The history of Anguilla runs from the beginning of human habitation, probably via settlement from South America, through its colonization by the English in the early modern period, to the present day. Following a series of rebellions and a short-lived period as an independent republic during the 1960s, Anguilla has been a separate British overseas territory since 1980. Pre-Columbian Anguilla The earliest inhabitants of Anguilla were Amerindian people from South America, commonly (if imprecisely) referred to as Arawaks. These people travelled to the island on rafts and in dugout canoes, settling in fishing, hunting and farming groups. Forty Arawak villages have been excavated, the largest being those at Island Harbour, Sandy Ground, Sandy Hill, Rendezvous Bay, and Shoal Bay East. The Amerindian name for the island was Malliouhana. The earliest Amerindian artefacts found on Anguilla have been dated to around 1300 BC, and remains of settlements dating from AD 600 have been uncovered. Religious artifacts and remnants of ceremonies found at locations, such as Big Springs and Fountain Cavern, suggest that the pre-European inhabitants were extremely religious in nature. The Arawaks are popularly said to have been later displaced by fiercer Carib, but this version of events and characterisation is disputed by some. Colonial Anguilla The European discovery and renaming of the island is uncertain. Some claim it had been sighted by Columbus; others credit it to the French explorer René Goulaine de Laudonnière during his voyages in 1564 and 1565. The Dutch West India Company established a fort on the island in 1631. The Dutch withdrew after the destruction of the fort by Spanish forces in 1633. Anguilla was conquered and colonised by English settlers from St. Christopher beginning in 1650. A local council was formed, overseen by Antigua. Six years later, natives from another island attacked, killing most of the men and enslaving the women and children. In 1666, 300 Frenchmen attacked the island, driving the settlers into the forests. It was subsequently returned to the English by the terms of the 1667 Treaty of Breda. The French and Irish together attacked in 1688, driving the English off the island to Antigua, and periods of drought during the 1680s left conditions so poor that many Anguillians left for St Croix and the British Virgin Islands in 1694. In 1724, the population had rebuilt to 360 Europeans and 900 Africans. In 1744, during the War of the Austrian Succession,