St Helena

Book excerpt: Traces the impact of world events on St Helena's topography, ecology and human population, from the early 1500s to the present day. Since its discovery in the early 1500s, St Helena - though remotely situated - has repeatedly participated in events taking place on a world stage; evidence of those encounters is etched on the topography, ecology and human population of the island. This book examines the impacts of a century of casual but destructive visits from sailing ships of various nations followed by settlement by the East India Company; the fortification and population of the island by the Company, including the importation of an enslaved population; efforts to make it economically self-reliant; its employment a base for scientific observations from Edmond Halley to Joseph Hooker and beyond; its role as a prison-fortress from Napoleon to the twentieth century and as a base for anti-slavery patrols in the South Atlantic following the Abolition of Slavery; its decline since the end of the days of sail; measures taken to reconnect it with the modern world in terms of sea and air travel as well as electronic communication; and efforts to regain to some degree the ecological diversity of the virgin island setting.