Historical Overview

Trinidad

Christopher Columbus landed on the island in 1498 and took possession of it on behalf of the Crown of Spain naming it Trinidad. The island was inhabited by Amerindian tribes, the Caribs and the Arawaks.

The island was not colonized by the Spaniards until 1532. To secure a labour supply for the estates, the Spaniards enslaved the Amerindians and established mission villages throughout the country to christianize them.

In the late 1790s there was a considerable influx of Colonists mainly French, driven from Haiti, Grenada and other French speaking colonies by the events of the French Revolution. Later, others were attracted by a proclamation issued by the Spanish Government called the ‘Cedula of Population‘ which offered large tracts of land in Trinidad on very favourable terms to Catholic settlers.

Trinidad was captured by a British naval expedition headed by Sir Ralph Abercromby in 1797 and was formally ceded to the British Crown in 1802 under the Treaty of Amiens.

Tobago

Tobago was initially isolated and unknown to Europeans for many decades after the discovery of Trinidad. The island was visited by the English captain Robert Dudley in 1596 but remained uninhabited until 1632 when a party of about 200 Zealanders were sent there by a company of Dutch merchants.

For the next 200 years, the island changed hands among the Dutch, the English and the French, all of them rival colonists.

In 1763, Tobago was ceded to Britain, captured by the French in 1781 and recaptured by the British in 1793. After changing hands several times, the island was ceded to Britain in 1814 by the Treaty of Paris.

Trinidad and Tobago

On April 6, 1889, Trinidad and Tobago became united as one territory. Tobago, at the insistence of the British Government, became a ward of the colony of Trinidad and the finances of the two islands were merged.

Following the abolition of slavery in 1838, the population of both islands, more so Trinidad, increased steadily. In 1845, East Indians from India were introduced as indentured labourers. Portuguese from Madeira came as early as 1834 and Africans from Sierra Leone, Europeans and Chinese migrated to the island following the introduction of the East Indians.

The Africans and the East Indians, like almost all the other inhabitants of Trinidad, Tobago and the West Indies, owe their presence here to the cultivation of sugar-cane, and to the events that followed its introduction into the region. From settlement and conquest, the people of this twin-island nation have moved from Crown Colony, self-government, and independence to the status of a self-governing Republic

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