History of Trinidad and Tobago
The earliest settlers, termed Archaic or Ortoiroid, are believed to have settled Trinidad and Tobago from actual Venezuela at northeastern South America around 4000 BC.
[2] After 250 AC a third group, called the Barrancoid people settled in southern Trinidad and Tobago after migrating up the Orinoco River toward the sea.
Termed the Mayoid cultural tradition, this represents the native tribes which were present in Trinidad and Tobago at the time of European arrival.
Although in 1510, Trinidad was said to have the only "peaceful Indians" along the whole South American coast, demand for slaves to supply the pearl-fisheries in nearby Isla Margarita led to them being declared "Caribs" (and thus, fair game for slavers) in 1511.
As a consequence of this, Trinidad and Tobago became the focus of Spanish slaving raids, primarily to supply Margarita's pearl fisheries.
[4]: 11 Granted a contract to settle Trinidad, with an eye toward discovering long-rumored El Dorado and controlling the trade in slaves, in 1532 he attempted to establish a settlement, but was driven off the island following the Battle of Cumucurapo, (or The Place of the Silk Cotton Tree).
Sir Walter Raleigh, who was searching for El Dorado, arrived in Trinidad on 22 March 1595 and soon attacked San José and captured and interrogated de Berrío, obtaining much information from him and from the cacique Topiawari.
The crown established a unified government in political (governorship), military (captaincy general), fiscal (intendancy) and judicial (audiencia) affairs.
In 1658, 500 Frenchmen joined the Dutch colony but formed their own settlement called Three Rivers (Le Quartier des trois Rivières).
At the time, the island held about 1,500 Europeans and around 7,000 African slaves working on 120 plantations, supporting six or seven sugar mills and two rum distilleries.
[10] British Jamaican pirates captured the island in January 1666; the official English garrison surrendered to a French attack in August the same year.
In 1777, Roume de St Laurent proposed French planters from the islands of Martinique, Guadeloupe, Dominica, St. Lucia, St. Vincent and Grenada, and their African slaves, immigrate to Trinidad.
[4]: 40 The Spanish gave many incentives to lure settlers to the island, including exemption from taxes for ten years and land grants in accordance to the terms set out in the Cedula.
In 1783, the proclamation of a Cedula of Population by the Spanish Crown granted 32 acres (129,000 m2) of land to each Roman Catholic who settled in Trinidad and half as much for each slave that they brought.
By the time the island was surrendered to the British in 1797, the population had increased to 17,643: 2,086 whites, 4,466 free people of colour, 1,082 Amerindians, and 10,009 African slaves.
[18]: 6 The Tobagonian economy in the late eighteenth and early nineteenth century was completely dependent on slavery, both for plantation and domestic labour.
[24] In August 1816, seven hundred former slaves from the Americas arrived, having served for fourteen months in the (second British) Corps of Colonial Marines at the Royal Naval Dockyard, Bermuda.
[27] At the request of Governor Sir George Fitzgerald Hill, on 25 July, "Dr. Jean Baptiste Phillipe the first coloured member of the Council, proposed a resolution to end apprenticeship and this was passed.
[29]: 101–107 The sugarcane plantations which dominated the economy of Trinidad and Tobago in the 19th century gradually gave ground to the cultivation of cacao.
Venezuelan farmers with experience in cacao cultivation were also encouraged to settle in Trinidad and Tobago, where they provided much of the early labour in these estates.
The arrival of witches' broom and black pod diseases in the 1930s, coupled with the Great Depression, destroyed the cacao industry in Trinidad and Tobago.
Relations between the Indian immigrants, and both the British, and the black population were generally strained,[33] and occasionally erupted into violence such as the 1884 Hosay massacre.
Butler (an immigrant from the neighbouring island of Grenada) shook the country and led to the formation of the modern Trade Union movement.
[a] In 1968 the National Joint Action Committee was formed by members of the Guild of Undergraduates at the St Augustine campus of the University of the West Indies, under the leadership of Geddes Granger.
In sympathy with the arrested leaders, a portion of the Trinidad and Tobago Regiment, led by Raffique Shah and Rex Lassalle mutinied and took hostages at the Teteron Barracks (located on the Chaguaramas Peninsula).
Political difficulties in the post-Black Power era culminated in the "No Vote" campaign of 1971 (which resulted in the PNM winning all the seats in Parliament).
The PNM remained in power following the death of Dr. Williams, but its 30-year rule ended in 1986 when the National Alliance for Reconstruction (NAR), a multi-ethnic coalition aimed at uniting Trinidadians of Afro-Trinidadian and Indo-Trinidadian descent, won a landslide victory by capturing 33 of 36 seats.
After a long standoff with the police and military, the Jamaat al Muslimeen leader, Yasin Abu Bakr, and his followers surrendered to Trinidadian authorities.
[43] On 9 September 2015, Dr. Keith Rowley was sworn in as new Prime Minister, following the election victory of his People's National Movement (PNM).
[46] In August 2020, the governing People's National Movement won general election, meaning the incumbent Prime Minister Keith Rowley will serve a second term.
