Jamaican History
Presently, there seem to be a number of sites on the
internet where people could gain
knowledge of the historical past
of Jamaica and this country
definitely boast a multi-colored
one. Prior to the
appearance of Christopher
Columbus in 1494 this tropical
island was only populated with
the Tainos, also called the
Arawaks.
They lived in small tribal
villages and survived from
farming and fishing for several
centuries before the arrival of
the Spanish. Regrettably, as
soon as they make contact with
these Spanish this changed
their standard of living
significantly and it took just
about 70 or 80 years for the
Spanish to completely wipe out
these villages.
The Spanish continued to be in
control of Jamaica up to the
year 1655 and also utilized this
country as a base from which
they tried to take control of
the Americas. Even though
Kingston is presently the
capital of Jamaica, throughout
the Spanish rule their primary
administrative town was Spanish
Town, which was called Santiago
de la Vega in those days.
But, all of this changed in 1655
when the English landed in
Jamaica and straight away
challenged the Spaniards for the
island. During this time General
Venables and Admiral Penn
invaded Jamaica with soldiers
who put up a good fight and
resulted in the Spanish
surrendering to the British.
The English brought additional
slaves who were Jews, Chinese,
Africans, Indians and Germans to
the island. However, the fight
for this beautiful was not over,
as in 1657 the Spanish with the
help of Governor
Don Cristobal Arnaldo de Ysassi
started another battle. This is
recorded in the historical past
of Jamaica as the last stand and
also the biggest war ever on the
island. This took place in Rio
Nuevo in St
Mary and once again the English
conquered the Spanish.
In 1658, the Governor of Jamaica
invited the Buccaneers to the
island and they set up home
office in Port Royal. These
people were invited in order to
assist with the problems with
the Spanish attackers.
These buccaneers were at the
same time utilized in order to
achieve riches and therefore
Port Royal soon became one of
the richest places in the world.
But, in 1692, there was a
massive earthquake in Jamaica
and Port Royal was ruined. Soon
after this earthquake, the
French made an effort to seize
Jamaica from the controls of the
British and they too were
conquered.
Once all of those activities
were finish, the English then
get settled and established
numerous sugar plantations using
the indentured labors and later
they started to bring in even
more African slaves to
the island. For the duration of
the year 1655 right until
slavery was abolished in 1838,
most of the slaves that the
English brought from Africa died
on the journey to the island.
The sugar was brought back to
their native soil, where it
could be sold pretty easy. As a
result, sugar ended up being the
most prosperous crop harvested
in Jamaica and quickly grew to
be the mainstay
throughout the island. This
growth was of such magnitude
that sugar was classified as the
jewel within the British crown.
As you can see, Jamaican history
is not only colorful and unique,
but also provides a good
understanding of the people who
came to this island and was
captivated by its beauty.
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