Once apon a time Christopher Columbus (that explorer guy) was sailing around the Caribbean when he saw an island. He named this island Antigua after Santa Maria la Antigua who was a saint from Seville that did miracles and stuff. When this happened there were ancient tribes who lived on the island and who had lived there since as long ago as 2400BC. It was another 100 years or so until Europeans settled on the island, mainly because the tribes weren't to keen on them coming to their island. But eventually in 1632 some Englishmen managed to start a good settlement. In 1684 people realised the islands value as a mega sugar cultivation plantation (or a sugar farm).
Unfortunately, this business brought the slave trade with it and many people were taken from Africa and made to work on Antigua. Slavery was finally abolished in 1834 but it has left a bitter mark on Antigua.
The next big thing to happen on the island was independance. Antigua got full independance in 1981 with the island of Barbuda and the tiny island of Redonda, but by this time the sugar farms had lost business and tourism had moved in.....