← Back to the front page

The Bat Bomb Invention and Other Odd Facts from History and War

Khalid Elhassan May 10, 2020 33 min

37. Fighting Against Independence

The Union Jack raised after Anguillians liberated their police station. Wave Train

On May 30^th, 1967, the people of Anguilla rose up and forcibly evicted the police, which was dominated by officers from their disliked sister colony, St. Kitts. They tore down the flag of the fledgling state of St. Kitts-Nevis-Anguilla and replaced it with a Union Jack. The Anguillians also set up a provisional government which requested that Anguilla be ruled by the US, but Washington declined.

That July, a referendum on secession from St. Kitts-Nevis-Anguilla was held. Secession won overwhelmingly, 1813 to 5, and an Anguillian legislature was established. It eventually negotiated a return to the federation with St. Kitts and Nevis, so long as Anguilla was granted a measure of self-rule.

Written by

Khalid Elhassan

A lifelong history buff, I developed a particular passion for WW2 history as a child, when I spent hours listening to my grandfather, enraptured, as he recounted his wartime experiences in the British East African Campaign and with the British 8th Army in North Africa.

I graduated with a history BA from George Mason University, then went on to get a JD from the University of Virginia School of Law. After lawyering for a decade, I moved to sunny Rio de Janeiro and a less demanding career, opening a tourism agency in Copacabana.

A big chunk of my free time is spent blogging (you can follow me on Quora https://www.quora.com/profile/Khalid-Elhassan ) or freelance writing, mostly about my favorite subject, history.