St Helena

Saint Helena is an island of volcanic origin and an overseas territory of the United Kingdom in the South Atlantic Ocean. The territory consists of the island of Saint Helena, as well as the dependencies of Ascension Island and Tristan da Cunha. more...

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Saint Helena is famous for being the place of exile of Napoleon Bonaparte between 1815 and his death in 1821. Longwood House, where Napoleon stayed, and Sane Valley, where he was buried, are owned by the French government, since the British government gave them to the French, in 1858.

Saint Helena is a member of the International Island Games Association.

History

The island was discovered on 21 May 1502 by the Portuguese navigator João da Nova and named after Helena of Constantinople. The Portuguese found it uninhabited, and over time built a chapel and some houses, although no permanent settlement was founded. The Portuguese introduced goats as a source of meat for future ship crews.

Thomas Cavendish became the first Englishman to visit the island, on his ill-fated expedition of 1591.

From about 1600 the island was well-known by captains from Portugal, England, France and Holland. The island was used for collecting food and as a rendez-vous point but at homebound voyages from Asia only. Sometimes ships waited near the island, when their captains were hoping to pirate hostile richly-loaded ships.

The Dutch claimed the island between 1645 and 1659, when it was settled by the English East India Company under a charter granted by Richard Cromwell.

The Dutch retook the Island in 1673, but were ejected by the English Navy after two months occupation, and the island was re-granted to the East India Company by Charles II. The English East India Company used the Island as a stop off on the long voyage to India via the Cape of Good Hope. A permanent settlement - of British colonists and black slaves - was founded at Jamestown, named after James, Duke of York (later King James II).

In 1815 the British government selected Saint Helena as the place of detention of Napoleon Bonaparte. He was brought to the island in October of that year and lodged at The Briars, outside Jamestown. In December he was moved to Longwood where he died in May 1821. During this period the island was strongly garrisoned by regular troops, and the governor, Sir Hudson Lowe, was nominated by the Crown. The British also took control of Ascension Island and Tristan da Cunha at this time, to prevent any French attempts to free Napoleon from being launched from these nearby territories. After Napoleon's death the East India Company resumed full control of Saint Helena until April 22 1834, on which date it was, in virtue of an act passed in 1833, vested in the British Crown. Napoleon's body was returned to France in 1840.

During the Second Boer War (1899-1902), the British military, fearing that Boer prisoners of war might be freed by sympathizers in South Africa, detained around 5,000 POWs on the island.

Read more at Wikipedia.org