Like the other overseas departments, it is an integral part of France. As a constituent territory of the European Union and the Eurozone, the euro is its official currency and any European Union citizen is free to settle and work there indefinitely, but is not part of the Schengen Area. It included Saint Barthélemy and Saint Martin until 2007, when they were detached from Guadeloupe following a 2003 referendum.
Guadeloupean Creole emerged as a result of the need for all ethnic groups (French, African and Amerindian) to be able to understand each other.[71] This language is therefore the result of a mixture created in the 17th century in response to a communicative emergency. At the time of the colony's foundation, a majority of the French population did not speak the standard French language but local dialects and languages, such as Breton and Norman, while the Africans came from a variety of West and Central African ethnic groups and lacked a common language themselves. The Creole language emerged as a lingua franca and ultimately became the native language of much of the population.
Moreover, Terre-de-Haut and Terre-de-Bas, in the Saintes archipelago, due to their settlement history (Breton, Norman and Poitevin settlers), have their own Creoles which differ from Guadeloupean Creole by their French pronunciations, their particular expressions, their syntax and their sonorities. Although it is not transcribed, these islanders call their Creole "patois" or "language of St. Martin" and actively ensure its transmission and perpetuation by their descendants in vernacular form.
45,510 students in primary education;
[96]
View of the University of the West Indies and Guiana, Saint-Claude, Guadeloupe45,626 students in secondary education;[96]
2,718 graduate students in high school.
[96]
Since 2014, the academy has 12 districts divided into 5 poles:
The Basse-Terre Nord Pole (Baie-Mahault, Capesterre-Belle-Eau and Sainte-Rose) ;
[97]
The South Pole of Basse-Terre: Basse-Terre and Bouillante (including the islands of Les Saintes);
[97]
The North Pole of Grande-Terre: Grande-Terre Nord, Sainte-Anne and Saint-François (including the islands of La Désirade and Marie-Galante);
[97]
The South Pole of Grande-Terre: Les Abymes, Gosier and Pointe-à-Pitre.
[97]
The Guadeloupe academic region includes only the Guadeloupe academy. It employs 9,618 people and its operating budget was €714.3 million for 2018–2019. The territory has 300 elementary schools, including 1 private kindergarten under contract and 14 private elementary schools under contract. It also has 52 middle schools, including 6 private under contract. And finally, it has 38 high schools, 13 of which are private under contract.[95]
During the 2018–2019 school year were enrolled at Guadeloupe Academy:
The islands of Guadeloupe are also home to two campuses of the University of the French Antilles, Camp-Jacob in Saint-Claude and Fouillole in Pointe-à-Pitre, the latter being the headquarters of the institution.[98] Student residences are located around each campus. Furthermore, a satellite campus dedicated to healthcare is located in the vicinity of the University Hospital Centre of Pointe-à-Pitre, many schools for apprentices are located throughout the archipelago, an Arts and Crafts Centre acting as local school for fine art is located in Bergevin, Pointe-à-Pitre, and, finally, three sites of the regional second chance school are implanted in various high schools.[98]
The island has great potential for solar, wind and marine energy, but by 2018, biomass and coal energy and petroleum hydrocarbons are still the most used.
Although Guadeloupe is one of the safest islands in the Caribbean,[102] it was the most violent overseas French department in 2016.[103] The murder rate is slightly more than that of Paris, at 8.2 per 100,000. The high level of unemployment caused violence and crime to rise, especially in 2009 and 2010, the years following the Great Recession.[104] Residents of Guadeloupe describe the island as a place with little everyday crime, and most violence is caused by the drug trade or domestic disputes.[102] In 2021, additional police officers were deployed to the island in the face of rioting arising out of COVID-19 restrictions.[105]
Normally, about 2,000 police officers are present on the island including some 760 active National Gendarmerie of the COMGEND (Gendarmerie Command of Guadeloupe) region plus around 260 reservists. The active Gendarmerie include three Mobile Gendarmerie Squadrons (EGM) and a Republican Guard Intervention Platoon (PIGR).[106] The Maritime Gendarmerie deploys the patrol boat Violette in the territory, which is planned for replacement by a new PCG-NG patrol boat in about 2025–2026.[107][108]
Bibliography of Guadeloupe
Index of Guadeloupe-related articles
List of colonial and departmental heads of Guadeloupe
Overseas departments and territories of France
Slavery in the Caribbean
Haigh, Sam – An Introduction to Caribbean Francophone Writing: Guadeloupe and Martinique.
Jennings, Eric T. – Vichy in the Tropics: Petain’s National Revolution in Madagascar, Guadeloupe, and Indochina, 1940–1944.
Noble, G. K. – The Resident Birds of Guadeloupe.
Paiewonsky, Michael – Conquest of Eden, 1493–1515: Other Voyages of Columbus; Guadeloupe, Puerto Rico, Hispaniola, Virgin Islands.
Roche, Jean-Claude – Oiseau des Antilles. Vol. 1, The Lesser Antilles from Grenada to Guadeloupe.
