With square kilometres sq mi of territory, and roughly 48, inhabitants, it is the smallest sovereign state in the Western Hemisphere, in both area and population , as well as the world's smallest sovereign federation. The capital city is Basseterre , located on the larger island of Saint Kitts. The smaller island of Nevis lies approximately 3 km 2 mi to the southeast of Saint Kitts, across a shallow channel called The Narrows. The British dependency of Anguilla was historically also a part of this union, which was known collectively as Saint Christopher-Nevis-Anguilla.
However, Anguilla chose to secede from the union in , and remains a British overseas territory. Saint Kitts and Nevis were among the first islands in the Caribbean to be colonised by Europeans.
The Kalinago , the pre-European inhabitants of Saint Kitts, called the island Liamuiga , roughly translating as 'fertile land'. Christopher's Island. In the 17th century, a common nickname for Christopher was Kit t ; hence, the island came to be informally referred to as Saint Kitt's Island , later further shortened to Saint Kitts. Today, the Constitution refers to the state as both Saint Kitts and Nevis and Saint Christopher and Nevis ; the former is the one most commonly used, but the latter is generally used for diplomatic relations.
Passports list the nationality of citizens as St. Kitts and Nevis. The name of the first inhabitants, pre-Arawakan peoples who settled the islands perhaps as early as 3, years ago, is not known. Christopher Columbus was the first European to sight the islands in From onward the English also began settling on Nevis. The French and English, intent on exploitation of the island's resources, [ 16 ] encountered resistance from the native Caribs Kalinago , who waged war during the first three years of the settlements' existence.
An ideological campaign was waged by colonial chroniclers, dating back to the Spanish, as they produced literature which denied the Kalinagos' humanity a literary tradition carried through the late-seventeenth century by such authors as Jean-Baptiste du Tertre and Pere Labat. This made the planter-colonists rich, but drastically altered the islands' demographics as black slaves soon came to outnumber Europeans.
