Guadeloupe

Home> Countries> North America> Guadeloupe

Country Name

Guadeloupe.

Location

Guadeloupe is an archipelago and overseas department and region of France in the Caribbean situated just north of Dominica, and about 500 km (310 mi) southeast of Puerto Rico.

Capital

Basse-Terre.

Reason for naming the country

The archipelago was called Karukera (or "The Island of Beautiful Waters") by the native Arawak people.

Christopher Columbus named the island Santa María de Guadalupe in 1493 after the Our Lady of Guadalupe, a shrine to the Virgin Mary venerated in the Spanish town of Guadalupe, Extremadura. The Spanish name was retained upon becoming a French colony though altered to French orthography and phonology. The islands are locally known as Gwada.

Flag

The flag was adopted on 15 February 1794. Guadeloupe has no flag with an official status other than the French national flag.

A locally used unofficial flag, based on the coat of arms of Guadeloupe's capital Basse-Terre has a black or red field with a yellow sun and a green sugar cane, and a blue stripe with yellow fleurs-de-lis on the top.

The blue color of the regional flag represents the sky,

the green color represents the vegetation and the land of the republic of Guadeloupe. The sugar cane represents one of Guadeloupe's main crops.