Short answers, pulled from the story.
Guadeloupe is an overseas department and region of France in the Caribbean, where the northeastern Caribbean Sea meets the western Atlantic Ocean. It lies south of Antigua and Barbuda and Montserrat and north of Dominica. As part of France, it is also part of the European Union and the eurozone, and the euro is its official currency.
Christopher Columbus named the island Santa Maria de Guadalupe in 1493, after Our Lady of Guadalupe, a shrine to the Virgin Mary venerated in the Spanish town of Guadalupe in Extremadura. The Indigenous Arawakan-speaking people had called the archipelago Karukera, meaning the Island of Beautiful Waters, and locals also know the islands as Gwada.
Guadeloupe was so prosperous from its sugar economy that, under the 1763 Treaty of Paris, France forfeited its Canadian colonies in exchange for the return of Guadeloupe. During the Seven Years' War, British occupation had opened markets in British America to Guadeloupean sugar, expanding the economy rapidly.
Slavery was abolished across the French Empire in 1848, though landed interests imposed strict regulations on the rights of emancipated slaves. Slavery had earlier been abolished in 1794 under Victor Hugues, then reestablished by France on the 14th of May 1803 following a decree in 1802.
Guadeloupe became an overseas department of France in 1946. It was made a French region in 1974, and greater autonomy was granted in 1982. Saint-Martin and Saint Barthelemy separated from its jurisdiction after a 2003 referendum, fully enacted by 2007.
The official language of Guadeloupe is French, spoken by 84% of the population. Most residents also speak Guadeloupean Creole, a French-based creole that emerged in the 17th century as a common language among French, African and Amerindian groups.
La Grande Soufriere on Basse-Terre is the highest mountain peak in the Lesser Antilles, at 1,467 metres, and the only volcano on the island that is not extinct. Its last eruption, in 1976, displaced 73,600 people and was filmed by Werner Herzog in the 1977 documentary La Soufriere.