First sighted by Christopher Columbus on his second New World voyage in 1493, St Kitts was originally known as Liamuiga, or Fertile Land, by resident Caribs. Designated "St Christopher" by Columbus, the island wasn't settled until over a century later, when an Englishman named Sir Thomas Warner came ashore in 1623, and established Old Road Town . A small posse sailed for Nevis five years later and set up a camp near Cotton Ground that later fell to a 1680 earthquake.

St Kitts didn't remain entirely British for long, as the threat posed by oppressed native Caribs prompted Warner to form a union with the French the following year. Their combined legions decimated the lot in a bloody battle in 1627.

The ensuing liaison was tenuous as the island was split between the two colonial superpowers. The French lorded over the northern and southern coasts and established the modern-day capital, Basseterre ; the British controlled the leftover areas in between. These were occasionally wrested from the British by the French as well, culminating in a one-month siege at Brimstone Hill in 1782. The Treaty of Paris , signed the following year, officially returned St Kitts to the British and put an end to the squabbles.

Nevis, meanwhile, had no part in the struggle, and instead became the region's most profitable sugarcane producer and destination of choice for Britain's rich and famous thanks to its natural spas . Indeed, Lord Nelson made his mark here by marrying local Fanny Nisbet in 1787.

The two islands were only joined as a federated state in 1983, following failed geo-political associations like the West Indian Federation and the Associated States that included neighbouring Anguilla. The one condition for their union, that Nevis be allowed to separate at a later date, may ultimately prove their undoing, as the latter continues to strive for independence