St Vincent and the Grenadines Independence Day

This day commemorates when the country gained independence in 1979 from the United Kingdom. Possession of the islands was disputed by the British, French and Spanish and nobly resisted by the Caribs who had lived on the islands since before the arrival of the colonists. Britain won the European rights to the islands under the Treaty of Versailles in 1783. It was a member of the Federation of the West Indies, but that was dissolved in 1962, and with it the movement of the larger Caribbean countries to gain independence began. The country was granted “associate statehood” by Britain on this day in 1969, which gave the country complete control over its own internal affairs. Exactly 10 years later, it was granted full independence, becoming the last of the Windward Islands to do so.