Like much of the Caribbean, Saint Lucia was settled by Europeans who brought slaves from Africa and set up a plantation economy. In the 18th century, Saint Lucia was at the center of the colonial struggles between the French and the British, changing hands 14 times before becoming a British Crown Colony in 1814 under the Treaty of Paris. Gaining its independence on February 22, 1979, Saint Lucia has developed into a stable and prosperous Commonwealth country. Although Saint Lucia is nominally an English-speaking country, decades of intermittent French domination left their mark on the culture in the form of a French-based language called Kwéyòl (Creole).
