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Contents. Colony of Jamaica. The Crown Colony of Jamaica and Dependencies was a British colony from 1655, when it was captured by the English Protectorate from the Spanish Empire. Jamaica became a British colony from 1707 and a Crown colony in 1866.
Internet TLD. .jm. Jamaica ( / dʒəˈmeɪkə / ⓘ jə-MAY-kə; Jamaican Patois: Jumieka [dʒʌˈmie̯ka]) is an island country in the Caribbean Sea and the West Indies. At 10,990 square kilometres (4,240 sq mi), it is the third largest island—after Cuba and Hispaniola —of the Greater Antilles and the Caribbean. [11]
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Jamaica became a British colony from 1707 and a Crown colony in 1866. The Colony was primarily used for sugarcane production, and experienced many slave rebellions over the course of British rule. Jamaica was granted independence in 1962. Quick Facts Crown Colony of Jamaica and Dependencies, Status ... Crown Colony of Jamaica and Dependencies.
- History Up to Independence
- Rebellions and Brewing Nationalism
- Path to Independence, 1945–1962
- Independence
- Since Independence
- Colonial Legacy
Indigenous origins
The Caribbean island now known as Jamaica was settled first by hunter-gatherers from the Yucatan and then by two waves of Taino people from South America. Genoan explorer Christopher Columbus arrived in Jamaica in 1494 during his second voyage to the New World, and claimed it for Crown of Castile. At this time, over two hundred villages existed in Jamaica, largely located on the south coast and ruled by caciques,or "chiefs of villages".
Spanish rule
The Spanish Empire began its official rule in Jamaica in 1509, with formal occupation of the island by conquistador Juan de Esquivel and his men. The Spaniards enslaved many of the native people, overworking and harming them to the point that many perished within fifty years of European arrival. Subsequently, the Spanish Empire’s continuing need for labor was no longer filled by the capacity of the surviving indigenous population. Spanish colonialists adapted by turning to the trade in enslav...
British colony
After 146 years of Spanish rule, a large group of British sailors and soldiers landed in the Kingston Harbour on 10 May 1655, during the Anglo-Spanish War. The English, who had set their sights on Jamaica after a disastrous defeat in an earlier attempt to take the island of Hispaniola, marched toward Villa de la Vega, the administrative center of the island. Spanish forces surrendered without much fight on 11 May, many of them fleeing to Spanish Cubaor the northern portion of the island. Brit...
Jamaican Maroons
The Anglo-Spanish war afforded the opportunity to escape slavery to people enslaved by Spanish colonizers, and many fled into the mountainous and forested regions of the colony to join the ranks of surviving Tainos. As interracial marriage became extremely prevalent, the two racial groups underwent assimilation. The formerly enslaved and their descendants, known as the Jamaican Maroons, were the source of many disturbances in the colony, raiding plantations and occupying parts of the island's...
Garvey
Slavery was abolished in the British Empire by the Slavery Abolition Act in 1834. Following a period of intense debate, the native and African populace of Jamaica were granted the right to vote; as the 19th century continued the government allowed some of them to hold public office. Despite these accomplishments, the white members of Jamaican colonial society continued to hold the real power. During the first half of the 20th century the most notable Black leader was Marcus Garvey, a labour l...
Party politics
The spike of nationalist sentiment in colonial Jamaica is primarily attributed to the British West Indian labour unrest of 1934–39, which protested the inequalities of wealth between native and British residents of the British West Indies. Through these popular opinions Alexander Bustamante, a White native-born moneylender, rose to political prominence and founded the Bustamante Industrial Trade Union. Bustamante advocated autonomy of the island, and a more equal balance of power. He captured...
As World War II came to a close, a sweeping movement of decolonization overtook the world. British Government and local politicians began a long transition of Jamaica from a crown colonyinto an independent state. The political scene was dominated by PNP and JLP, with the houses of legislature switching hands between the two throughout the 1950s. Af...
In the elections of 1962, the JLP defeated the PNP, resulting in the ascension of Sir Alexander Bustamante to the premiership in April of that year. On 19 July 1962, the Parliament of the United Kingdom passed the Jamaica Independence Act, granting independence as of 6 August with The Queen as Head of State. On that day, the Union Jack was ceremoni...
Sir Alexander Bustamante became the first Prime Minister of Jamaica and joined the Commonwealth of Nations, an organisation of ex-British territories. Today, Jamaica continues to be a Commonwealth realm, with the British monarch, Charles III, remaining as King of Jamaica and head of state. Jamaica spent its first ten years of independence under con...
While independence is widely celebrated within Jamaican society, it has become a subject of debate. In 2011, a survey showed that approximately 60% of Jamaicans "think the country would be better off today if it was still under British rule", citing years of social and fiscal mismanagement in the country.
Jamaica served mainly as a supply base: food, men, arms and horse were shipped here to help in conquering the American mainland. Fifteen years later in 1509, after their first visit to the island, the first Spanish colonists came here under the Spanish governor, Juan de Esquivel.
British rule. Planters, buccaneers, and slaves. In 1655 a British expedition under Admiral Sir William Penn and General Robert Venables captured Jamaica and began expelling the Spanish, a task that was accomplished within five years.
