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Amerindian settlements of peaceful Arawaks were driven out by more warlike Caribs. Some artefacts and rock drawings have been discovered recently. The island was known as Hewanorra, 'the land of the iguanas' by the earliest settlers.
It is claimed that Columbus 'discovered' St. Lucia on St. Lucy's day (December 13th - the national holiday) in 1502, though evidence suggests he never even visited it.
English settlers in 1605 and 1638 were rebuffed by Caribs, but Spanish or Dutch expeditions may have been there first.
In 1642 St. Lucia was claimed by France and fighting for possession between France and England continued until it became a British Crown Colony in 1814. Changing hands fourteen times, prized for its beauty, St. Lucia became known as the Helen of the West.
Settlers who were mainly French developed a plantation economy based on slave labour. There is still a considerable French influence in the local patois (kweole), place names and French colonial style architecture. Today's population is largely of African descent. Eighty per cent are Roman Catholics though most other Christian denominations are represented.
Historically the economy was based on sugar, but since the 1920s bananas, cocoa and coconuts are most significant. Its banana crop accounts for seventy per cent of total exports from the Windward Islands, though the threat of dollar bananas from South America flooding UK markets is leading to some diversification.
Manufacturing industry is now developing with twenty per cent of the work force thus employed. Tourism is a major foreign exchange earner, about 243,000 visitors arrive in St. Lucia every year, with passengers on cruise ships accounting for 102,000 of these visitors.
The population is currently estimated at 151,000, approximately 57,000 living in Castries and 15,000 in Vieux Fort and 10,000 in Soufrière.