The islands of Grande-Terre, Basse-Terre, Les Saintes, Marie-Galante and La Desirade together form Guadeloupe, which is one of the overseas regions of France. Of these, the Basse-Terre and Grande-Terre are the islands with bigger land area as compared to the remaining three, which are comparatively very small in area. Guadeloupe is located in the eastern part of the Caribbean Sea. Nearly all islands of Guadeloupe are results of volcanic eruptions. This is the reason why only 4% of the land is suidiv for cultivation of crops.

The Guadeloupe overseas region of France has been inhabited for over two thousand years. The earlier tribes in Guadeloupe used to call this overseas region of France a group of islands with attractive beaches. Christopher Columbus named this region “Guadeloupe” in the fifteenth century, after a Spanish illustration of Mary that he had seen in a monastery. The region of Guadeloupe was taken over by the French in the seventeenth century, after which the islands were again inhabited by people. However, during the eighteenth century, the British were successful in winning control over the overseas region of Guadeloupe, and made several new developments in the region. After just a few years, the French managed to regain Guadeloupe by swapping their territories in Canada with the British. In following centuries, Guadeloupe saw several ups and downs, according to the local political situation in France, and it was only in 1946 when it was officially declared as an overseas region of France.

Guadeloupe today has administrational subdivisions comprising two arrondissements: Basse-Terre and Pointe-a-Pitre. These arrondissements are further divided into forty cantons and thirty-two communes. The administration offices of Guadeloupe are located in Basse-Terre. The population of Guadeloupe has already crossed the 500,000 mark. The major population in Guadeloupe practices the Roman Catholicism with a few minorities who practice Hinduism and Protestantism. The language spoken by the people in Guadeloupe overseas region of France is French dialect. One can also find Creole dialects, which are generally spoken as secondary language.

Guadeloupe has given the world some very famous artists, poets and writers who have created world-renowned works in their respective fields. Renowned poet Saint-John Perse, who won the Noble Prize for literature in 1960 for his poetry, belongs to Guadeloupe. Secondly there are several famous football players, like Lilian Thuram, also have their origins in Guadeloupe.