980, Anguilla was allowed to formally secede from Saint Kitts and Nevis and become a separate British Crown colony (now a British overseas territory). Since then, Anguilla has been politically stable, and has had considerable growth in its tourism and offshore financing sectors.
Anguilla is a flat, low-lying island of coral and limestone in the Caribbean Sea, measuring some 16 miles (26 km) long and 3.5 miles (6 km) in width. It lies to the east of Puerto Rico and the Virgin Islands and directly north of Saint Martin, separated from that island by the Anguilla Channel. The soil is generally thin and poor, supporting scrub, tropical and forest vegetation. The terrain is generally low-lying, with the highest terrain located in the vicinity of The Valley; Crocus Hill, Anguilla's highest peak at 240 feet (73 m), lies in the western regions of the town.
Anguilla is noted for its ecologically important coral reefs and beaches. Apart from the main island of Anguilla itself, the territory includes a number of other smaller islands and cays, mostly tiny and uninhabited:
Sombrero, also known as Hat Island