The arrival of Spaniards in Jamaica began in 1494, with the arrival of Christopher Columbus to the island in search of gold (as in Cuba and the Spanish, where he had reported the existence of the island, calling it Xaymaca, intending to say, in the indigenous language, “place of gold blessed”), but then discovered that
Contents
What ethnic group brought Spanish Jamaica?
It was the Tainos who met Christopher Columbus when he arrived on Jamaica’s shores in 1494. Spanish settlements flourished until the 1600s, During the 1650s the Spanish lost Jamaica to the British, who established large and lucrative sugar plantations.
When did the Spanish come to Jamaica?
Christopher Columbus reached the island in 1494 and spent a year shipwrecked there in 1503–04. The Spanish crown granted the island to the Columbus family, but for decades it was something of a backwater, valued chiefly as a supply base for food and animal hides.
Where do Jamaicans originally come from?
The original inhabitants of Jamaica are believed to be the Arawaks, also called Tainos. They came from South America 2,500 years ago and named the island Xaymaca, which meant ““land of wood and water”. The Arawaks were a mild and simple people by nature.
What did the Spanish call Jamaica?
Although the Taino referred to the island as “Xaymaca,” the Spanish gradually changed the name to “Jamaica.” In the so-called Admiral’s map of 1507 the island was labeled as “Jamaiqua” and in Peter Martyr’s work “Decades” of 1511, he referred to it as both “Jamaica” and “Jamica.”
Why the Spaniards came to the Caribbean?
The Europeans came to the Caribbean in search of wealth. The Spanish had originally looked for gold and silver, but there was little to be found. Instead, the Europeans tried growing different crops to be sold back home.This also made the Caribbean colonies valuable – and tempting targets for rival empires.
When did the Spaniards came to the Caribbean?
1492
The islands of the Caribbean were discovered by the Italian explorer Christopher Columbus, working for the then Spanish monarchy. In 1492 he made a first landing on Hispaniola and claimed it for the Spanish crown as he did on Cuba.
Who lived in Jamaica first?
The total land area is 10,991 sq km. The original inhabitants of Jamaica were the indigenous Taíno, an Arawak-speaking people who began arriving on Hispaniola by canoe from the Belize and the Yucatan peninsula sometime before 2000 BCE.
How long did Spain rule Jamaica?
Spanish Jamaica had been a colony of Spain for over a hundred years. In May 1655, around 7,000 English soldiers landed near Jamaica’s Spanish Town capital.
Is Ocho Rios a Spanish name?
Ocho Rios, town and Caribbean port on the north coast of Jamaica, northwest of Kingston. The Spanish name, meaning “eight rivers,” refers to the number of rivers in the area.
What did the Spaniards do?
For the conquest era, two names of Spaniards are generally known because they led the conquests of high indigenous civilizations, Hernán Cortés, leader of the expedition that conquered the Aztecs of Central Mexico, and Francisco Pizarro, leader of the conquest of the Inca in Peru.
Are there Spanish speaking Jamaicans?
Jamaica’s only living indigenous language is Arawakan, which is spoken by the Aboriginal population known as the Taino people.There are also immigrant populations scattered throughout Jamaica who speak Portuguese, Spanish, Chinese and Arabic.
Is Jamaican black?
Jamaicans are the citizens of Jamaica and their descendants in the Jamaican diaspora. The vast majority of Jamaicans are of African descent, with minorities of Europeans, East Indians, Chinese, Middle Eastern, and others of mixed ancestry.
When did the English capture Jamaica from the Spanish?
Some of the buccaneers held royal commissions as privateers but were still largely pirates; nevertheless, many became part-time merchants or planters. After the Spanish recognized British claims to Jamaica in the Treaty of Madrid (1670), British authorities began to suppress the buccaneers.
What part of Africa do Jamaicans come from?
Jamaican enslaved peoples came from West/Central Africa and South-East Africa.
What are 2 reasons the Spanish settled in the Caribbean?
When the Spanish (in the form of Columbus’s expedition) came to the Caribbean in the late 15th century, they were coming for “gold, God, and glory.” They wanted to get rich by finding gold, they wanted to spread Christianity, and they wanted to get glory (the glory of finding new things).
Where did slaves in the Caribbean come from?
In the mid 16th century, enslaved people were trafficked from Africa to the Caribbean by European mercantilists. Originally, white European indentured servants worked alongside enslaved African people in the “New World” (the Americas).
Why did the British came to Jamaica?
Jamaica was important to Britain because of its production of sugar, which was the leading commodity imported into Britain at the time.Enslaved people were bought and sold as property and most of them were put to work on plantations, such as the sugar plantations of Jamaica.
Who were the first Europeans to visit Jamaica?
Christopher Columbus
On May 3, 1494, Christopher Columbus sighted the island of Jamaica. Spanish colonists settled the island fifteen years later, and it fell into British hands in 1655. Although the Spanish introduced slavery to Jamaica, the British oversaw its development.
Which ethnic group came to Jamaica second?
The Caribbean island of Jamaica was initially inhabited in approximately 600 AD or 650 AD by the Redware people, often associated with redware pottery. By roughly 800 AD, a second wave of inhabitance occurred by the Arawak tribes, including the Tainos, prior to the arrival of Columbus in 1494.
How did slavery start in Jamaica?
18th century and Jamaica’s sugar boom
In the mid-17th century, sugarcane had been brought into the British West Indies by the Dutch, from Brazil.The sugar industry was labour-intensive and the British brought hundreds of thousands of enslaved Africans to Jamaica.
