Short answers, pulled from the story.
The Kalinago peoples utilized a potent neurotoxin derived from the plant Strychnos toxifera applied to the tips of their arrows to ensure a swift and fatal outcome for any European intruder. This biological defense mechanism created a formidable barrier that delayed the full colonization of the archipelago and forced European powers to adopt a more cautious approach to expansion.
The earliest human presence in the Lesser Antilles dates back to the Archaic Age with archaeological evidence at sites like St. John and Banwari Trace in Trinidad revealing a timeline stretching from 7700 to 6100 B.P. These early communities known as the Ortoiroid people developed distinct subseries such as the Banwarian and Ortoiran periods leaving behind stone and bone tools that speak to a life centered on hunting and fishing.
On the 18th of July 1995 the previously dormant Soufrière Hills volcano on the southern part of Montserrat erupted transforming the island's history and forcing a dramatic demographic shift. The eruptions destroyed the capital city of Plymouth and between 1995 and 2000 forced two-thirds of the island's population to flee with most seeking refuge in the United Kingdom.
Christopher Columbus claimed the first island he discovered as Deseada during his second voyage into the Caribbean Sea in 1493. The Spanish quickly moved to take solemn possession of Dominica and the land they called Marigalante before anchoring next to Guadeloupe and visiting Montserrat Antigua and San Cristobal.
Today the Lesser Antilles are divided into eight independent nations and numerous dependent and non-sovereign states creating a complex political mosaic that reflects the region's colonial history. Over one third of the total area and population of the Lesser Antilles lies within Trinidad and Tobago a sovereign nation comprising the two southernmost islands of the Windward Island chain.