Trinidad and Tobago

Indigenous peoples

Both Trinidad and Tobago were originally settled by Amerindians whocame through South America.^[16] Trinidadwas first settled bypre-agricultural Archaic people at least 7,000 years ago,making it the earliestsettled part of the Caribbean.^[36] Banwari Trace insouth-west Trinidad is theoldest attested archaeological site in theCaribbean, dating to about 5000 BC.Several waves of migration occurred overthe following centuries, which can beidentified by differences in theirarchaeological remains.^[37] Atthe time of European contact,Trinidad was occupied by various Arawakan-speakinggroups including the Nepoya andSuppoya, and Cariban-speakinggroupssuch as the Yao, whileTobago was occupied bythe Island Caribs and Galibi.Trinidad was known to the native peoples as"Ieri" ("Land ofthe Humming Bird").^[36]

European colonisation

Christopher Columbus wasthe firstEuropean to see Trinidad, on his third voyage to the Americas in 1498.^[36][38] Healso reported seeing Tobago on thedistant horizon, naming it Bellaforma,but did not land on theisland.

In the 1530s Antonio de Sedeño, a Spanish soldier intentonconquering the island of Trinidad, landed on its southwest coast with asmallarmy of men, intending to subdue the Amerindian peoples of the island.Sedeñoand his men fought the native peoples on many occasions, and subsequentlybuilta fort. The next few decades were generally spent in warfare with thenativepeoples, until in 1592, the "Cacique" (native chief)Wannawanare(also known as Guanaguanare) granted the area around modern SaintJoseph toDomingo de Vera e Ibargüen, and withdrew to anotherpart of the island.^[34] Thesettlement of San José de Oruñawas later established by Antonio de Berrío onthis land in 1592.^[16][36] Shortlythereafter the Englishsailor Sir Walter Raleigh arrivedin Trinidad on22 March 1595 in search ofthe long-rumoured "El Dorado"("Cityof Gold") supposedly located in South America.^[36] Heattacked San José, captured andinterrogated Antonio de Berrío, and obtainedmuch information from him and fromthe Cacique Topiawari; Raleigh then went onhis way, and Spanish authority wasrestored.^[40]

Meanwhile, there were numerous attempts by European powerstosettle Tobago during the 1620-40s, with the Dutch, English andCourlanders(people from the Duchy ofCourland and Semigallia, now partof Latvia)all attempting to colonise the island withlittle success.^[41][42] From1654 the Dutch and Courlandersmanaged to gain a more secure foothold, laterjoined by several hundred Frenchsettlers.^[41] Aplantation economy developed basedon the production of sugar, indigo and rum,worked by large numbers of Africanslaves who soon came to vastly outnumber theEuropean colonists.^[42][41] Largenumbers of forts wereconstructed as Tobago became a source of contentionbetween France, Netherlandsand Britain, with the island changing hands some 31times prior to 1814, asituation exacerbated by widespread piracy.^[42] TheBritish managed to hold Tobagofrom 1762 to 1781, whereupon it was captured bythe French, who ruled until 1793when Britain re-captured the island.^[42]

The 17th century on Trinidad passed largely withoutmajorincident, but sustained attempts by the Spaniards to control and rule overtheAmerindians were often fiercely resisted.^[36] In1687 the Catholic Catalan Capuchin friars weregiven responsibilityfor the conversions ofthe indigenouspeople of Trinidad andthe Guianas.^[36] Theyfounded several missions inTrinidad, supported and richly funded by the state,which also granted encomienda right to them over the nativepeoples, inwhich the native peoples were forced to provide labour for theSpanish.^[36] Onesuch mission was SantaRosa de Arima, established in 1689,when Amerindians from theformer encomiendas of Tacarigua and Arauca (Arouca) wererelocated further west.^{[citationneeded]} Escalatingtensions between theSpaniards and Amerindians culminated in violence 1689, whenAmerindians in theSan Rafael encomienda rebelled and killed several priests,attacked a church,and killed the Spanish governor José de León y Echales.Among those killed inthe governor's party was Juan Mazien de Sotomayor,missionary priest to theNepuyo villages of Cuara, Tacarigua and Arauca.^{[citationneeded]} TheSpanish retaliated severely,slaughtering hundreds of native peoples in an eventthat became known asthe Arena massacre.^[36] Asa result, continuing Spanishslave-raiding, and the devastating impact ofintroduced disease to which theyhad no immunity, the native population wasvirtually wiped out by the end of thefollowing century.^[43][36]

