1700. In 1700 Spain controlled most of the mainland portions of North America, Central America, and South America that surround the Caribbean as well as most of the largest islands of the Caribbean.
Contents
Who colonized the Caribbean?
After the Caribbean was first colonised by Spain in the 15th century, a system of sugar planting and enslavement evolved. David Lambert explores how this system changed the region, and how enslaved people continued to resist colonial rule.
Which ethnic group came to the Caribbean in 1783?
This immigration became significant after the cedula (decree) of 1783, which offered generous land and tax incentives to settlers, and transformed Trinidad’s population, economy, and society. Most of the settlers were French, and French influence became dominant.
Who controlled the West Indies in the 18th century?
The French and the British continued to dispute the Lesser Antilles throughout the 18th century, and by the early 19th century Dominica, Saint Lucia, Saint Vincent, Tobago, and Grenada were in British hands, while Trinidad was formally ceded to Britain by Spain in 1802, following its capture in 1797.
Which Caribbean island did the British have control over after 1748?
It was through the Treaty of Aix-la-Chapelle in 1748 that Britain and France settled on control of the Lesser Antilles: due to the formidable resistance mounted by their inhabitants Dominica and St. Vincent were left as “neutral” islands, for the sole benefit of the Caribs.
Why 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).
Who started slavery in the Caribbean?
Between 1662 and 1807 Britain shipped 3.1 million Africans across the Atlantic Ocean in the Transatlantic Slave Trade. Africans were forcibly brought to British owned colonies in the Caribbean and sold as slaves to work on plantations.
Who controlled the Caribbean in the 1800s?
Except for brief control by the British, the island was a Spanish colony until 1898. Plantation agriculture was established, and slaves provided the labor. History indicates that more than eight hundred thousand African slaves were brought to Cuba between 1800 and 1870.
What island did the English first control in the Caribbean?
The first Carribean islands to be settled by the British were St Kitts (1623/4) in the north-east and Barbados (1627) in the south-east corner of the Caribbean Basin. When this island filled up, English-speakers left for other locations, especially for Jamaica after it was taken by the British from the Spanish in 1660.
Which ethnic group came to Jamaica first?
Jamaica’s first inhabitants, the Tainos (also called the Arawaks), were a peaceful people believed to be from South America. It was the Tainos who met Christopher Columbus when he arrived on Jamaica’s shores in 1494.
Who controlled the West Indies?
The Pre-Columbian period. Hispanic control of the West Indies began in 1492 with Christopher Columbus’s first landing in the New World and was followed by the partitioning of the region by the Spanish, French, British, Dutch, and Danish during the 17th and 18th centuries.
Who owns Caribbean islands?
Countries and territories
| Country or territory | Sovereignty | Population (2018 est.) |
|---|---|---|
| United States Virgin Islands | United States | 104,680 |
| British Virgin Islands | United Kingdom | 29,802 |
| Anguilla | United Kingdom | 14,731 |
| Cayman Islands | United Kingdom | 64,174 |
When did the Tainos came to the Caribbean?
The Taínos were present throughout the Caribbean islands from approximately 1200 to 1500 A.D., and when Christopher Columbus arrived in the region, the Taínos were the indigenous group he encountered.
Who colonized Martinique?
Martinique belongs to the Windward Islands, the southern group of the Lesser Antilles in the West Indies. Colonized by France in 1635, the island has subsequently remained a French possession except for three brief periods of foreign occupation.
Who colonized Barbados?
the British
Barbados was first occupied by the British in 1627 and remained a British colony until internal autonomy was granted in 1961. The Island gained full independence in 1966, and maintains ties to the Britain monarch represented in Barbados by the Governor General.
Who colonized St Lucia?
It was colonized by the British and French in the 17th century and was the subject of several possession changes until 1814, when it was ceded to the British by France for the final time. In 1958, St. Lucia joined the short-lived semi-autonomous West Indies Federation.
Did the Spanish take over the Caribbean?
Although Spain claimed the entire Caribbean, they settled only the larger islands of Hispaniola (1493), Puerto Rico (1508), Jamaica (1509), Cuba (1511), and Trinidad (1530) and the small ‘pearl islands’ of Cubagua and Margarita off the Venezuelan coast because of their valuable pearl beds, which were worked extensively
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).
When did Spain lose the Caribbean?
Spain’s American empire began and ended in the Caribbean, with the settlement of Española during the 1490s, and the final loss of Cuba and Puerto Rico, four centuries later, in 1898.
How were slaves in the Caribbean treated?
Enslaved Africans were also much less expensive to maintain than indentured European servants or paid wage labourers. Enslaved Africans were often treated harshly. First they had to survive the appalling conditions on the voyage from West Africa, known as the Middle Passage. The death rate was high.
Are Jamaicans originally from Africa?
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.
