Jamaica History
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Originally called Xaymaca meaning
“land of wood and water” by the Arawak Indians who
inhabited the island, Jamaica has a bloody past. “Discovered”
by Columbus in 1492 who claimed it for Spain, the peaceful Arawak
island was forced to endure centuries filled with war, slavery
and brutal exploitation by others. Contact with the Spaniards
proved too much for the gentle Arawak people who were all but
eliminated in seventy to eighty years. Having found |
no gold anywhere on the island, the Spaniards used Jamaica as
a base of operations as it launched its subsequent invasions of
Mexico, South and eventually North America. In 1655 the British
virtually walked in and took the island over claiming it as one
of the jewels in the English Crown. In no time at all, Jamaica was
an important part of a trading “triangle” between the
British Isles which supplied manufactured goods, Africa which, against
its will, provided slaves and Jamaica which provided sugar grown
on its own plantations and from the surrounding islands.
Plantation life on Jamaica was everything. Growing, harvesting
and shipping sugar in vast quantities to the British Isles was the
only economic enterprise of any worth on the island. The rhythm
of the growing seasons, mixed with the organized harvesting and
shipping processes created a sense of calm and well being on the
island that still exists to this day. The only problem was the slavery
that was necessary to provide labor. It didn’t take too many
generations of slaves to create a desire for freedom and slowly,
slaves began escaping to the north and joining bands of other escaped
slaves who became known as Maroons. It took almost one hundred years
of bloody fighting between the Maroons and the British but finally,
in 1838, looking to avoid another costly, expensive war, the slaves
were emancipated.
After emancipation, just like in many other countries, the former
slaves rented, bought, stole or were given small parcels of land
to farm for themselves. Church groups, especially Baptists, helped
out by donating church owned properties to families. Also, during
this period of time, sugar began a serious, long lived decline as
an economic gold mine as other producers began shipping their product
all over the world. As sugar began bringing in less and less money
over the years and as the cost of hiring former slaves to do all
the work kept rising, the island began to suffer. Ultimately, the
small, independent farmers, the former slaves, began producing bananas,
coffee and logwood in ever increasing numbers, which helped to diversify
the economy and to regain some prosperity. Through the mid 1900’s,
with two great World Wars, the economy continued to grow and prosper,
ultimately mining bauxite for the Allied Forces. In 1944 small amounts
of independence and self governance were granted to the people living
on the island. But it was not until 1962 that complete political
independence was granted to the island nation. Even the decline
in the aluminum market could not hurt Jamaica, as the growing tourism
market, the millions of island hungry Americans and Europeans who
came there and continue to come there, poured in and soon hotels,
restaurants and attractions were being created to accommodate them.
More Information
 www.state.gov
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