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Trinidad was firstly sighted by
Cristoforo Colombo in 1498 during
one of his last journeys.
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He baptized it with the name of "la isla de la Trinidad" in tribute
to the holy trinity.
Spanish colons reduced in slavery most of the Amerindi inhabitants and
leaded them to work in the
south americans spanish colonies.
Involved in gold rush, Spain devoted little attentions to Trinidad's
economic potential,
and only late in 1592 they founded the first settlement called San
Josef, located east of Port of Spain, the present-day capital. |
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Over the
next two centuries spanish colons tried in vain to start
growing cacao and tobacco, but the failure of these
attempts and the little interest of the spanish crown
let the isle underdeveloped and almost uninhabited. |
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Accordingly English took the isle in 1797. Slavery was
abolished in the thirtie of the 19th century and England
brought to the isle thousands of workers, almost all
from India, serving the colons as labor for the sugar
cane plantations, this system of contract work remained
in force approximately during the whole 19th century. |
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Also
Tobago was sighted by Colombo and claimed by Spain, but
they didn't even attempt to colonize it.
During the 18th century changed hands many times from
England to France to Netherlands, in 1704 was declared
neutral territory, suddenly used by pirates as a basis
for their raids in the eastern caribbean sea. England
settled a colonial administration in 1763 and within two
decades 10.000 african slaves were imported to enlarge
sugar cane, cotton and indaco's plantations. |
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Tobago's
economy, based on these crops, declined after slavery
abolition but sugar and rum production kept on until
1884, when the Londoner company that owned the business
collapsed. Plantationsv owners, no longer able to sell
their products, sold or abandoned their properties and
let the economy completely disarrayed but all the
islanders got their small clod of land.
Those who didn't get the money to buy simply installed
themselves in free farms. |
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In
1889 Tobago got an independent legislative assembly and
became, by england hand, the guardian of the nearby
Trinidad.
The aspirations for a greater autonomy became stronger
after the first world war. |
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The thirties crisis provoked a
series of riots and strikes and the
development of a trade union movement.
England granted universal suffrage in 1946 and initiated a sort of
self-government,
up to full independence in 1962. |
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In april 1970 the street
demonstrations of "Black power" movement
leaded into a political crisis with the risk
of military solutions but the government was able to maintain
control of the situation, and when
everything seemed to turn to the worse oil |
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was discovered, and not by chance. |
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In fact T & T are very close to
Venezuelan coast and Trinidad in
antiquity was part of the south american continent.
Hence the abundance of oil and natural gas, particulatly in the
south-west side of the isle, closest to Venezuela.
The resulting economic boom of the seventies gave new strenght
and prosperity.
In 1990 a minority islamic group groped a coup invading the parliament.
The oil market entered into crisis and the government reacted
promoting tourism more and more.
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At the end of the nineties
other oil and natural gas fields were
discovered, but 2003 brought another
economic recession, compromising even the public sugar refinery.
Once more the impetus for the isles' revival was allowed by tourism.
A special help is given by their geographic position: too far south
for hurrycanes route. |
