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Much of
this island was devastated and two-thirds of the
population fled abroad because of the eruption
of the Soufriere Hills Volcano that began on 18
July 1995. Montserrat has endured volcanic activity
since, with the last eruption occurring in July
2003
Montserrat
was populated by Arawak and Carib peoples when
it was claimed by Christopher Columbus on his
second voyage for Spain in 1493, naming the island
'Santa María de Montserrat'. The island
fell under English control in 1632 when a group
of Irish fleeing anti-Catholic sentiment in Saint
Kitts and Nevis settled there. The import of slaves,
common to most Caribbean islands, mainly coming
from West Africa, followed during the 17th and
18th centuries and an economy based on sugar,
rum, arrowroot and Sea Island cotton was established.
In 1782,
during the American Revolutionary War, Montserrat
was briefly captured by France. It was returned
to the United Kingdom under the Treaty of Versailles
which ended that conflict. From 1871 to 1958 it
was administered as part of the Federal Colony
of the Leeward Islands, and then it became a province
of the short-lived West Indies Federation from
1958 to 1962.
With the
advent of Beatles producer George Martin's AIR
Studios Montserrat in the 1970s, the island attracted
world-famous musicians who came to record in the
peace and quiet and lush tropical surroundings
of Montserrat. The last ten years of the twentieth
century, however, brought two events which devastated
the island.
In September
1989, Hurricane Hugo struck Montserrat with full
force, damaging over 90 percent of the structures
on the island. AIR Studios closed, and the tourist
trade upon which the island depended was nearly
wiped out. Within a few years, however, the island
had recovered considerably - only to be struck
again by disaster.
In July
1995, Montserrat's Soufriere Hills volcano, dormant
throughout recorded history, rumbled to life and
began an eruption which eventually buried the
island's capital, Plymouth, in more than 40 feet
(12 m) of mud, destroyed its airport and docking
facilities, and rendered the southern half of
the island uninhabitable, forcing more than half
of the population to flee the island owing to
lack of housing. After a period of regular eruptive
events during the late 1990s including one on
June 25, 1997 in which 19 people lost their lives,
the volcano's activity in recent years has been
confined mostly to infrequent ventings of ash
into the uninhabited areas in the south, although
the nuisance occasionally extends into the populated
areas of the northern and western parts of the
island, for instance the May 20, 2006 collapse
of a lava dome that had been slowly building resulted
in an ashfall of about 1/2 inch (3 cm) in Old
Towne and parts of Olveston. There were no injuries
or significant property damage, and the last such
incident had been nearly three years before.
Montserrat
today remains lush and green. A new airport, opened
officially by the Princess Royal Princess Anne
in February 2005, received its first commercial
flights on July 11, 2005, and docking facilities
are in place at Little Bay where a new capital
is being constructed out of reach of any further
volcanic activity.
The people
of Montserrat were granted full residency rights
in the United Kingdom in 1998, and citizenship
was granted in 2002.
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