1500-1815







Islands of the South Atlantic, 1815-1870



St. Helena, a sparsely populated small island located in the South Atlantic, hundreds of km from the next coast, became famous when NAPOLEON BONAPARTE was banned there in 1815; he died on the island in 1821. Until 1833, St. Helena was administrated by the East India Company (E.I.C.), since 1834 it was a crown colony. In 1838 the annual subsidy of L.90,000 St. Helena used to receive was cancelled. Many St. Helenans emigrated to the Cape Colony. In 1840 Napoleon's body was returned to France. In the 1840es the island suffered from the destruction caused by the white ant, accidentally imported by a Brazilean slave ship. In 1847 the Anglican diocese of Cape Town was founded; St. Helena fell in this diocese, until a separate Diocese of St. Helena was established in 1859, which was to include Tristan da Cunha, Ascension, Rio de Janeiro and the Falklands (the latter until 1869).
In 1851 the Saint Herald Advocate, the island's first newspaper, was printed.
In the 1850es coffee was grown on St. Helena; in 1874 New Zealand flax was introduced; it was to become the island's major crop, used to make ropes etc.
St. Helena became strategically and economically interesting for a number of reasons : (1) the rising number of steamships, if to be used on long distance routes, required a network of coal stations, and (2) whaling, from 1830 onward, became big business, and whalers needed harbours to pick up fresh water etc., too. Norway and the U.S. maintained consulates on St. Helena.
Slavery was abolished in the British Empire in 1834, on St. Helena in 1832. The replacement of slaves by indentured labourers began on St. Helena comparatively early; indentured labourers from China were brought in beginning in 1810. Today, about half of the island's population is predominantly of African descent, about a quarter predominantly of Chinese descent.
The St. Helena Regiment of Infantry, established in, or before, 1803, was disbanded in 1834, reestablished in 1842 and again disbanded in 1863. It participated in the failed attempt to take Buenos Aires in 1806.
The opening of the Suez Canal in 1869 reduced St. Helena's importance as a possible stopover for steamers on the route to and from India.






EXTERNAL
FILES 		Article : St. Helena from Wikipedia
Historical Chronology, from St. Helena
St. Helena Regiment, from Land Forces of Britain, the Empire and Commonwealth
A Brief History of Media on Saint Helena, from Saint FM
DOCUMENTS
REFERENCE



This page is part of World History at KMLA
First posted in 2001, last revised on September 3rd 2007

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