Otok Guernsey i bailiwick, Kanalski otoci, Engleski kanal
Otok Guernsey i bailiwick, Kanalski otoci, Engleski kanal
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Guernsey, britanska ovisnost o kruni i otoku, drugi po veličini Kanalskih otoka. Udaljeno je 30 milja (48 km) zapadno od Normandije u Francuskoj i približno je trokutastog oblika. S Alderneyjem, Sarkom, Hermom, Jethouom i pripadajućim otočićima, on tvori Bailiwick iz Guernseyja. Glavni grad joj je St. Peter Port.

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Na jugu se Guernsey uzdiže na visoravni do visine od oko 90 metara, s neravnim obalnim liticama. Spušta se u koracima i isušuje ga uglavnom potocima koji teku prema sjeveru u duboko urešene doline. Sjeverna Guernsey je nizina, iako mali izdanaci otpornih brežuljaka u obliku stijena. Tlo na donjem tlu je izdubljen pijesak, podignute naslage na plaži i ispuni starih laguna. Klima je morska; snijeg i jak mraz su rijetki, a godišnji raspon temperature je samo oko 17 ° F (9 ° C). Godišnja količina oborina varira od 30 do 35 inča (750–900 mm). Nešto oskudne zalihe vode nadopunjuju se destilacijom morske vode.

The island was known as Sarnia to the Romans. Early documents (11th century) show that the chief landowners were the lords of Saint-Sauveur (hereditary vicomtes of the Cotentin), the vicomtes of the Bessin, the abbey of Le Mont-Saint-Michel, and the duke of Normandy.

After separation from Normandy in 1204, the Channel Islands were put in the charge of a warden and sometimes granted to a lord. From the end of the 15th century, however, Guernsey (with Alderney and Sark) was put under a captain, later governor, an office abolished in 1835. The duties devolved upon a lieutenant governor. Because the warden could not conduct sessions of the king’s courts regularly on all four of the main Channel Islands, his judicial responsibilities on Guernsey fell to a bailiff. This bailiff came to preside over the Royal Court of Guernsey, in which judgment was given and the law declared by 12 jurats (or permanent jurors). The Royal Court has survived substantially in this medieval form, administering the law of Guernsey founded on the custom of Normandy and local usage.

From the bailiffs’ practice of referring difficult points of law to local notables, Guernsey’s deliberative and legislative assembly, the States of Deliberation, ultimately grew. In the 19th century the States of Deliberation emerged as a legislative assembly administering the island through executive committees. The assembly is presided over by the bailiff of Guernsey. The lieutenant governor is the personal representative of the British sovereign. Governmental and judicial proceedings on Guernsey are conducted in English, the principal language for most of the island’s inhabitants, though a small number of residents speak a version of Norman French known as Guernésiais, or Guernsey French, as their first language.

Guernsey was never dominated by any one great landowning family, and the early growth of commerce in St. Peter Port, with later smuggling and privateering and 19th-century industrial development, weakened what remained of the feudal landlords’ power. During World War II many of Guernsey’s inhabitants were evacuated to England before the Germans occupied the island (July 1940–May 1945)

The population is mainly of Norman descent with an admixture of Breton. St. Peter Port and St. Sampson are the main towns. Dairy farming with the famous Guernsey breed of cattle is largely confined to the high land in the south. Market gardening is concentrated chiefly in the north, where greenhouses produce tomatoes, flowers, and grapes, mostly exported to England.

Tourism became an important part of Guernsey’s economy in the 20th century. The house in St. Peter Port in which the French author Victor Hugo resided from 1855 to 1870 is now a museum. The island relies increasingly on airline services and is served by an airport at La Villaize. There are shipping links with Jersey, Alderney, and Sark; London and Weymouth, England; and Saint-Malo, France Area Guernsey, 24 square miles (62 square km); Bailiwick of Guernsey, 30 square miles (78 square km). Pop. (2001) Guernsey, 59,710; Bailiwick of Guernsey, 62,692.