Christopher Columbus sighted Grenada and other neighboring islands in 1498 and named it Concepción, although he never actually landed there. The Spanish later named it Granada after the city in Spain. Grenada was the scene of many bloody battles between native Caribs and the French in the 1600s. In 1651, rather than surrender, the remaining Carib resistors committed mass suicide by leaping off a cliff in Sauteurs on the northern tip. The island was later granted to the British in 1783 under the Treaty of Versailles and was extensively harvested for sugarcane production using African slaves. Slavery was abolished in 1834 and on February 7, 1974, Grenada was granted total independence within the British Commonwealth.

Where is Carriacou?

The island of Carriacou is politically a part of Grenada. Grenada lies in the southeastern part of the Caribbean, 12 degrees north of the equator, and is the southernmost of the Windward Islands. The nation of Grenada consists of three islands: Grenada is the largest (120 square miles) with a population of around 90,000. Carriacou (car-ree-a-coo) is 23 miles north of Grenada, is about 13 square miles in area, and has a population of 5,000. Petite Martinique, 2 miles northeast of Carriacou, is only 490 acres in size and a population of only 700.