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The history of the British Virgin Islands is usually, for convenience, broken up into five separate periods: Pre-Columbian Amerindian settlement, up to an uncertain date. Nascent European settlement, from approximately 1612 until 1672. British control, from 1672 until 1834. Emancipation, from 1834 until 1950.
The British Virgin Islands comprise around 60 tropical Caribbean islands, ranging in size from the largest, Tortola, being 20 km (12 mi) long and 5 km (3 mi) wide, to tiny uninhabited islets, altogether about 150 square kilometres (58 square miles) in extent. They are located in the Virgin Islands archipelago, a few miles east of the US Virgin ...
An abolitionist pamphlet from the 1800s. The abolition of slavery occurred on 1 August 1834, and to this day it is celebrated by a three-day public holiday on the first Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday in August in the British Virgin Islands. The original emancipation proclamation hangs in the High Court.
The law of the British Virgin Islands is a combination of common law and statute, and is based heavily upon English law. Law in the British Virgin Islands tends to be a combination of the very old and the very new. As a leading offshore financial centre, the territory has extremely modern statutes dealing with company law, insolvency, banking ...
The Dutch Virgin Islands is the collective name for the enclaves that the Dutch West India Company had in the Virgin Islands. The area was ruled by a director, whose seat was not permanent. The main reason for starting a colony here was that it lay strategically between the Dutch colonies in the south (Netherlands Antilles, Suriname) and New ...
t. e. The Danish West Indies (Danish: Dansk Vestindien) or Danish Virgin Islands (Danish: Danske Jomfruøer) or Danish Antilles were a Danish colony in the Caribbean, consisting of the islands of Saint Thomas with 32 square miles (83 km 2); Saint John (Danish: St. Jan) with 19 square miles (49 km 2); and Saint Croix with 84 square miles (220 km 2).
Willem Hunthum. A ruin in Hunthum's Ghut, possibly of the original manor house. Willem Hunthum was a Dutch merchant and the last legally recognised Dutch owner of Tortola in what later became the British Virgin Islands. Hunthum was regarded as either Patron or "Governor" of the Territory from 1663 to 1672 when control of the islands passed to ...
England annexed the Islands in 1672. An administrator was appointed to the islands from 1887, and replaced by a governor in 1971 when the islands were created a distinct territory. Prior to this date, the local council would elect one of their members to be president (see List of presidents of the British Virgin Islands ).