During this period Trinidad was an island province belongingtothe Viceroyalty of New Spain,together withCentral America, present-day Mexico and the southwestern United States.^[44] In1757 the capital was moved from SanJosé de Oruña to Puerto de España(modern Port of Spain) following several pirate attacks.^[45] Howeverthe Spanish never made anyconcerted effort to colonise the islands; Trinidadin this period was stillmostly forest, populated by a few Spaniards with ahandful of slaves and a fewthousand Amerindians.^[44] Indeed,the population in 1777 wasonly 1,400, and Spanish colonisation in Trinidadremained tenuous.^{[citationneeded]}

Influx of French settlers

On 1777, the captain general Luis de Unzaga 'leConciliateur', married to aFrench Creole, allowed free trade in Trinidad,attracting French settlers andits economy improved notably.^[46] SinceTrinidad was consideredunderpopulated, Roume de St. Laurent, a Frenchmanliving in Grenada,was able to obtain a Cédula de Población fromtheSpanish king Charles III on4 November 1783.^[47] A Cédulade Población hadpreviously been granted in 1776 by the king, but hadnot shown results, andtherefore the new Cédula was more generous.^[16] Itgranted free land and tax exemptionfor 10 years to Roman Catholic foreignsettlers who were willing to swearallegiance to the King of Spain.^[16] TheSpanish also gave many incentivesto lure settlers to the island, includingexemption from taxes for ten years andland grants in accordance with the termsset out in the Cédula.^[48] Theland grant was 30 fanegas (13hectares/32 acres) for each free man, woman andchild and half of that for eachslave that they brought with them. The Spanishsent a new governor, José María Chacón,to implement the terms ofthe new cédula.^[47]

It was fortuitous that the Cédula was issued only a fewyearsbefore the French Revolution.During that period ofupheaval, French planters with their slaves, free coloureds and mulattos fromthe neighbouring islands of Martinique, Saint Lucia, Grenada, Guadeloupe and Dominica migratedto Trinidad, where theyestablished an agriculture-based economy (sugar andcocoa).^[44] Thesenew immigrants established localcommunities in Blanchisseuse,ChampsFleurs, Paramin,^[49] Cascade, Carenage and Laventille.

As a result Trinidad's population jumped to over 15,000 bytheend of 1789, and by 1797 the population of Port of Spain hadincreased from under 3,000 to10,422 in just five years, with a variedpopulation of mixed race individuals,Spaniards, Africans, French republicansoldiers, retired pirates and Frenchnobility.^[44] Thetotal population of Trinidad was17,718, of which 2,151 were of Europeanancestry, 4,476 were "free blacksand people of colour", 10,009 wereenslaved people and 1,082 Amerindians.^{[citationneeded]} Thesparse settlement and slow rate ofpopulation-increase during Spanish rule (andeven later during British rule)made Trinidad one of the less populated coloniesof the West Indies, with theleast developed plantation infrastructure.^[50]

British rule

The British had begun to take a keen interest in Trinidad, andin1797 a British force led by General Sir RalphAbercromby launched an invasion of Trinidad.^[16][51] Hissquadron sailed through the Bocasand anchored off the coast of Chaguaramas.Seriously outnumbered, Governor Chacón decidedto capitulate toBritish without fighting.^[51] Trinidadthus became a British crown colony, with a largelyFrench-speakingpopulation and Spanish laws.^[44] Britishrule was later formalisedunder the Treaty of Amiens (1802).^[16][51] Thecolony's first British governorwas Thomas Picton,howeverhis heavy-handed approach to enforcing British authority, including theuse oftorture and arbitraryarrest, led to his beingrecalled.^[51]

British rule led to an influx of settlers from the UnitedKingdomand the British colonies of the Eastern Caribbean. English, Scots,Irish, Germanand Italian families arrived, as well as some free blacks knownas "Merikins2who had fought for Britain in the War of 1812 andwere granted land in southernTrinidad.^[52][53][54] UnderBritish rule, new states werecreated and the importation of slaves increased,however by this time supportfor abolitionism hadvastlyincreased and in England the slave trade was under attack.^[50][55] Slaverywas abolished in 1833,after which formerslaves served an "apprenticeship"period. In 1837Daaga, a West African slave trader who had been captured byPortuguese slavers andlater rescued by the British navy, was conscripted intothe local regiment.Daaga and a group of his compatriots mutinied at thebarracks in St Joseph andset out eastward in an attempt to return to theirhomeland. The mutineers wereambushed by a militia unit just outside the town ofArima. The revolt wascrushed at the cost of some 40 dead, and Daaga and hisparty were laterexecuted at St Joseph.^[56] Theapprenticeship system ended on 1August 1838 with full emancipation.^[16][54] Anoverview of the populationsstatistics in 1838, however, clearly reveals thecontrast between Trinidad andits neighbouring islands: upon emancipation ofthe slaves in 1838, Trinidad hadonly 17,439 slaves, with 80% of slave ownershaving enslaved fewer than 10people each.^[57] Incontrast, at twice the size ofTrinidad, Jamaica had roughly 360,000 slaves.