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The history of St. Croix
Since Columbus in 1493 made his first visit to St. Croix, nine countries has fought for the rights of St. Croix. Colombus called the island Santa Cruz but the French renamed it St. Croix. The island was Spanish and King Charles V of Spain declared that all Indians in the islands were enemies and should be eliminated.
St. Croix was not a major port for the Spanish - San Juan, Puerto Rico was far more important. Due to Indian attacks and bad weather, the Virgin Islands were unfortunately described as "the useless islands."
The first people who established themselves on St. Croix was Dutch and English and a few French. However the result was a battle between them. Only the English was left on the island. Their victory didn´t last long. The Spanish adventurer from Puerto Rico returned to St. Croix and won the battle.
1650: St. Croix became French for a short period. The year after the knights of Malta had the power of the island which they had stolen from the French king. It became an economic failure. 1665 the French West India Company bought St. Croix from Malta.
It was not possible to turn the economy in a better way. The island was captured by pirates but was still French.
1733: The Danish West Indies Company bought the Island from the French and the Danish waisted no time. Very quickly they did send settlers to their new colony and planned a new town at Christiansted. New plantation with sugar and tobacco was build, and the buisness was very good at that time. St. Croix became one of the leading harbors.
1803: the slavery ended by order of the Danes. By a total population of 30.000 – 26.500 were slaves. The economy became increasingly declining and in 1917 Denmark sold the islands (St. Croix, St. Thomas and St. John) to USA.
The tourism is the leading industry for the US Virgin Islands. It means that the islands has the lowest unemployment in the US. There is also oil reserves present atSt. Croix, and Hovensa at St. Croix is the second largest oil refinery in the world. Today there are 55.000 inhabitants on St. Croix .