The Flag of the World

What happens when you gather 12,000 generally good-natured people together and tell them to be a country out in the middle of the Caribbean? I imagine that it would turn out something like Anguilla. With a population that wouldn’t even fill up the bottom level at Safeco Field, Anguilla is nonetheless required to behave something like a nation. They don’t appear to do too bad a job of it.

HISTORY: Anguilla has been inhabited since about 2000 or 1500 BC, when it was populated by a group of unknown people who made shell axes, conch drinking vessels, flint knives and other such items. By 300 AD, the island was populated by Arawaks who called it “Malliouhana.” Eventually, they were driven off the island by the Caribs, who then apparently left it empty for the British to settle in 1650. By then, the Spanish had renamed the island for its eel-like shape.

The Caribs drove the English off too, in 1656, but not for very long. Soon the English were back, along with their slaves, farming cotton, corn and tobacco on the less-than-fertile island. This had a positive side to it, as there was little competition for the island, and little tension or struggle.

The French did try to pick the island off a few times, though. In 1666 they wrested it away from the Brits, but gave it back the next year under the Treaty of Breda. Then, in 1744, in response to Anguilla’s capture of St. Martin, two French frigates and some smaller craft attacked the island, only to be repulsed in 15 minutes. (Two jokes come to mind here, one of them about the French typically being the repulsive ones, and another fairly lame and predictable one about the French getting beat in 15 minutes). Again in 1796, the French tried their hand at invasion, and were much more successful, raping and killing their way across the island until they had pressed the resistance nearly to the other side of it. But then the desperate Anguillans counterattacked and drove the French into the waiting arms of the twenty-six gun British frigate the Anguillans had sent to for help earlier in the day.

Things got pretty quiet after that, though things happened in both the 1820’s and 30’s. In 1824, Britain put Anguilla into a single union of St. Kitt’s, Nevis and Anguilla. The larger St. Kitts dominated the alliance, and pretty much ignored Anguillan wants and needs. In 1838, slavery was outlawed on the island, which resulted in many of the white Anguillans packing it up and leaving for Britain, handing their land over to their former slaves.

The next hundred years or so continued with little excitement. Then, in 1958, St Kitt’s-Nevis-Anguilla was stuck into the ill-fated Federation of the West Indies, which lasted until 1962 when everyone decided it was lame. Anguilla was again stuck with St. Kitt’s and Nevis, but this time decided to do something about it.

In 1967, Anguillans kicked out all the St. Kitt’s policemen, blocked the runway to keep them from coming back, and declared themselves independent. The British really didn’t know what to do, and so they sat a ship offshore for two years. Eventually, they sent in the Red Devil Paratroopers, who landed on the island to a happy, welcoming populace. The island was put back under British rule, as it wanted all along, and by 1980, was recognized as a separate British dependency.

TODAY: Today, Anguilla is doing fairly well. It’s a pretty bustling tourist destination, and is working on building itself up as a reputable offshore banking haven. Of course,it’s really just a small town, and so the big news these days is the new Ace hardware store, and that Uncle Ernie’s Beach Bar has a new coat of paint!

ANALYSIS: I don’t have much to say about Anguilla. It’s really just a small town that happens to be an island, and like any small town, it’s hard to get a feel for what it’s really like just by reading about it on web pages. I’d like to read Under an English Heaven, which is supposed to be an entertaining account of the 1967 revolution, but who’s to say that would be any better?

What I do understand about Anguilla, I like. Independent, patriotic—both to Anguilla and Britain—and laid back. If you can only have three character qualities (and with 12,000 people, it’s tough to have more than that), those aren’t bad ones to pick.

FLAG: The flag is the standard Union-Jack-in-the-corner-coat-of-arms-on-the-right flag that most all British dependencies get. On the coat of arms, the orange dolphins represent endurance, unity and strength, the white background represents peace & tranquility, and the turquoise-blue base represents the sea, faith, youth, hope, and probably a few other things. But the coat of arms on the flag itself isn’t turquoise-blue, but just light blue, because the government couldn’t afford fancy turquoise-blue fabric, and so they went with plain light blue for the flag.

FOOD: These fish cakes sounds awfully tasty, if you’re into fish. Which I am.

LINKS: Like American Samoa, many of the histories available are on tourist sites: one on Lonely Planet, two on Yahoo, one on the official tourism site, and the best on Skyviews. Radio Anguilla has a quick and interesting history of itself, and there’s an excerpt from the book referenced above available as well. One of the best Anguilla sites on the web is Bob Green’s Anguilla News blog, which is just about the handiest thing ever if you’re from Anguilla, I imagine. This is another random Anguilla site with good links, and here’s the Library of Congress site. The Anguilla Guide is a comprehensive overview of the island, and the Government site isn’t too shabby either.

There. I think Anguilla wins the words-per-person contest, with one word for every twelve people or so. Next up is Antigua and Barbuda, so we won’t get a much larger country until we come to Argentina after that. Nuts, then I’ll have to figure out some economics. Ah, well. See you in Antigua!

Posted by Timothy Goddard at 1:16 am 3/12/2004 | Country Studies

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