Grenada historical timeline

History

Grenada's history is short on conquest and long on resistance: a people who kept the Europeans off for a century and a half, a French-speaking free-coloured rising that held all but the capital for fifteen months, and a revolution that ended in the fort above the harbour. What a visitor sees -- Leapers' Hill at Sauteurs, Fort George and the Carenage, the nutmeg on the flag, the roofs replaced after Ivan -- is the record.

Chronology

AD 750–1200 The Amerindian population rises with migration from the mainland; most of the island's 87 pre-Columbian sites date from this period, and the Kalinago are here when Europeans arrive.
1498 Christopher Columbus sights the island on his third voyage and names it La Concepción, a name never used; by the 1520s it is La Granada. An English attempt with 208 colonists in 1609 is driven off.
1649 Jacques Dyel du Parquet lands from Martinique with 203 men, makes a treaty with Chief Kairouane, and is at war within months; the first major defeat of the islanders comes in 1650 at Le Morne des Sauteurs, Leapers' Hill, and the last opposition is crushed in 1654. Fort Royal is begun in 1705; cocoa arrives in 1714; by 1808 some 127,600 Africans have been brought as slaves.
1763 Taken by the British without a shot on 4 March 1762 and ceded by the 1763 Paris Treaty, the island becomes St. George's Town and Fort George; France retakes it in July 1779 and returns it by the 1783 Versailles Treaty.
1795 Fédon's rebellion, led by free mixed-race French speakers and encouraged from Guadeloupe, seizes most of the island from 2 March 1795 to 19 June 1796; St. George's is never taken and Fédon is never caught.
1834 Slavery is abolished, the last apprentices freed in 1838; nutmeg arrives on a ship from the East Indies in 1843, East Indian immigrants from 1857; Crown colony rule from 3 December 1877, and in 1885 St. George's becomes the capital of the British Windward Islands.
1951 Full adult franchise and Eric Gairy's general strike; associated statehood follows on 3 March 1967.
1955 Hurricane Janet kills 500 people on 22 September 1955 and destroys three-quarters of the nutmeg trees. Nutmeg had arrived only in 1843 and had become the island's identity; losing the trees meant losing the crop for the decade it takes them to bear, and it is the first of the two storms -- Ivan in 2004 is the second -- that reset the Grenadian economy within living memory.
1974 Independence under Eric Gairy on 7 February 1974, seven years after associated statehood. Gairy had led the general strike of 1951 that won the full franchise and was the dominant figure for a quarter of a century; the coup of 1979, five years after independence, was against him.
1979 The New Jewel Movement takes power on 13 March under Maurice Bishop and builds an airport with Cuban money and labour.
1983 On 19 October 1983 Maurice Bishop, freed by a crowd from house arrest, is recaptured and executed with seven others in the courtyard of Fort George, and a US-led force lands at dawn on 25 October -- a date now kept as Thanksgiving Day. The fort is open, the courtyard is the site, and the airport Bishop was building with Cuban money was the stated reason for the landing; it carries his name from 2009.
2004 After 49 hurricane-free years Ivan strikes on 7 September as a Category 3, killing 39 and damaging 90 per cent of the homes; Emily follows in July 2005; the airport is renamed for Bishop in May 2009; Beryl flattens Carriacou on 1 July 2024 as a Category 4 and leaves 95 per cent of the country without power.

What survived, and how

The Kalinago did not survive as a people here, but the cliff where they chose to jump did, as the name of a town. The French plan of St. George's and its fort survived British rule, the 1766 earthquake and Ivan. The nutmeg survived Janet and Ivan by replanting, twice. The revolution survived as a holiday named for its ending and a truth commission opened in 2001.

Verified against Wikipedia, September 2026.

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Sources & verification Covers the sourced claims on this page.

