Jamaica's first inhabitants were Taíno (also called
Arawak) Indians, who arrived from South America around 900 AD and
led a simple life of farming and fishing until the arrival in 1494
of Columbus, who claimed the island for Spain. Spanish
settlement began in 1510, first at Sevilla Nueva on the north
coast and then at the site of today's Spanish Town , just
northwest of Kingston.
Spanish Town was completely sacked by the British in 1596, and
again in 1643. In 1655, fifteen British ships, having failed in
their assault on the island of Hispaniola, turned their sights on
neighbouring Jamaica. They quickly captured Spanish Town, but the
Spanish weren't defeated until five years later, when the last of
them fled to Cuba. In the process, the Spanish freed and armed
their slaves, most of whom fled to the mountainous interior. The
Maroons, as they were called, later waged successful
guerrilla war against the British.
Under British rule, new settlers were enticed to Jamaica with
gifts of land. The colonists established vast sugarcane
plantations. In the eighteenth century, the island became the
world's biggest producer of sugar. The planters amassed
extraordinary fortunes, but their wealth was predicated upon the
appalling inhumanity of slavery .
Despite heavy opposition from a West Indian lobby desperate to
protect its riches in the colonies, pressure from the church
finally brought about the abolition of slavery in 1834.
Across the country, missionaries set up " free villages ",
buying land, subdividing it and either selling or donating it to
former slaves. Meanwhile, planters found another source of cheap
labour by importing 35,000 indentured labourers from India
in the 1830s.
Jamaica's sugar industry took another major blow in 1846, when a
free-trade-minded British government passed the Sugar Duties
Act, forcing Jamaica's producers to compete on equal terms with
sugar producers worldwide. At the same time, the development of
beet-sugar in Europe reduced demand for the West Indian
product.
The economic downturn that followed abolition and the
introduction of free trade in sugar took its toll on the freed
slaves. Wages were kept pitifully low, taxes were imposed and
unemployment rose as plantations were downsized or abandoned
altogether. There were numerous riots , the most significant
of which took place in 1865, when a major rebellion broke
out in Morant Bay in St Thomas. Fearing islandwide
insurrection, the governor ordered a show of strength from the
armed forces. Little mercy was shown as 437 people were killed,
while thousands more were flogged and terrorized. The brutal
suppression caused horror throughout Jamaica and Britain and the
governor was dismissed for his part in the atrocities. His assembly
abolished itself, and in 1866, Jamaica became a Crown
Colony.
The early twentieth century saw considerable economic
prosperity. Inevitably, though, most of the new wealth bypassed the
black masses, and serious poverty remained throughout the island.
By the 1930s, as the Great Depression took hold worldwide,
unemployment spiralled and riots became commonplace. Strikes
erupted too, with a major clash in 1938 between police and workers
at the West Indies Sugar Company factory in Frome leaving several
people dead. Partly as a result of the Frome incident,
strike-leader Alexander Bustamante founded the first
trade union in the Caribbean in 1938 - the Bustamante
Industrial Trade Union (BITU). An associated political party
was born too, with the foundation of the People's National Party
(PNP) by the lawyer Norman Manley . Both events gave a boost
to Jamaican nationalism, already stirred by the campaigning of
black-consciousness leader Marcus Garvey during the 1920s
and early 1930s.
After serving as a major Allied base during World War II
, Jamaica experienced new-found prosperity in the late 1940s,
thanks to early tourism and the first bauxite exports. In
1944, a new constitution introduced universal adult
suffrage, and first elections for a government that would work in
conjunction with the British-appointed governor were held.
Bustamante's newly formed Jamaica Labour Party (JLP) won,
and gradually the island's two political parties drifted in
different ideological directions, with the JLP adopting a basic
liberal capitalist philosophy, and the PNP leaning towards
democratic socialism.
The JLP stayed in power until 1955, when the PNP were elected on
a manifesto that placed independence firmly on the agenda.
Following the collapse of the short-lived West Indies Federation,
Jamaica became an independent state within the British
Commonwealth on August 6, 1962, with Bustamante as its first prime
minister.
The early years of independence were marked by rising
prosperity, as foreign investment increased, particularly in the
bauxite industry. The JLP continued in power until the key
elections of 1972 , when the PNP - now led by Norman
Manley's charismatic son Michael - swept to power. Manley
set out to improve the conditions of the black majority, and his
reforms included a minimum wage, the distribution of land to small
farmers, and increased funding for the island's education and
health-care sectors, all of which were financed by taxation, in
particular of the internationally owned bauxite industry.
The bauxite companies promptly scaled down their Jamaican
operations, and the ensuing economic decline was compounded by the
1973-74 oil crisis. Manley sought to promote a greater degree of
self-sufficiency , rejecting closer ties with the US in
favour of an alignment with Communist Cuba. US reaction was
furious; economic sanctions were applied and it became increasingly
difficult for Jamaica to attract foreign investment.
Politics became ever-more polarized during the Manley years. The
opposition JLP, led now by Edward Seaga , launched
blistering attacks on the "communist" administration. The 1976
election - won by the PNP again - saw a disturbing increase in
political violence , particularly in the ghettos of
Kingston. Despite criticism from human rights groups, Manley's
response to the violence was to impose a state of emergency
and severe anti-crime legislation was put in place. Jamaica entered
the economic doldrums, and was forced to turn to the IMF for
assistance.
Violence flared again during the 1980 election campaign, with
hundreds of people killed in shoot-outs and open gang warfare. Amid
the carnage, Jamaican voters turned to the JLP. In turn, the JLP
turned to the US, but were still obliged to continue the cutback of
government services begun under the PNP. The JLP's honeymoon with
the Jamaican people proved short-lived; in 1989, Michael Manley and
the PNP were returned to office. Ill health forced Manley's
resignation in 1992; his successor, P.J. Patterson , the
first black man to become Jamaica's prime minister, won the
election of 1993 on a far less radical platform. The demands of the
World Bank and the IMF continued to be met and a generally liberal
economic policy followed.
Tourism, bauxite and agriculture remain the mainstays of the
Jamaican economy, but the island carries a huge burden of
debt to foreign banks, and much of the foreign currency
earned is required to repay interest and capital on that debt.
Consequently, education, roads and public transport have suffered,
and the lot of the average Jamaican remains hard. Crime ,
though, is the key concern for most people. Kingston's "garrison
communities" are these days delineated by the whims of drug dons
rather than by political allegiances, and gun battles have resulted
in far too many riots and curfews in the capital.
Despite these problems, there remains much to be positive about
in Jamaica. Tourism remains strong, and Jamaican culture remains
vibrant. Whatever the challenges, it is hard to quench the island's
spirit, and while many islanders predict that "things will get
worse before they get better", Jamaica's future, on balance, seems
bright