Kingstown

Kingstown
Kingstown
Kingstown, Saint Vincent and the Grenadines Location Map
Coordinates:
Country	Saint Vincent and the Grenadines
Island	Saint Vincent
Population (1999 est)
- Total	15,900

Kingstown, estimated population 15,900 (July 1999), is the chief port of Saint Vincent, and the capital of Saint Vincent and the Grenadines. It is located at . Kingstown is a centre for the island's agricultural industry and a port of entry for tourists. Exports include bananas, coconuts, and arrowroot.

France started a settlement here shortly after 1722.

The Botanical garden, conceived in 1765, is the oldest in the Western hemisphere. Capt William Bligh made famous from the Mutiny on the Bounty, brought seeds of the Breadfruit tree here for planting, ca 1793.^[1]

Kingstown is overlooked by Fort Charlotte on Berkshire Hill, just west of town. Over 600 feet above the bay, it is the major early 19th century fortification on Saint Vincent and the Grenadines. A redoubt accessed by a viaduct; its guns point inland. The British garrison were to use it for holding out against the French while the Royal Navy brought reinforcements from other islands. The British had learnt a lesson when the French invaded the Island in 1779, they landed in Calliaqua thus proving that any likely attack on the island would come from any location rather than directly on Kingstown itself. The fort is named after King George III’s wife Queen Charlotte. The building work started at the turn of the century and was completed by 1806. In its heyday, it supported 600 troops and 34 guns. Some of the old barracks now house a museum with a colourful history of the Black Caribs or Garifuna depicted on its walls.

See also

• Saint George Parish
• Local History

Notes

References

• http://www.bioversityinternational.org/index.php?id=21&tx_ttnews%5Btt_news%5D=531&tx_ttnews%5BbackPID%5D=%7Bpage:uid%7D&no_cache=1 The Grapefruit

Capitals of North America     Basse-Terre, Guadeloupe1 Basseterre, Saint Kitts and Nevis Belmopan, Belize Bridgetown, Barbados Castries, Saint Lucia Charlotte Amalie, United States Virgin Islands2 Cockburn Town, Turks and Caicos Islands3 Fort-de-France, Martinique1 George Town, Cayman Islands3 Guatemala City, Guatemala Gustavia, Saint Barthélemy4 Hamilton, Bermuda3 Havana, Cuba Kingston, Jamaica Kingstown, Saint Vincent and the Grenadines Kralendijk, Bonaire5 Managua, Nicaragua Marigot, Saint Martin4 Mexico City, Mexico Nassau, The Bahamas Nuuk, Greenland6 Oranjestad, Aruba7 Oranjestad, Sint Eustatius5 Ottawa, Canada Panama City, Panama Philipsburg, Sint Maarten7 Plymouth (de jure), Brades (de facto), Montserrat3 Port of Spain, Trinidad and Tobago Port-au-Prince, Haiti Road Town, British Virgin Islands3 Roseau, Dominica Saint-Pierre, Saint Pierre and Miquelon4 San José, Costa Rica San Juan, Puerto Rico2 San Salvador, El Salvador Santo Domingo, Dominican Republic St. George's, Grenada St. John's, Antigua and Barbuda Tegucigalpa, Honduras The Bottom, Saba5 The Valley, Anguilla3 Washington, D.C., United States Willemstad, Curaçao7 1 Overseas Department of France.  2 Insular area of the United States.  3 Overseas Territory of the United Kingdom.  4 Overseas Collectivity of France.  5 Public body of the Netherlands.6 Constituent country within the Kingdom of Denmark.7 Constituent country within the Kingdom of the Netherlands.

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