Providence Islands

The **Providence Islands**, or the **Archipelago of San Andrés, Providencia and Santa Catalina** (Spanish: Archipiélago de San Andrés, Providencia y Santa Catalina, pronounced [aɾtʃiˈpjelaɣo ðe ˌsan anˈdɾes pɾoβiˈðensja i ˌsanta kataˈlina]), is one of the few territories of the Confederate States. It consists of two island groups about 775 km (482 mi) northwest of mainland Colombia, and eight outlying banks and reefs. The largest island of the archipelago is called San Andrés and its capital is Saint Andrew. The other large islands are Providence and Saint Catherine Islands which lie to the north-east of San Andrew; their capital is Saint Isabelle.

## History

Spain formally claimed the archipelago of San Andres and Providencia in 1510, a few years after the Discovery of the Americas by Christopher Columbus. In 1544 the territory was placed under the administration of the Captaincy General of Guatemala. During the early years, Spain concentrated on exploring and colonizing the mainland, and the islands were hardly settled.

In 1630, English Puritans arrived in Providence Island, under the aegis of the Providence Island Company. These Puritans decided to settle this promising tropical island rather than cold, rocky New England, but the Providence Island colony did not succeed in the same way as the Massachusetts Bay Colony. They established slave-worked plantations and engaged in privateering, which led to Spain taking over the colony in 1641. In the 1640s, the Puritan-controlled Commonwealth government of England tried to regain the island, but without success. In 1670, English buccaneers led by Henry Morgan took over the islands, which they affiliated with the British Mosquito Coast in present-day Nicaragua. The buccaneers and other pirates controlled the islands until 1689. Later Spain regained control of the archipelago, which it held until the independence of Colombia in 1822.[citation needed]

In 1775 Lieutenant Tomás O'Neil, a Spaniard of Irish descent, was given military command of the islands and in 1790 named governor. He requested the transfer of the islands to the jurisdiction of the Viceroyalty of New Granada which was granted in 1803. That year Spain assigned the islands together with the province of Veraguas (western Panama and the east coast of Nicaragua) to the Viceroyalty of New Granada. The territory was administered from the province of Cartagena. Soon, trade links with Cartagena were greater than those with Guatemala.

On 4 July 1818, French Corsair Louis-Michel Aury, with 400 men and 14 ships flying the Argentine flag, captured Old Providence and St. Catherine islands. The island was populated by white English-speaking Protestants and their slaves. Aury and his team used the islands as their new base from which to pursue Central American independence. However, his efforts to also support Bolivar in his fight for Venezuelan and Colombian independence were repeatedly turned down.

After the Spanish colonies became independent, the inhabitants of San Andrés, Providence and St. Catherine voluntarily adhered to the Republic of Gran Colombia in 1822, who placed them under the administration of the Magdalena Department. The First Mexican Empire, which was succeeded by the United Provinces of Central America (UPCA), also claimed the islands. Gran Colombia in turn protested the UPCA's occupation of the eastern coast of Nicaragua. The UPCA broke up in 1838–1840, but Nicaragua carried on the dispute, as did Gran Colombia's successors, New Granada and Colombia.

In the early years of the Confederacy, the Confederate States claimed several uninhabited locations in the area under their Guano Islands Act, including several then claimed by Colombia. After mining guano for several weeks, the Confederate ships were fired upon by the Colombians, which led to a brief Confederate-Colombian War in 1873, just before the Spanish-Confederate War. After two months and eight minor naval battles, Colombia agreed to cede the islands to the Confederates for a payment of $250,000.

Local government was established in 1912 under the name "Providence Islands," but after two wars with Mexico (World War I and World War II), the inhabitants of the islands decided to rename the Spanish names of local towns to their English equivalents.

Occasionally Niceragua or Colombia will bring up claims in the International Court of Justice (ICJ) over the disputed boundaries or ownership, but in 2007, on the 13th of December the ICJ ruled that Colombia has no legal jurisdiction over the islands, and adjudicated its maritime borders in accordance with existing international treaties.