THE FACTS
Trinidad and Tobago, officially the Republic of Trinidad and Tobago, is a small island nation in the West Indies, the closest islands to South America in the island chain. It is also the most populated of the West Indies and largest in size. The country is known for its dense forests, high peaks in the north and beaches. There is also a large population of Trinidadians in NYC, in the Ozone Park neighborhood.
PRE-COLONIZATION & SPANISH ARRIVAL (????-1600s)
Like other islands in the region Trinidad and Tobago were originally inhabited by the Arawak & Carib people. The Arawak and Carib inhabited the islands from the Bahamas in the north to Trinidad and Aruba in the South, and all throughout the Caribbean and West Indies.
English has several words from the Arawak and Carib languages like barbecue, caribbean, cannibal, canoe, hammock, hurricane, potato and savannah.
The Arawak and Carib peoples originated in South America, and island hopped until they got to Hispaniola and the Bahamas. Trinidad and Tobago were probably some of the first islands they got to, as they are pretty close to Venezuela.
In 1498, Columbus showed up. This was of course terrible news for the Arawaks because it was the first step in the eradication of their culture and way of life.
Trinidad almost immediately became Spain's focus. It was yet another source for their slave trade. They captured the Arawaks and sent them to forced labor camps in other holdings around the Caribbean.
After the slave trade dried up the Spanish were frantic to find a way to suck the most money out of this island as possible. To do this they enlisted the help of Antonio Sedeno. They told Antonio that he had two goals. One, find the lost city of El Dorado, which was first believed to be in Colombia, but now they thought was in Trinidad. (It was in fact, not). His second goal was to get Europeans to come live on Trinidad. You may think, why is this so hard, timeshare salesmen do this all the time, but in the 1500s, journeying from a small Spanish village or a Spanish city in a mild Mediterranean climate to live on a sweltering and remote island in a continent almost completely foreign to not just you, but most people, while constantly afraid of attack from the natives who are really pissed at you for coming here. This idea was pretty hard to sell.
So, long story short Antonio fucked up. Granted, he was given an impossible job, but he failed. He didn't find El Dorado, because it didn't exist and his town that he built (at the site of modern capital Port-of-Spain) didn't really catch on (until later).
Ponce de Leon Jr. had a better time. He was Ponce de Leon's grandson. You may know Ponce de Leon from his voyages to Florida, where he founded St. Augustine and looked for the fountain of youth. I think Florida is probably the exact last place to look for the fountain of youth, but okay...
Ponce Jr. settled another town which he called "the Town of the Circumcision" which I think is very weird. Towns are supposed to be named after people, or features in the area, or something else, but they most definitely shouldn't be named after the act of removing a baby's foreskin.
THE SPANISH, DUTCH, FRENCH AND ENGLISH (1600s-1800)
By the 1600s, everybody wanted a piece of the Caribbean pie and Trinidad and Tobago was no exception. The Dutch set up a colony which didn't really work out in Tobago, until the Courish (from Courland, modern day Lithuania oddly enough) established New Courland in the region. This also didn't really work out. The island was inevitably handed over to the British who wanted to crack down on the piracy problem.
Spain was back on Trinidad trying to find gold, and setting up missions. Bringing the arawaks Christianity was an important goal for the Spanish, but wasn't as important as money.
By the late 18th century the island was still pretty remote. The governments of every major European power wanted the land so they could grow cash crops and set up plantations, but the people themselves were still quick on the draw. By the late 18th century there were only a thousand Europeans on the island and about 1500 slaves.
Mass settlement only started when the Spanish implemented some desperation moves. They gave any catholic thirty-two free acres of land, plus sixteen for each slave they brought and said "you don't have to pay taxes here for the first TEN years". This started the Caribbean's tradition as a tax haven. Nowadays if there was place where you could avoid taxes entirely for ten years that easily, every person would claim they lived there.
By the beginning of the 19th century, the population was 60% slaves. 10,000 of the island's 17,000 people were slaves,
BRITISH CONTROL (1816-1962)
Britain officially abolished slavery in 1833, but in many of their colonies the slaves weren't freed until 1840. The plantation owners did everything in their power to lobby against abolition in Parliament, and eventually legally convert all of their slaves into "free apprentices" which weren't in fact free, or really apprentices, but were slaves.
In 1840 though, the slaves were freed. This sparked two things. The first was an increased amount of Caribbean literature, political satire and criticism & other forms of media made by the newly freed black populace. At this point nearly 80% of all Trinidadians were black and many more were black and Amerindian. Trinidad however was still under White leadership. Most Trinidadians were in favor of a local leader that would represent their interests to Westminster, but Britain refused.
Another problem that arose after the abolition of the slaves in Trinidad was a labor shortage, so the British began taking workers from China, their colonies in West Africa and their colonies in India.
Indians are still a large group in Trinidad, with a lot of Indian influence in Trinidadian culture.
Sugar Cane was soon replaced by Cacao and Rum, and later Oil as the main exports of the country, but the plantation economy of the 1800s lasted well into the 1900s, just instead of growing sugar cane with slave labor, they grew cacao with underpayed Indian, Chinese and Black workers.
In 1937, Tubal Uriah Butler (a person with the NEW coolest name ever) a Grenadian born Trinidadian fought for home rule with general strikes and a hunger strike. Originally dismissive, the British government, eventually giving Trinidad and Tobago their independence in 1962.
Tubal was a shoe in for Prime Minister when independence came, but people saw him as too radical to be taken seriously in the world stage.
INDEPENDENCE (1962-PRESENT)
The new nation started out well. The oil shortages of the seventies led the US to seek alternative sources and Trinidad saw a new source of income. Standards of living got much better and big public works projects were completed, like the 22 story Eric Williams Plaza, which at the time was the tallest building on the islands.
In 1990, an extremist muslim group called the Jamaat al Muslimeen kidnapped the Prime Minister and held him hostage for a week, before surrendering.
Recently Trinidad and Tobago have fallen on hard times. The drug trade is the source for most organized crime in the country and the murder rate has pentupled in the last ten years, but it is slightly down now.
FUN FACTS
-Steel Drums were invented in Trinidad and Tobago.
-Trinidad is home to the world's largest Traffic Rotary.
-Trinidad and Tobago was ranked the happiest country in North America.
-The Limbo was invented in Trinidad and Tobago.
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