Antigua & Barbuda: Border & Territorial History

The nation of Antigua and Barbuda is made up of three islands: Antigua, Barbuda, and the small, uninhabited Redonda, together covering roughly 442 square kilometers. Antigua, the largest of the three at about 280 square kilometers, sits at the center of the group, with Barbuda lying some 40 kilometers to the north and Redonda a similar distance to the southwest. As an island state, the country shares no land borders with any neighbor, though its maritime boundaries meet those of Saint Kitts and Nevis, Montserrat, Saint Barthélemy, and Anguilla.

The union of the islands took shape gradually under British colonial rule. Barbuda, settled later than Antigua and leased to the Codrington family from 1685, was drawn more closely under Antigua's administration through the Barbuda (Extension of Laws of Antigua) Act of 1859, and on 1 August 1860 the island reverted to the British crown, formally uniting Antigua and Barbuda under one government. Redonda, a small rocky islet claimed privately in 1865 by Matthew Dowdy Shiell amid interest in its phosphate-rich guano deposits, was brought into the colony of Antigua under the Redonda Annexation Act, which took effect on 26 March 1872 and placed the island within the parish of Saint John.

The 1872 annexation of Redonda marked the last change to the territorial boundaries of Antigua and Barbuda before independence. The three islands passed together through the Leeward Islands Federation and later stages of British colonial administration before Antigua and Barbuda achieved independence on 1 November 1981 as a single sovereign state encompassing all three territories, a configuration that has remained unchanged since.