The Caribs and the Arawaks were progressively wiped out by the after-effects of the Spanish conquest, with the more peaceful Arawak tribes suffering the greater losses
Columbus named the islands Las Vírgenes in tribute to St Ursula and her 11,000 virgin followers
The Spanish were continuosly harassed by the native Caribs and by pirates and buccaneers who attacked the Spanish galleons which were carrying riches back to Spain
The pirates who operated in the Islands included Blackbeard, Calico Jack, Anne Bonny, Henry Morgan, Sir John Hawkins and Sir Francis Drake
In 1648 the Dutch established a permanent settlement on Tortola
The 1672 the English ousted the Dutch from Tortola and the islands became a British colony
Quakers established settlements and plantations on the Islands
The plantations were worked by slaves brought from Africa and this in turn lead to a slave trading and slave auctions
The slaves were emancipated in the 1830's
1872 - The islands became part of the Leeward Islands
In 1917 the United States of America purchased the adjacent Danish West Indies (US Virgin Islands)
1956 - the British Virgin Islands became a separately administered entity
The flag of the British Virgin Islands was adopted on November 15, 1960
In 1967 a new constitution allowed a ministerial system of government headed by a Chief Minister
The British Virgin Islands remain under British control
Arawakan and Cariban words such as avocado, barbecue, buccaneer, canoe, cannibal, hurricane, iguana, maize and of course Caribbean have all become an established part of the English language