The Kalinago were supreme rulers of the Windward Islands even as the sails of the first European ships were sighted, an event that would come to change the entire course of the development of these islands. Even though historians credit the Spaniards for giving the island her modern-day name, ("Santa Alousie" was first used in the late sixteenth century), they gave the island a wide berth and never bothered to colonize it. They did not want to take on the Kalinago and St. Lucia was not known to have gold deposits. The Europeans on the other hand were inexorable and their coming finally put an end to Amerindian supremacy.

The first European to settle in St. Lucia was François Le Clerc, known as Jambe de Bois or Wooden Leg.  He was a pirate who set himself up on Pigeon Island from where he attacked passing Spanish vessels.

The English first landed in 1605, having been blown off course on their way to Guyana aboard their vessel, the Olive Branch. Sixty-seven settlers landed and purchased huts from the Kalinago.  One month later only 19 were left and these were forced to flee the Kalinago in a canoe.

The French arrived in 1651 when representatives of the French West India Company bought the island.  Eight years later, ownership disputes between the French and English ignited hostilities that would endure for 150 years. During this time, the island changed hands fourteen times. 

There is the more recent school of thought that suggests that this change over of ownership occurred many more than the originally thought fourteen times. There is agreement however, that St. Lucia was finally ceded to the British in 1814.

From the 1760's onwards, St. Lucia developed into a sugar-producing economy, built on African slave labour. However, the endless conflicts between the French and English colonial powers over St. Lucia's strategic military value impeded the development of its plantations, and by the late 18th century, the French revolutionary cry of 'Liberté, Egalité, Fraternité' reached St. Lucia.

Under Revolutionary law, slavery was abolished in 1794 and the political equality of the coloured man was officially recognized. Freed slaves proceeded to wipe out the plantation infrastructure.  Resistance against British attempts to re-take the island was orchestrated by the Maroons: renegade ex-slaves who lived in secret hideouts in inaccessible parts of the island. The Maroons joined forces with the French Revolutionary army to form L'Armée Française des Bois.

St. Lucia became Ste. Lucie la Fidèle and all of the towns were given revolutionary names such as La Patriote (Laborie), La Revolution (Gros Islet), and Le Republicain (Dennery).

The Revolutionaries held St. Lucia for fifteen months against the British. The Maroons finally surrendered arms in 1797 but refused to accept slavery, which the British insisted on reinstating. According to British records, these brave men were returned to Africa.

The British finally abolished slavery in 1834. After Emancipation, many former slaves were unwilling to stay on as labourers at the plantations and the colonial powers sought alternatives. In 1882, the first Indian immigrants arrived from the provinces of Uttar Pradesh and Bihar. About half of them returned home at the end of their indenture while the others settled permanently in St. Lucia, enriching the island's cultural diversity.

St. Lucia's economic base has traditionally been agricultural. Sugar, the first mono-crop was eventually abandoned in the 1950s, when bananas became the largest export crop.  Over the last few years however, privileges enjoyed by the West Indian banana in Europe have ended and St. Lucia must diversify into other areas or face real economic hardship. Tourism is now the most important source of foreign exchange. St. Lucia is also one of the largest transshipment points for containerized cargo in the Eastern Caribbean. The colonial motto "statio haud malefidia carinis" - a safe haven for ships, still applies to the island.

In 1842, English became the island's official language but St. Lucia retains a strong French heritage. The majority of the island's place names are French and the Creole language, born of St. Lucia's Amerindian, African and European roots, is widely spoken.

St. Lucia moved towards independence in 1951 when suffrage was granted to all citizens over twenty-one.  In 1967, England granted the island full self-government and St. Lucia, a member of the British Commonwealth, became an independent nation on February 22nd 1979. The island retains the Westminster-based parliamentary system but a Senate made up of government and opposition appointees debates house bills. According to the latest census, St. Lucia's population stands at 156,000, of which about 62,000 live in and around the capital, Castries.