colony · Mesoamerica and the Caribbean

French Saint-Barthélemy

1648 CE – 1784 CE · capital Le Carénage

Small, dry French island in the Leewards that passed through the hands of the Knights of Malta before France traded it to Sweden in 1784.

Origins

French settlers from Saint Kitts, sent by the governor Philippe de Longvilliers de Poincy, occupied Saint-Barthélemy in 1648. In 1651 the island was included in the sale of French Caribbean islands to the Knights Hospitaller. A Kalinago attack in 1656 wiped out the settlement, and it was repopulated only slowly, partly by settlers from Normandy and Brittany.

Rule and society

Lacking water and good soil, the island never became a plantation colony. Its small population of white smallholders lived by fishing, salt, livestock and modest cotton growing, with relatively few enslaved people. It was governed as a dependency of Guadeloupe or Saint Kitts rather than as a full colony, and its harbour, Le Carénage, was the only real settlement. The British occupied it briefly in the 18th century.

Decline and legacy

In 1784 Louis XVI ceded the island to Sweden in exchange for trading rights in Gothenburg. The Swedes renamed the harbour Gustavia and made it a free port. France bought the island back in 1878, and it is now an overseas collectivity of France.

Lineage

French Saint-BarthélemySaint Barthélemy (Swedish) 1784 CE – 1878 CE

Connections (2)

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Cite this page
APA
The Epoch Institute. (2026). French Saint-Barthélemy. In The Epoch Institute States Register. https://the-epoch-institute.org/state/french-saint-barthelemy
MLA
“French Saint-Barthélemy.” The Epoch Institute States Register, The Epoch Institute, 2026, https://the-epoch-institute.org/state/french-saint-barthelemy. Accessed .
Chicago
The Epoch Institute. “French Saint-Barthélemy.” The Epoch Institute States Register. 2026. https://the-epoch-institute.org/state/french-saint-barthelemy.
Harvard
The Epoch Institute (2026) ‘French Saint-Barthélemy’, The Epoch Institute States Register. Available at: https://the-epoch-institute.org/state/french-saint-barthelemy (Accessed: ).

Last reviewed October 2026Random state ↻