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The Virgin Islands were originally
settled by the Ciboney, Carib, and Arawaks. The islands were named by Christopher Columbus on his
second voyage in 1493 for Saint Ursula and her virgin followers. Over the next three hundred years,
the islands were held by many European powers, including Spain, Britain, the Netherlands, France,
and Denmark-Norway.
The Danish West India Company settled on Saint
Thomas in 1672, on Saint John in 1694, and
purchased Saint Croix from France in 1733. The
islands became royal Danish colonies in 1754, named the Danish-West Indian islands - De
dansk-vestindiske øer in Danish. Sugarcane, produced by slave labor, drove the islands' economy
during the 18th and early 19th centuries, until the abolition of slavery by Governor Peter von
Scholten on July 3, 1848.
Read more about the virgins
Islands
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