Culture of Tortola, BVI: Art, History, Nature
GS 270- 1 credit- Winterim 2015
GS 271- COR 2 & G - 2 credits - Fall 2014

*Course fulfills Edgewood College’s COR 2 and satisfies the Global Studies requirement.

We will be involved in community service projects as well as exploring the art, history and nature of the British Virgin Island, Tortola, where no building is taller then a palm tree, there are no fast food restaurants, and few stop lights.

We will study nature through visits to the primeval rainforest at Sage Mountain National Park, J.R. O’Neal Botanic Gardens and Station. We will see European historical impacts at the Old Government House Museum and The Dungeon at Pockwood Pond. We will study local industry by visiting small fishing villages, the financial community, and understanding the role of tourism (particularly snorkeling and wind surfing). We will study island history from Venezuelan Amerindians, around 300 B.C., to Arawaks and the fierce Caribs. Spaniards, led by Chirstopher Columbus visited the island in 1493, but finding no gold, moved on. By 1621, the Dutch used hidden coves and complex reef systems as their base to pillage nearby Spanish settlements. Residents were buccaneers and pirates (including Blackbeard). Later, the English built sugar cane plantations and brought in African slaves for the next 150 years. After the abolition of slavery in the mid-19th century, many of the caucasian landowners left. We will study the island’s continuing political relationship with Britain.