|
The original
Arawak or Taino people from South America first
settled on the island between 1000 and 400 BC.
Although some claim they became virtually extinct
following contact with Europeans, others claim
that some survived.
Jamaica
was claimed for Spain after Christopher Columbus
first landed there in 1494. Columbus used it as
his family's private estate. The British Admiral
William Penn (father of William Penn of Pennsylvania)
and General Venables seized the island in 1655.
During its first 200 years of British rule, Jamaica
became the world's largest sugar exporting nation
and produced over 77,000 tons of sugar annually
between 1820 and 1824, which was achieved through
the massive use of imported African slave labor.
By the beginning
of the 19th century, the United Kingdom's heavy
reliance on slavery resulted in blacks outnumbering
whites by a ratio of almost 20 to one, leading
to constant threat of revolt. Following a series
of rebellions, slavery was formally abolished
in 1834, with full emancipation from chattel slavery
declared in 1838.
Jamaica
slowly gained increasing independence from the
United Kingdom, and in 1958 Jamaica became a province
in the Federation of the West Indies, a federation
between all the British West Indies. Jamaica attained
full independence by leaving the federations in
1962.
However,
the initial optimism following Jamaican independence
for the next decade or so vanished as Jamaica
lagged economically. Rising foreign debt under
the government of Michael Manley, who was determined
to alleviate Jamaica's severe economic inequality,
led to the imposition of IMF austerity measures.
Deteriorating economic conditions and the involvement
of the Central Intelligence Agency due to Manley's
international socialism and friendship with Fidel
Castro, led to a desperately fought re-election
campaign between Manley's People's National Party
and the main opposition, the Jamaican Labour Party.
Both political parties became linked with rival
gangs in Kingston which were duly armed. This
policy, along with the increasing emergence of
Jamaica as a smuggling point for cocaine during
the 1980s, led to recurrent violence and only
served to increase the impoverishment of a large
section of the Jamaican populace. The ultimate
result of this cycle of violence, drugs and poverty
has been the brutal gun warfare seen on Kingston's
streets from the mid-1990s onwards. The Jamaican
police force has also been accused of complicity
in this murderous side of the island. It must
be noted however that the rural sections of the
island, especially in and around the resort towns
of Negril, Montego Bay and Ocho Rios, remain relatively
safe.
The former
capital of Jamaica was Spanish Town, in St. Catherine
parish, the site of the old Spanish colonial capital.
The Spanish named the town Santiago de la Vega.
In 1655 when the British captured the island,
much of the old Spanish capital was burned by
the invading British troops. The town was rebuilt
by the British and renamed Spanish Town. It remained
the capital until 1825, when the city of Kingston
was named capital under questionable circumstances.
|
