Chief Kairouane

Chief Kairouane (or Kaierouane) was a Galibi leader on the island of Grenada at the time of French colonization in 1649. He is known only from a short passage in an account of the first decade of the French colony. In this account, Kariouane approached the scout, La Rivière, sent to negotiate land for the new settlement.[1] An exchange of gifts ensued, which the French disingenuously interpreted as a purchase of land. According to some, Kariouane's hospitality and cordiality with the French settlers upset other indigenous villages, particularly in St. Vincent, who embarked on occasional raids and attacks of the colonists.[2] Thereafter, Kairouane disappears from historical records.

Resistance to European assault

Since the arrival of the Spanish to the Caribbean islands, the Kalinago of the Lesser Antilles successfully resisted the interlopers. They kept the Spanish at bay in Puerto Rico and out of the islands to the south. With the Spanish decline in the region after the 1590s, the Kalinago enjoyed a short respite. The early 1600s, however, soon saw the arrival of the more economically aggressive English, Dutch and the French, who came to challenge the Spanish supremacy in the area. These nations had chosen to cross the "poison arrow curtain" and face the Kalinago forces believing that their islands would be easier to conquer than the Spanish fortified settlements on the Greater Antilles.[3]

The Kalinagos, confronted with what was now a war of retreat, reorganized their communities for a protracted conflict and chose even smaller islands which they could defend more effectively. European colonists appeared with some regularity, but because of the resistance they soon encountered, none had yet attempted to establish a plantation in Grenada until 1649. In March, the French governor of Martinique, Jacques du Parquet, arrived with a strong contingent and in a week erected the first settlement at Port Louis.[4][5]

See also

References
  1. Anonymous [Benigne Bresson] (1975). Martin, J. A., Petitjean Roget, J. (eds.). Histoire de l’isle de Grenade en Amérique 1649-1659. Presses de l’Université de Montréal. ISBN 978-0-8405-0270-4.
  2. Martin, J. A. (2022). A-Z of Grenada Heritage: New and Revised (2nd ed.). Gully Press. ISBN 978-0-9997747-0-0.
  3. "Kalinago (Carib) Resistance to European Colonisation of the Caribbean". Caribbean Quarterly. 54 (4): 79. 2008.
  4. Crouse, Nellis Maynard (1940). French pioneers in the West Indies, 1624-1664. New York: Columbia university press. p. 196.
  5. Steele, Beverley A. (2003). Grenada: A History of Its People. Macmillan Caribbean. pp. 39–48. ISBN 0333930533.
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