A BRIEF HISTORY OF ANTILLIA
Ancient times
Thousands of years ago, the original settlers of the island were members of the Arawak and Carib tribes, originally from the Amazon.
Spanish influence
A stopover on the island by a Spanish crew in the 1500s led to a drastic reduction in the size of the native population through disease.
The Spanish gave the island its name—Antillia. Soon this name came to designate the entire Antilles, or Caribbean.
French colony
In 1638, the French began establishing a colony on the island, starting with the area around what is now Port Carver. The French brought in large numbers of Africans and forced them to work the new sugar plantations.
Eventually some of the enslaved people escaped to the mountainous centre of the island. These free blacks, or “maroons,” engaged in intermittent fighting with the French.
Piracy
For a time in 1717 a sloop captained by Edward Teach—better known as Blackbeard—hid out among the outlying islands of Antillia and raided the French.
British territory
In 1812, the English landed troops in what is now Nelson Bay and took the island from the French after brief but harsh fighting. This was the beginning of a century and a half of British rule in Antillia.
The British emancipated the slaves of Antillia between 1833 and 1838.
In 1912, Antillia was reorganised into the Leeward Islands Colony.
The island became independent from Britain in 1963. To commemorate this event, the name of the largest town was changed from George Town to Independence City.
Today
Antillia is a self-governing nation and an associate member of the Organisation of Eastern Caribbean States.
Connect
COMING OF AGE • ADVENTURE • ROMANCE
It’s the summer of 1980 and sixteen-year-old Trick Horngold feels like a failure at high school and life. When his absentee dad unexpectedly invites him to the Caribbean island of Antillia, Trick agrees to go. If nothing else, the trip might provide an opportunity for Trick to get back at his dad for missing so much of Trick’s childhood.
But once he arrives in Antillia, Trick finds himself thinking less about his dad and more about the beautiful Nikki Robinson, daughter of a reclusive business tycoon. Nikki introduces Trick to her friends Cat and Kit and their colorful island days. Antillia is far from paradise, though, as the four find themselves entangled in a life-or-death conflict between Nikki’s father and two outsiders bent on revenge—just as the biggest hurricane in decades approaches their shores.
