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More than 5000 entries on the history, culture and life of Britain (published in 1993 by Macmillan, now out of print)
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St Kitts-Nevis
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(more formally St Christopher and Nevis) Member of the *Commonwealth since independence in 1983, consisting of two islands in the eastern *Caribbean. Christopher *Columbus reached St Christopher in 1493 and named it after his patron saint. Settlers arriving there in 1623 made it the earliest British colony in the Caribbean (it was they who shortened the name to St Kitts), but the French were not far behind, in 1627. Eventually the island was ceded by France to the British under the treaty of *Utrecht in 1713. Nevis, just 3km/2m southeast of St Kitts, was settled by the British in 1682.
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In 1882 St Kitts was grouped with Nevis and *Anguilla, and in 1967 all three were jointly granted semi-independent statehood in association with Britain. Three months later Anguilla dissociated itself from the other two.
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