Checked against Wikipedia — Grenada is an archipelagic country of the West Indies in the eastern Caribbean Sea. The southernmost of the Windward Islands, Grenada is directly south of…, On 3 March 1967, it was granted full autonomy over its internal affairs as an Associated State. Independence was granted on 7 February 1974 under the…, In March 1979, the Marxist–Leninist New JEWEL Movement overthrew Gairy's government in a coup and established the People's Revolutionary Government (PRG), a…, The first known settlement attempt was a failed venture by the English in 1609 who were massacred and driven away by the native 'Carib' peoples, In 1649, a French expedition of 203 men from Martinique, led by Jacques Dyel du Parquet, founded a permanent settlement on Grenada, Chocolate was brought to Grenada in 1714 with the introduction of cocoa beans, In 1877, Grenada was made a Crown colony, On 7 September 2004, after being hurricane-free for 49 years, the island was directly hit by Hurricane Ivan. Ivan struck as a Category 3 hurricane,…, On 1 July 2024, Hurricane Beryl struck the island of Carriacou as a Category 4 hurricane, causing widespread damage across all of Grenada and Carriacou. On…, Like much of the Caribbean, Grenada is depauperate of large animals. However, native opossums, armadillos, and introduced mona monkeys and mongooses are…, Literacy rates are very high, with 98.6% of the population being able to read and write. St. George's University (SGU) is located in Grenada, specializing…, Christopher Columbus reportedly sighted the island on his third voyage in 1498, but he did not land and the name he gave ('La Concepcion') never was used.…, In April 1609 three English ships with 208 colonists landed in what was possibly the harbor of Saint Georges or somewhere nearby, A treaty was swiftly agreed between du Parquet and the indigenous Chief Kairouane to peacefully partition the island between the two communities ...…, Grenada was captured by the British during the Seven Years' War on 4 March 1762 by Commodore Swanton without a shot being fired. Grenada was formally ceded…, France recaptured Grenada between 2–4 July 1779 during the American War of Independence, after Comte d'Estaing stormed Hospital Hill. A British relief force…, In 1833, Grenada became part of the British Windward Islands Administration and remained so until 1958. British operated slavery was abolished in 1834, but…, In 1857, the first East Indian immigrants arrived, On 3 December 1877, the pure Crown colony model replaced Grenada's old representative system of government, in 1885, the island's capital, St. George's, became the capital of the British Windward Islands, In 1950 Eric Gairy founded the Grenada United Labour Party, initially as a trade union, which led the 1951 general strike for better working conditions, On 22 September 1955, Hurricane Janet hit Grenada, killing 500 people and destroying 75 per cent of the nutmeg trees, Under the West Indies Act on 3 March 1967 (also known as the Associated Statehood Act) Grenada was granted full autonomy over its internal affairs, On 14 October 1983, a power struggle within Bishop's ruling party ended with his house arrest. His erstwhile friend and rival, Deputy Prime Minister,…, A U.S.–Caribbean led force invaded Grenada on 25 October 1983, Fédon's rebellion (also known as the Brigands' War, or Fédon's Revolution; 2 March 1795 – 19 June 1796) was an uprising against British rule in Grenada, The United States and a coalition of Caribbean countries invaded the island nation of Grenada at dawn on 25 October 1983. It was codenamed Operation Urgent…, The invasion date of 25 October is now a national holiday in Grenada, called Thanksgiving Day, A truth and reconciliation commission was launched in 2001, The NJM came to power on 13 March 1979 and ushered in the Grenada revolution and installed the People's Revolutionary Government which removed Prime…, the building of a new international airport on the island's southern tip (renamed in his memory in May 2009). Financing and labour for the construction of…, In 1666, a wooden fortification was constructed by French colonists on a promontory overlooking Grenada's natural harbour and named Fort Royale. In 1705,…, the new administration renamed it Saint George's Town, after the patron saint of England and Fort Royal was renamed Fort George, after King George III, The tower of St. George's Cathedral was built in 1818., The fort overlooks the harbour of the capital St. George's and was built by the French between 1706 and 1710, as Fort Royal, Following a communist revolution in 1979 it was renamed Fort Rupert after the father of Maurice Bishop, leader of the People's Revolutionary Government.…, The fort was home to the headquarters of the Royal Grenada Police Force until 2024 and is now a tourist attraction., In 1965, the Carriacou Regatta began, The inhabitants of Carriacou perform the 'Big Drum' or 'Nation,' dance which celebrates their West African ancestors who were brought to the island during…, most recently Hurricane Beryl, which became the strongest to hit the island, making landfall on July 1, 2024, as a high-end category 4 hurricane. Beryl was…, it was designated as the national bird in 1991, The country also launched a citizenship by investment program in 2013., In May 1650 the French ambushed a group of Caribs and killed about 40 of them. Some are said to have jumped off a cliff (called Leapers' hill) to avoid…, The national flag of Grenada, adopted in 1974, shows a stylised split-open nutmeg fruit. (September 2026).