Grenades over Grenada Trivia Quiz

Grenada was discovered by Christopher Columbus during his third voyage to the Americas in 1498. However, Grenada would not be colonized by a European nation until 1649 due to intense resistance by the Carib people, who had displaced the island's previous inhabitants. The French were the first European power to successfully establish a permanent colony on Grenada.

The Seven Years' War was a worldwide conflict between several major European powers, most notably Great Britain and France which lasted from 1756-1763. The sovereignty over colonies belonging to both nations were contested during this time, such as land in North America that would eventually become Canada, as well as the Mississippi Delta region of what would become the United States.

The Seven Years' War ended as a victory for the British. Due to terms laid out in the 1763 Treaty of Paris, the French were forced to cede a number of its colonies to the British, which included Grenada.

The French became a major ally for the newborn United States during the Revolutionary War (1775-1785). During this time, France took the opportunity to regain control of some of the colonies they had lost following the Seven Years' War. In 1779, the French invaded Grenada and took control of the island.

However, they were forced to return Grenada to the British as part of the 1783 Treaty of Paris which ended the American Revolution.

In March, 1795, a man by the name of Julien Fédon led a rebellion against the British colonial government. Julien Fédon was born on the island of Martinique (date unknown) and had moved to Grenada while the island was governed by the French. The uprising occurred in the middle of the French Revolution (1789-1799) and the rebels would receive aid from the newly established French Republic.

Many British colonists including the island's lieutenant governor were slaughtered during the rebellion. Julien Fédon later became a fugitive after the rebellion was suppressed in June, 1796.

His final fate remains unknown to this day.

The British had put an end to their slave trade operation in 1807. Later in 1833, the British government passed the Slavery Abolition Act, which outlawed slavery throughout the British Empire, which included Grenada. The Act went into effect on August 1, 1834, a date which is celebrated by many former British colonies as Emancipation Day.

It would take several years, however, for all of Grenada's slaves to become fully emancipated.

In 1951, the Grenada Manual and Mental Workers Union which was led by future Prime Minister Eric Gairy launched a island-wide labor strike. What had started as a labor strike soon evolved into riots as homes and farms ended up getting destroyed by the union. The British government brought in troops from neighboring islands in order to help bring the strike under control.

On February 7, 1974, Grenada was granted its independence by Great Britain. Eric Gairy, who also formed the Grenada United Labour Party became the country's first Prime Minister. Although Grenada was considered to be in an independent nation, they chose to remain part of the Commonwealth of Nations, a political alliance between Great Britain and its former colonies, which includes Canada, Australia and New Zealand. Each nation in the Commonwealth still recognizes the British monarch as their head of state.

On March 13, 1979, a pro-Communist political party named the New Jewel Movement launched a coup d'etat while Prime Minster Eric Gairy was away on business. The faction's leader, Maurice Bishop, became Grenada's new prime minister and installed a Communist government on the island.

The New Jewel Movement then banned all other political parties from the government and began establishing alliances with other Communist governments at the time, such as Cuba and the Soviet Union.

On October 25, 1983, the American government invaded Grenada in response to continued political unrest on the island. It was argued that American medical students who had been studying on the island were in danger of being killed during the insurrection. Deputy Prime Minister Bernard Coard had led another coup in order to remove Maurice Bishop from power and then had him executed on October 19, 1983. Several days later Hudson Austin, a general in Grenada's army took control of the government. The invasion of Grenada lasted for four days and resulted in the restoration of democracy in Grenada.

On September 4, 2004, Hurricane Ivan struck Grenada, killing 39 people, before moving on to other areas in the Caribbean and the southeastern United States. The category three storm which had sustained winds of over 120 mph (215 km/h) when it struck Grenada, caused over $1 billion worth of damage.

It is estimated that 90 percent of the island's homes were damaged in the storm. Not even a year later, Hurricane Emily struck Grenada on July 14, 2005 adding roughly another $100 million in damages.