Grenada. Information.
GRENADA is an island country and Commonwealth Realm consisting of the island of Grenada and six smaller islands at the southern end of the Grenadines in the southeastern Caribbean Sea. Area - 344 sq.km. Population - 89 502 (2005) Capital - St. George's The recorded history of Grenada begins in 1498. The Spaniards did not permanently settle on Camahogne. Later the English failed their first settlement attempts, but the French fought and conquered Grenada from the Caribs circa 1650. The French took control of Camahogne and named the new French colony La Grenade. La Grenade prospered as a wealthy French colony; its main export was sugar. The French established a capital known as Fort Royal in 1650 as ordered by Cardinal Richelieu. The French captured the island but formally ceded it to Great Britain in 1783 by the Treaty of Paris. A century later, in 1877 Grenada was made a Crown Colony. The island was a province of the short-lived West Indies Federation from 1958 to 1962. In 1967, Grenada attained the status of Associated State of the United Kingdom, which meant that Grenada was now responsible for her own internal affairs, and the UK was responsible for her defence and foreign affairs. Independence was granted in 1974. In 1979, the New Jewel Movement under Maurice Bishop launched a paramilitary attack on the government resulting in its overthrow. Some years later a dispute developed between Bishop and certain high-ranking members of the NJM. Though Bishop was cooperating with Cuba and the USSR on various trade and foreign policy issues, he sought to maintain a "non-aligned" status. Bishop had been taking his time making Grenada wholly socialist, encouraging private-sector development in an attempt to make the island a popular tourist destination. Hardline Marxist party members, including Communist Deputy Prime Minister Bernard Coard, deemed Bishop insufficiently revolutionary and demanded that he either step down or enter into a power sharing arrangement.[citation needed] On October 25, Grenada was invaded by combined forces from the United States, the Regional Security System (RSS) and Jamaica, in an operation codenamed Operation Urgent Fury. The U.S. stated this was done at the behest of Dame Eugenia Charles, of Dominica. While the Governor-General, Sir Paul Scoon, later stated that he had also requested the invasion, it was highly criticised by HM Queen Elizabeth II and the governments of the United Kingdom, Trinidad and Tobago and Canada. The United Nations General Assembly condemned it as "a flagrant violation of international law"[7] by a vote of 108 in favor to 9, with 27 abstentions.[8] The United Nations Security Council considered a similar resolution, which failed to pass when vetoed by the United States.[citation needed] Currency: East Caribbean dollar (XCD)
