Trinidad and Tobago, officially the Republic of Trinidad and Tobago, is the southernmost archipelagic country in the Caribbean, comprising the main islands of Trinidad and Tobago, along with several smaller islets. The capital city is Port of Spain, while its largest and most populous municipality is Chaguanas. Trinidad and Tobago comprises the southernmost islands of the Caribbean eastern islands chain, and it is close to the continent of South America, being north to northeast of Venezuela and northwest of Guyana.
Trinidad and Tobago is located north to northeast off the coast of Venezuela, south of Grenada, and southwest of Barbados. Indigenous peoples inhabited Trinidad for centuries prior to Spanish colonisation, following the arrival of Christopher Columbus in 1498. Spanish governor José María Chacón surrendered the island to a British fleet under Sir Ralph Abercromby's command in 1797. Trinidad and Tobago were ceded to Britain in 1802 under the Treaty of Amiens as separate states and unified in 1889. Trinidad and Tobago obtained independence in 1962, and became a republic in 1976.
Unlike most Caribbean countries and territories, which rely heavily on tourism, the economy is primarily industrial, based on large reserves of oil and gas. The country sees fewer hurricanes than most of the Caribbean because it is farther south.
Trinidad and Tobago is well known for its African and Indian Caribbean cultures, reflected in its large and famous Trinidad and Tobago Carnival, Hosay, and Diwali celebrations, as well as being the birthplace of the steelpan, the limbo, and musical styles such as calypso, soca, rapso, chutney music, and chutney soca.
Toponymy
Historian E. L. Joseph claimed that Trinidad's Indigenous name was Cairi or "Land of the Humming Bird", derived from an Arawakan name for hummingbird, ierèttê or yerettê. However, other authors dispute this etymology with some claiming that cairi does not mean hummingbird (tukusi or tucuchi being suggested as the correct word) and some claiming that kairi, or iere, simply means island. Christopher Columbus renamed it "La Isla de la Trinidad" ("The Island of the Trinity"), fulfilling a vow made before setting out on his third voyage of exploration.Hart, Marie. (1965). The New Trinidad and Tobago, p. 13. London and Glasgow: Collins. Reprint 1972. Tobago's cigar-like shape, or the use of tobacco by the native people, may have given it its Spanish name (tabaco, tavaco, tobacco) and possibly some of its other Indigenous names, such as Aloubaéra (black conch) and Urupaina (big snail),Boomert, Arie. Trinidad, Tobago and the Lower Orinoco Interaction Sphere: An archaeological/ethnohistorical study. Universiteit Leiden, 2000, although the English pronunciation is . Indo-Trinidadians called the island Chinidat or Chinidad which translated to the "land of sugar". The usage of the term goes back to the 19th century when recruiters in India would call the island Chinidat as a way of luring workers into indentureship on the sugar plantations.
History
Indigenous peoples Trinidad and Tobago were originally settled by Indigenous peoples migrating from South America. The earliest known settlement is at Banwari Trace in southwestern Trinidad, dating back to approximately 5000 BCE, making it the oldest pre-Columbian archaeological site in the Caribbean. The site has yielded artifacts and the remains of "Banwari Man," the oldest human skeleton found in the region.
At the time of European contact, Trinidad was inhabited by various Indigenous groups, including Arawakan-speaking peoples such as the Nepoya and Shebaya, and Cariban-speaking groups like the Yao. Tobago was inhabited by the Kalina (mainland Caribs).
European colonisation
Christopher Columbus was the first European to see Trinidad, on his third voyage to the Americas in 1498. He also reported seeing Tobago on the distant horizon, naming it Bellaforma, but did not land on the island.
In the 1530s Antonio de Sedeño, a Spanish soldier intent on conquering the island of Trinidad, landed on its southwest coast with a small army of men, intending to subdue the Indigenous population of the island. Sedeño and his men fought the native peoples on many occasions, and subsequently built a fort. The next few decades were generally spent in warfare with the native peoples, until in 1592, the "Cacique" (native chief) Wannawanare (also known as Guanaguanare) granted the area around modern Saint Joseph to Domingo de Vera e Ibargüen, and withdrew to another part of the island. The settlement of San José de Oruña was later established by Antonio de Berrío on this land in 1592. Shortly thereafter the English pirate Walter Raleigh arrived in Trinidad on 22 March 1595 in search of the long-rumoured "El Dorado" ("City of Gold") supposedly located in South America. He attacked San José, captured and interrogated Antonio de Berrío, and obtained much information from him and from the Cacique Topiawari; Raleigh then went on his way, and Spanish authority was restored.
Meanwhile, there were numerous attempts by European powers to settle Tobago during the 1620–40s, with the Dutch, English and Couronians (people from the Duchy of Courland and Semigallia, now part of Latvia) all attempting to colonise the island with little success. From 1654 the Dutch and Courlanders managed to gain a more secure foothold, later joined by several hundred French settlers. A plantation economy developed based on the production of sugar, indigo and rum, worked by large numbers of African slaves who soon came to vastly outnumber the European colonists. Large numbers of forts were constructed as Tobago became a source of contention between France, Netherlands and Britain, with the island changing hands some 31 times prior to 1814, a situation exacerbated by widespread piracy. The British managed to hold Tobago from 1762 to 1781, whereupon it was captured by the French, who ruled until 1793 when Britain re-captured the island.
