About the Island

History of St Helena

Located approximately 1 900 km from Africa, with Ascension Island as its nearest neighbour over 1 000 km away, the island of St Helena, measuring 16 km by 8 km, is one of the world’s most isolated locations. Home to a population of just over 4 000, the island’s only lifeline to the outside world has been the RMS St Helena, the only regular ship to call at St Helena. As a community that has no internal resources or industry to support its economy, the British government has been providing extensive financial support to the island, the majority of which is spent on maintaining and operating the RMS St Helena.

The new St Helena International Airport will address some of the socio-economic difficulties on the island, and boost the prosperity of islanders through tourism and help stop the exodus of its already small population seeking work in Britain.

Named after St Helena of Constantinople, St Helena is an island of volcanic origin in the South Atlantic Ocean. It forms part of the British overseas territory of Saint Helena, Ascension and Tristan da Cunha.

The island was uninhabited when discovered by the Portuguese in 1502. For centuries, it was an important stopover for ships sailing to Europe from Asia and South Africa. The British also used the island as a place of exile, most notably for Napoleon I, Dinuzulu kaCetshwayo and more than 5 000 Boer prisoners. Saint Helena is now Britain's second oldest remaining overseas territory, after Bermuda.

The Portuguese found the island uninhabited, with an abundance of trees and fresh water. They imported livestock, fruit trees and vegetables, and built a chapel and one or two houses. Though they formed no permanent settlement, the island was an important rendezvous point and source of food for ships travelling from Asia to Europe.

Englishman Sir Francis Drake probably located the island on the final lap of his circumnavigation of the world (1577–1580). Further visits by other English explorers followed, and, once St Helena’s location was more widely known, English ships of war began to lie in wait in the area to attack Portuguese India carracks on their way home. In developing their Far East trade, the Dutch also began to frequent the island. The Portuguese and Spanish soon gave up regularly calling at the island, partly because they used ports along the West African coast, but also because of attacks on their shipping, the desecration of their chapel and religious icons, destruction of their livestock and destruction of plantations by Dutch and English sailors.

The Dutch Republic formally made claim to St Helena in 1633, although there is no evidence that they ever occupied, colonised or fortified it. By 1651, the Dutch had mainly abandoned the island in favour of their colony at the Cape of Good Hope.

In 1657, Oliver Cromwell granted the English East India Company a charter to govern St Helena and the following year the Company decided to fortify the island and colonise it with planters. The first governor, Captain John Dutton, arrived in 1659, and from that date St Helena was Britain’s colony.

The fort was renamed James Fort and the town Jamestown, in honour of the Duke of York, later James II of England.

The importation of slaves was made illegal in 1792. Governor Robert Patton (1802–1807) recommended that the Company import Chinese labour to supplement the rural workforce. The labourers arrived in 1810, and their numbers reached 600 by 1818. Many were allowed to stay, and their descendents became integrated into the population. An 1814 census recorded 3 507 people on the island.

In 1815 the British government selected Saint Helena as the place of detention of Napoleon Bonaparte. He was brought to the island in October 1815 and lodged at Longwood, where he died on 5 May 1821.

In 1858, the French emperor Napoleon III successfully gained the possession, in the name of the French government, of Longwood House and the lands around it, last residence of Napoleon I (who died there in 1821). It is still French property, administered by a French representative and under the authority of the French Ministry of Foreign Affairs.

In 1989, Prince Andrew launched the replacement RMS St Helena to serve the island; the vessel was specially built for the Cardiff–Cape Town route and features a mixed cargo/passenger layout.

The St Helena Constitution took effect in 1989 and provided that the island would be governed by a Governor and Commander-in-Chief, and an elected Executive and Legislative Council. In 2002, the British Overseas Territories Act restored full passports to the islanders, and renamed the Dependent Territories (including St Helena) the British Overseas Territories. In 2009, St Helena and its two territories received equal status under a new constitution, and the British Overseas Territory was renamed Saint Helena, Ascension and Tristan da Cunha.

In 2011, the UK government announced it would invest in a £200m airport on the Island, which is expected to be up at running by 2015. The new airport is intended to reduce the price of transportation of goods, increase tourism by more than 50 fold and to create new job opportunities.

Source: Wikipedia