Fort George, Grenada

We visited Fort George which is situated on a volcanic outflow spine high above St. George's harbour.

It has an amazing view and is a strategic vantage point for viewing in-coming ships to the harbour. Being on a steep hill is also difficult to climb and therefore affords natural protection from those who might wish to attack it... such as the Caribs.

The Caribs were one of the dominant indigenous Amerindian groups in the Caribbean, which owes its name to them. They lived throughout the Windward and Leeward Islands. In the early colonial period, the Caribs had a reputation as warriors who raided neighboring islands, and fought fiercely to defend their own lands. Early Europeans claimed that they practiced cannibalism – it is said the word "cannibal" is derived from a corruption of their name.

The initial structures on the site of the fort were built in the early 1600's as a means of defense against the Carib Indians. The French invaders transported a prefabricated fort in sections that were just small enough to be floated ashore and rapidly manhandled into position. It was a simple wooden house with a palisade and a ditch and it provided sufficient shelter from Carib attacks to establish the colony. It was named Fort Royale.

In 1705, work started on a new fort on the same site, with stone-built bastions, to the design of Jean de Giou de Caylus, the Chief Engineer of the Islands of America (French West Indies). It was completed in 1710. The British took possession of the island in 1762 through Naval occupation, and then formally through the Treaty of Paris in 1763 when it was renamed Fort George in honour of King George III.

Fort George is one of the most important historical structures in the city of St. George’s, for its part in all the political and military changes that have taken place on the Island over the last three hundred years. Fort George characterizes the imagery of the classic period of European bastion type fortifications and includes the parade courtyard, two barracks, a guardroom, gunpowder magazine, water cistern, and firing galleries.

It is basically a small bastion tracer fort, which means that each level can give covering fire for the other level, and has been in constant use in one form or another since it has been built. It was once the heart of the town, but as the town has grown and times have changed. Even though some of the buildings are in ruins, from a combination of Hurricane damage (Ivan 2004) and neglect, it is currently occupied by the Grenada Police Force... you can see their communication tower in one of the photos at the top of this post.

Much of its elaborate colonial structure remains intact, and part of the pleasure of a visit is rambling around the passages and stairs of the ancient stone fortifications. Fort George still maintains a battery of old cannons, which are used on special occasions to fire off a resounding salute. The fort also has many subterranean tunnels and bunker areas with rifle ports - like old castles built in Europe.

It was within the walls of this fort that the popular Prime Minister Maurice Bishop and his supporters were executed by Marxist rebels on October 19, 1983. Ordinary Grenadian citizens were also casualties on that same day. The rebels had set out to take control of the government of Grenada and Prime Minister Maurice Bishop was shot, along with his team, while standing in a line against the stone wall in this photo. A plaque in the parade courtyard marks the spot where they were executed, which set in motion events that led to the US military intervention in 1983.

A bit of Caribbean history...

The British Windward Islands was a British colony existing between 1833 and 1960 and consisting of the islands of Grenada, St Lucia, Saint Vincent, the Grenadines, Barbados, Tobago (until 1889, when it was joined to Trinidad), and (from 1940) Dominica, previously included in the British Leeward Islands.

The colony was known as the Federal Colony of the Windward Islands from 1871 to June 1956, and then as the Territory of the Windward Islands until its dissolution in 1960. Each Caribbean island has become independent from its original colonizing mother country (Denmark, France, England, Spain, Netherlands).

The islands were not a single colony, but a confederation of separate colonies with a common governor-in-chief, while each island retained its own institutions. The Windward Islands had neither legislature, laws, revenue nor tariff in common. There was, however, a common court of appeal for the group as well as for Barbados, composed of the chief justices of the respective islands, and there was also a common audit system, while the islands united in maintaining certain institutions of general utility.

The capital was Bridgetown on Barbados, from 1871 to 1885, and was the seat of the governor until 1885, when it returned to its former status of a completely separate colony. Following the withdrawal of Bridgetown, Barbados, St. George's went on to become the replacement capital of the former colony of the British Windward Islands.

Caricom: Partly as the result of competitive tension between islands, the Caribbean Community (CARICOM) was formed. It is a grouping of twenty countries: fifteen Member States and five Associate Members, and is home to approximately sixteen million citizens. Its main objective is to equally promote economic integration and cooperation among its members. It was established in 1973. Great strides have been made, particularly through functional cooperation in education, in health, in culture, in security. Its Single Market functions well, and it is a respected voice in international affairs because of a coordinated foreign policy.