The 17th century on Trinidad passed largely without major incident, but sustained attempts by the Spaniards to control and rule over the Indigenous population was often fiercely resisted. In 1687 the Catholic Catalan Capuchin friars were given responsibility for the conversions of the indigenous people of Trinidad and the Guianas. They founded several missions in Trinidad, supported and richly funded by the state, which also granted encomienda right to them. Escalating tensions between the Spaniards and Indigenous people culminated in violence in 1699, when Indigenous people in the San Rafael encomienda rebelled and killed several priests, attacked a church, and killed the Spanish governor José de León y Echales. Among those killed in the governor's party was Juan Mazien de Sotomayor, missionary priest to the Nepuyo villages of Caura, Tacarigua and Arauca. The Spanish retaliated severely, slaughtering hundreds of native peoples in an event that became known as the Arena massacre. As a result of continuing Spanish slave-raiding, and the devastating impact of introduced disease to which they had no immunity, the native population was virtually wiped out by the end of the following century.
During this period Trinidad was an island province belonging the Audiencia of Santo Domingo of the Viceroyalty of New Spain, together with Central America, present-day Mexico and what would later become the southwestern United States.Besson, Gerard (27 August 2000). "Land of Beginnings – A historical digest", Newsday Newspaper. In 1757 the capital was moved from San José de Oruña to Puerto de España (modern Port of Spain) following several pirate attacks. However the Spanish never made any concerted effort to colonise the islands; Trinidad in this period was still mostly forest, populated by a few Spaniards with a handful of slaves and a few thousand Indigenous people.
Influx of French settlers
In 1777, the captain general of Venezuela Luis de Unzaga 'le Conciliateur', married to a French Creole, allowed free trade in Trinidad, attracting French settlers and its economy improved notably.Cazorla, Frank, Baena, Rose, Polo, David, Reder Gadow, Marion (2019). The Governor Louis de Unzaga (1717-1793) Pioneer in the birth of the United States and liberalism, Foundation, Malaga, pages: 21, 154–155, 163–165, 172, 188–191, 199. Since Trinidad was considered underpopulated, Roume de St. Laurent, a Frenchman living in Grenada, was able to obtain a Cédula de Población from the Spanish king Charles III on 4 November 1783. A Cédula de Población had previously been granted in 1776 by the king, but had not shown results, and therefore the new Cédula was more generous. It granted free land and tax exemption for 10 years to Roman Catholic foreign settlers who were willing to swear allegiance to the King of Spain. The land grant was 30 fanegas (13 hectares/32 acres) for each free man, woman and child and half of that for each slave that they brought with them. The Spanish sent a new governor, José María Chacón, to implement the terms of the new cédula.
The Cédula was issued only a few years before the French Revolution. During that period of upheaval, French planters with their slaves, free coloureds and mulattos from the neighbouring islands of Martinique, Saint Lucia, Grenada, Guadeloupe and Dominica migrated to Trinidad, where they established an agriculture-based economy (sugar and cocoa). These new immigrants established local communities in Blanchisseuse, Champs Fleurs, Paramin, Cascade, Carenage and Laventille.
As a result, Trinidad's population jumped to over 15,000 by the end of 1789, and by 1797 the population of Port of Spain had increased from under 3,000 to 10,422 in just five years, with a varied population of mixed race individuals, Spaniards, Africans, French republican soldiers, retired pirates and French nobility. The sparse settlement and slow rate of population-increase during Spanish rule (and even later during British rule) made Trinidad one of the less populated colonies of the West Indies, with the least developed plantation infrastructure.
British rule
The British had begun to take a keen interest in Trinidad, and in 1797 a British force led by General Sir Ralph Abercromby launched an invasion of Trinidad. His squadron sailed through the Bocas and anchored off the coast of Chaguaramas. Seriously outnumbered, Chacón decided to capitulate to the British without fighting. Trinidad thus became a British crown colony, with a largely French-speaking population and Spanish laws. British rule was later formalised under the Treaty of Amiens (1802). The colony's first British governor was Thomas Picton, however his heavy-handed approach to enforcing British authority, including the use of torture and arbitrary arrest, led to his being recalled.
British rule led to an influx of settlers from the United Kingdom and the British colonies of the Eastern Caribbean. English, Scots, Irish, German and Italian families arrived, as well as some free blacks known as "Merikins" who had fought for Britain in the War of 1812 and were granted land in southern Trinidad. Under British rule, new states were created and the importation of slaves increased, however by this time support for abolitionism had vastly increased and in England the slave trade was under attack.Brereton, Bridget (1981). A History of Modern Trinidad 1783–1962. London: Heinemann Educational Books, .