Trinidad and Tobago is an independent nation in North America. With the capital city of Port-of-Spain, Trinidad and Tobago 2020 population is estimated at 1,399,499 according to countryaah. The islands of the Caribbean were originally populated by people who in South America came from South America. Europeans established sugar, coffee and cotton plantations from the 16th century on the islands. They first forced slaves from Africa to work on the plantations and later retrieved contract workers from mainly India. In the early 19th century, the British merged Trinidad and Tobago into a British colony. By then, the indigenous population was almost completely wiped out. In 1962 the country became independent.
Trinidad and Tobago were originally populated by Arab-speaking people and Caribs. The first people are believed to have come from South America at least 7,000 years ago. When Europeans arrived in the Caribbean, it is estimated to have found at least 40,000 urinals in Trinidad.
AbbreviationFinder.org: Comprehensive guide to and popular abbreviations of Trinidad and Tobago, covering history, economy, and social conditions.
The explorer Christofer Columbus landed on Trinidad in 1498 and the island then became a Spanish colony for 300 years. During this time, the indigenous people were enslaved, a small European settlement was founded and a smaller number of African slaves were imported. For Trinidad and Tobago political system, please check diseaseslearning.
As long as the population was only a few thousand, the indigenous population constituted a majority. However, by the end of the 18th century, the number of residents grew very rapidly when people from other islands were encouraged to establish sugar, coffee and cotton plantations in Trinidad. It was mainly French who came and they brought with them a large number of slaves. The white and black population grew rapidly. In 1797 Trinidad was conquered by the British and in 1802 Spain officially surrendered the island to Britain. At that time there were only a few hundred urinals left on the island. The then unpopulated island of Tobago was conquered by the Dutch in 1632. Until 1814, when Tobago became a British colony, the island owner changed 22 times. During the colonial period, the island’s population consisted mainly of black slaves and their descendants.
Britain banned the slave trade in 1807 and abolished slavery in 1834.
Subsequently, Indian so-called contract workers were recruited, as well as some Chinese and Portuguese from Madeira. Until 1917, when the system was abolished, 145,000 Indians came to Trinidad (and even more to Guyana in South America). Many of them accepted an offer to get land instead of home when their contract expired.
The British merged Trinidad and Tobago into a colony in the late 1880s, when sugar prices dropped and the colonies were no longer as profitable. After the turn of the century, sugar was replaced by oil as the largest export product.
A first step towards self-government was taken in 1925, when limited elections were held for the colony’s legislative council. An organized and strong labor movement emerged, but when universal suffrage was introduced in 1946, the political left was divided between Indians and blacks. Instead, politics was dominated by the middle class, which was mostly black. This group voted the People’s National Movement (PNM) into power in 1956. PNM was a center-right party recently founded by Eric Williams, black and educated at Oxford. Williams instilled national pride with his fellow countrymen and led Trinidad and Tobago to independence in 1962.
