Trindiad's History

In Trinidad, named La Trinity by Columbus, the peaceful Arawaks were the majority and lived in the South, having originally come from the upper regions of the Orinoco river in South America.
During the next 300 years Spanish colonists returned to Trinidad only long enough to capture many of the indigenous Arawaks and Caribs to sell as slaves.
The aggressive Carib Indians prevented successful European colonization until the end of the 17th century when Catalan Capuchin missionaries as the vanguard beguiled them under the guise of Christianity, tricked, enslaved and infected with European diseases then finally exterminated the native Amerindians Indians. By 1824 there were only 893 Indians left in Trinidad, today there are none.
The first Spanish governor Don Antonio Sedeño arrived in 1530, but failed to establish a permanent settlement because of Indian attacks.
In 1592 the governor Don Antonio de Berrio y Oruna founded the town of San José de Oruna (now St Joseph), but it was destroyed by Sir Walter Raleigh in 1595 and not rebuilt until 1606.

Early Europeans arriving

Bribing and tricking natives

In 1783 as an attempt to replicate Tobago's agricultural success, the Spanish created a deliberate policy the Royal Cedula of Population to encourage immigration. An influx of mostly French-speaking immigrants, after the French Revolution began created new sugar, coffee, and cotton plantations on the island and also created more demands for African slaves.
Many whites and mulattoes came from St Lucia and Dominica when these islands were ceded to Britain in 1784. Others came with their slaves from the French Caribbean when slavery was abolished e.g. the Compte de Lopinot and from Santo Domingo after its war of independence.

Slave shackles

Christopher Columbus

British rule in Trinidad began in 1797 when an expedition led by Sir Ralph Abercromby captured the island. It was later ceded to Spain in 1802 under the Treaty of Amiens.
The French imported large numbers of African slaves were to work on the plantations up until the slave trade was abolished in 1807.

After the abolition of slavery in 1834, labour became scarce and the colonists looked for alternative sources of workers.

Several thousands of immigrants from neighbouring islands came in 1834-48, many Americans from Baltimore and Pennsylvania came in 1841.
Madeirans came seeking employment and religious freedom and were joined by European immigrants, namely the British, Scots, Irish, French, Germans and Swiss.
There was also immigration of free West Africans in the 1840s, but by 1848 this had ceased as conditions improved in their own home countries.

In 1844 with British approval almost 142,000 indentured East Indian labourers were imported from 1845 to 1917,(Indian Arrival Day, 30 May, is now celebrates this).Persistent labour shortages led to higher wages in Trinidad than in many other islands and from emancipation until the 1960s there was also migration from Barbados, Grenada and St Vincent.After their five years indentureship some East Indians returned to India however, the majority remained. Chinese labourers arrived between 1849 to 1866.

On April 6, 1889, Trinidad and Tobago became united as one territory. Tobago, at the insistence of the British Government, became a ward of the colony of Trinidad. The finances of the two islands were then merged, primarily due to the decline of sugar in Tobago. Tobago still has the right, under the original terms of this union, to revoke this union and restore its independence, if the union is not beneficial.