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Climate:
Tropical and a lot of rain. Most rain falls between May and November. From June-November tropical storms and hurricanes may occur.

Type of state:
Parliamentary democracy. The island group is a member of the British Commonwealth. The head of the state is therefore Queen Elizabeth II of England. She is represented by a governor-general who was appointed by her. The government leader is a prime-minister, usually the leader of the party who got the most votes at the most recent parliamentary elections. The governor-general appoints the prime-minister and following the advice of the prime-minister also the vice-prime-minister and other ministers. The parliamentary has one chamber and counts 21 members. 15 of these members are elected and six are appointed as senators. Parliamentary elections take place every five years. Everybody of 18 years and older has the right to vote. The country government has been arranged according to a constitution that was enforced as from 27 October 1979.

History:
First the Indian people the Caribs lived on the island group. Seamen and tradesmen from Europe tried to occupy the islands, but they kept being driven away by the Caribs. Only from 1719 onwards European colonists managed to set foot on the ground there. They came from France.
They built coffee – , tabacco – , cotton -, indigo, – and sugar cane plantations. They had slaves over from Africa to have them work on their plantations. Slaves also came to the islands in other ways, and especially on St. Vincent. They had escaped from Barbados, St. Lucia or Grenada and looked for shelter on the islands. There were shipwrecked who came on land after the ships they were transported on sank. These slaves married the Caribs; their offspring were called Black Caribs.

In 1763 England took over the government of the island group. Sixteen years later France got possession of the islands once again and in 1793 the island group became English possession again. The English governors had to deal with the resistance of the Black Caribs. This ended in 1796 when a large uprising of this group was violently defeated by the English governors. Meanwhile resistance against slavery in England was growing. In 1834 slavery was abolished in St. Vincent and the Grenadines. Although former slaves kept working on the plantations, the owners of the plantations were faced with a shortage of labour force. They had labourers come over from elsewhere. In the 40´s of the 19th century they came from the Portuguese island of Madeira, between 1861 and 1880 from Southeast Asia. Although they were not slaves, the circumstances they had to work in were hardly better than those of the slaves until 1834. They had to work hard and were paid badly.

In the 20th century the government of the island group became more democratic. In 1925 they appointed a legislative council of representatives of the people and in 1951 all adult inhabitants were given the right to vote. At the same time the desire to be independent grew on the island group and on the neighbouring islands. In order to make this a reality and to use their collective strengths, St. Vincent and the Grenadines established the West Indies Federation in cooperation with the other islands. This federation was disbanded in 1962. Even so, the inhabitants of St. Vincent and the Grenadines got what they wanted. In 1969 the island group became more autonomous; the inhabitants were allowed to arrange their domestic affairs from then on. In 1979 the inhabitants were allowed to vote about the question whether the island group should become completely independent. The outcome was that the majority voted ´yes´. On 27 October of that year the island group became independent, but until today St. Vincent and the Grenadines are part of the British Commonwealth.

Production and trade:
St. Vincent and the Grenadines are members of the following organizations that are involved with production, agriculture and international trade::

• Caribbean Community of Caricom
• CARIFORUM
• Food and Agriculture Organisation (United Nations)
• International Monetary Fund
• Organisation of American States OAS
• Organisation of Eastern Caribbean Staten OECS
• UNCTAD
• World Trade Organisation WTO

St. Vincent and the Grenadines mainly export goods to member states of the EU, namely Greece, Italy, France, England and Spain. A small part of the export goes to countries in the region, especially Trinidad and Tobago and St. Lucia. The most important exported products are bananas and tennis rackets.

The country particularly imports goods from Singapore, Trinidad and Tobago, Italy, the United States and China. The most important imported products are food products, machines, tools, fertilizers and fuels.

Not poor, but certainly not rich
St. Vincent and the Grenadines offer ample possibilities to produce energy from hydroelectric power. Besides, part of the soil is suitable for agriculture. Finally the island group attracts a lot of tourists, because it has beautiful landscapes and beaches and it is warm throughout the entire year.
It is not a rich country, but it is not one of the poorest countries of the world either. It is somewhere in between. It does have an extensive foreign debt burden. One quarter of the state income is spent on interest and payments of foreign debts. One of the creditors, Italy, has cancelled part of the debts for that country.


Next to the airfield of the airport in St. Vincent

Agriculture: flourishing, but vulnerable


Agriculture is highly dependent on the growth of bananas. Other agricultural products are coconuts, sweet potatoes and herbs.There is a small livestock on the islands, consisting of cows, sheep, pigs and goats. 26% of the labour force works in agriculture.
Harvests are often destroyed by tropical storms and hurricanes. This happened for example in 1994, 1995, 1999 and 2002. The vulcano La Soufrière on St. Vincent is also a threat to agriculture.
This volcano exploded in 1902 and again in 1979. In 1902 not only harvests were destroyed, but also 2000 inhabitants of the island were killed. In 1979 there were no casualties, but a large part of the island inhabitants had to look for shelter. Every time the harvest is destroyed by a disaster, the economy suffers greatly.