The history of St Kitts and Nevis spans more than 5,000 years — from the first Indigenous peoples who called St Kitts Liamuiga (“fertile island”) and Nevis Oualie (“land of beautiful waters”), through European colonisation, the era of sugar and slavery, emancipation, and the long road to nationhood. St Kitts became the first permanent English settlement in the West Indies in 1623, earning it the name “Mother Colony”, and three and a half centuries later the federation claimed full independence on 19 September 1983.
This section organises that story so you can explore it event by event or take it in at a glance.
Explore the history
- Significant Historical Events — an annotated index of the defining moments, from the pre-Columbian era to the modern federation.
- Timeline of Key Events — the whole sweep of the islands’ history in one chronological view.
- 1493: Columbus’s Second Voyage — the first recorded European sighting of the islands.
- 1623: The First English Settlement — Sir Thomas Warner and the founding of the Mother Colony.
- Colonial History of St Kitts and Nevis — the full 360-year story, from settlement to sovereignty.
The events series is now complete — explore highlights such as the islands’ pre-Columbian beginnings, the French occupation of 1666, the 1706 raid on Nevis, the Treaty of Paris of 1783, full emancipation in 1838 and the death of Sir Robert Llewellyn Bradshaw in 1978.
Continue exploring at the History & Culture hub or learn how history led to Independence.