Trinidad and Tobago.
Information.
TRINIDAD and TOBAGO (officially the Republic of Trinidad and Tobago), is a twin island country off the northern edge of South America, lying just off the coast of northeastern Venezuela and south of Grenada in the Lesser Antilles. Area - 5131 sq.km. Population - 1 343 077 (2014) Capital - Port of Spain. Both Trinidad and Tobago were originally settled by Amerindians of South American origin. Christopher Columbus encountered the island of Trinidad on 31 July 1498. Antonio de Sedeno, a Spanish soldier intent on conquering the island of Trinidad, landed on its southwest coast with a small army of men in the 1530s as a means of controlling the Orinoco and subduing the Warao. Sedeno and his men fought the native Carib Indians on many occasions, and subsequently built a fort. Cacique Wannawanare (Guanaguanare) granted the St Joseph area to Domingo de Vera e Ibarguen in 1592, and then withdrew to another part of the island. San Jose de Oruna (St Joseph) was established by Antonio de Berrio on this land. Sir Walter Raleigh, searching for the long-rumored "City of Gold" in South America, arrived in Trinidad on 22 March 1595 and soon attacked San Jose and captured and interrogated de Berrio, obtaining much information from him and from the cacique Topiawari. In the 1700s, Trinidad belonged as an island province to the Viceroyalty of New Spain together with Central America, present-day Mexico and Southwestern United States. However, Trinidad in this period was still mostly forest, populated by a few Spaniards with their handful of slaves and a few thousand Amerindians. Spanish colonisation in Trinidad remained tenuous. Because Trinidad was considered underpopulated, Roume de St. Laurent, a Frenchman living in Grenada, was able to obtain a Cedula de Poblacion from the Spanish king Charles III on 4 November 1783. During the French Revolution French planters with their slaves, free coloreds and mulattos from neighboring islands of Martinique, Saint Lucia, Grenada, Guadeloupe and Dominica migrated to Trinidad where they established an agriculture-based economy (sugar and cocoa). By 1797 the population of Port of Spain had increased from under 3,000 to 10,422 in five years, and consisted of people of mixed race, Spaniards, Africans, French republican soldiers, retired pirates and French nobility. The total population of Trinidad was 17,718, of which 2,151 were of European ancestry, 4,476 were "free blacks and people of colour", 10,009 were slaves and 1,082 Amerindians. In 1797, General Sir Ralph Abercromby and his squadron sailed through the Bocas and anchored off the coast of Chaguaramas. The Spanish Governor Chacon decided to capitulate without fighting. Trinidad thus became a British crown colony, with a French-speaking population and Spanish laws. The conquest and formal ceding of Trinidad in 1802 led to an influx of settlers from England and the British colonies of the Eastern Caribbean. The sparse settlement and slow rate of population increase during Spanish rule and even after British rule made Trinidad one of the less-populated colonies of the West Indies with the least developed plantation infrastructure. Under British rule, new estates were created and slave importation increased to facilitate development of the land into highly profitable sugarcane estates, but mass importation of slaves was still limited and hindered, arguably by abolitionist efforts in Britain. Trinidad and Tobago gained its independence from the United Kingdom on 31 August 1962. Eric Williams, a noted Caribbean historian, widely regarded as "The Father of The Nation," was the first Prime Minister; he served from 1956, before independence, until his death in 1981. In 1976, the country severed its links with the British monarchy and became a republic within the Commonwealth, though it retained the Judicial Committee of the Privy Council as its final Court of Appeal. Between the years 1972 and 1983, the Republic profited greatly from the rising price of oil, as the oil-rich country increased its living standards greatly. In 1990, 114 members of the Jamaat al Muslimeen, led by Yasin Abu Bakr, formerly known as Lennox Phillip, stormed the Red House (the seat of Parliament), and Trinidad and Tobago Television, the only television station in the country at the time, and held the country's government hostage for six days before surrendering. Currency : Trinidad and Tobago dollar (TTD).
