History of Grenada

The historical development of Grenada, from Indigenous settlement and European colonization through independence and the island’s modern political life.

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Kalinago: An Indigenous Caribbean people who resisted European colonization across the Lesser Antilles. Kalinago communities inhabited Grenada before French colonization and resisted its expansion.
Caribbean sugar plantations: Agricultural estates in the Caribbean that produced sugar using enslaved and later wage labor. Sugar production made plantation ownership central to Grenada’s colonial economy.
Eric Gairy: Grenadian labor leader and politician who became the island’s first prime minister after independence. His government ruled during independence and was overthrown in 1979.
Operation Urgent Fury: The United States military operation that invaded Grenada in October 1983. Its execution brought the revolutionary government to an end.
Carib Expulsion of 1651: The mass death of Kalinago people at Sauteurs, Grenada, in 1651, during conflict with French colonists. The event became a defining episode in the island’s violent colonization.
Emancipation in the British West Indies: The abolition of slavery in Britain’s Caribbean colonies, implemented through apprenticeship and full freedom in 1838. Emancipation ended legal slavery in Grenada but left plantation power largely intact.
New Jewel Movement: A Grenadian political movement founded in 1973 that led the 1979 revolution. It organized opposition to Gairy and formed the revolutionary government.
Commonwealth of Nations: A voluntary association of states, most of which were formerly part of the British Empire. Grenada joined the Commonwealth after independence and remains a member.
French colonization of the Americas: France’s establishment of colonies and imperial influence across the Americas from the sixteenth century onward. Grenada’s French settlement formed part of France’s Caribbean colonial expansion.
Grenada Revolution: The 1979 overthrow of Grenada’s government by the New Jewel Movement, which established a revolutionary government. The revolution grew from labor unrest and opposition to Eric Gairy’s government.