Blessed Isles
| Blessed Islands | |
|---|---|
| Sovereign Military Hospitaller Order of Saint John of Jerusalem, of Rhodes, of Malta and of the West Indies | |
| Insulae Beatae | |
 | |
 Location of Blessed Islands | |
| Capital | San Giovanni |
| Languages |
|
| Currency | Blessed Island Scudo (BIS) |
The Blessed Islands, (Latin: Insulae Beatae); officially the Sovereign Military Hospitaller Order of Saint John of Jerusalem, of Rhodes, of Malta and of the West Indies is a country and sovereign knightly military order in the Caribbean Sea.
History
Early History
It is generally thought that the Blessed Islands were first settled by the Arawak from South America around 100 BC; the Arawaks inhabited the islands until the 15th century when they were displaced by the Caribs, a tribe from the Lesser Antilles islands. In 1493 Christopher Columbus became the first European to spot the islands calling them 'The Virgin Islands'. The Spanish Empire claimed the islands but didn't seriously settle the islands and as such they became a haven for pirates. In the late 16th century the English and Dutch both attempted to the settle the islands; both the Dutch and British established plantations on the islands and imported African slave labor to work in the sugarcane industry. In 1723 the British took full control of the islands and pushed the Dutch from the islands (with the majority of these Dutch plantation owners moving to South Tussenland along the Mississippi river and establishing sugar plantations). For the rest of the 18th century the sugar industry, centered on Tortola, dominated the British colony of the Virgin islands.
Flight of the Knights
In the aftermath of the French Revolution and the coalition wars against The French Empire and the armies of Auguste Spiga, the Ottoman empire
