Jamaican history is interesting

Jamaican history

There are many places online where you can learn about the history of Jamaica and it certainly has a very colorful one. Before the arrival of Columbus in 1494, the only inhabitants of the island were the Arawaks. These small tribal communities lived off the land and the sea for many centuries until the arrival of Columbus and the Spanish. Unfortunately, once they came into contact with the Spanish, their lives changed drastically and it took 70-80 years for these communities to completely disappear.

The Spanish remained in occupation of Jamaica from 1494 to 1655 and used it as a base to take over the Americas. Although Kingston is now the capital of the islands during the Spanish occupation, its administrative center was Santiago de la Vega, which is now known as Spanish Town.

The reason the Spanish occupation ended in 1655 was that it was captured by the English, led by Admirals Penn and Admirals Venables. The Spanish did little to defend it against English invasion, as it was of little importance to them.

Although initially the English used indentured labor to help with the work on the sugar plantations that had been established. They then chose to start bringing slaves from Africa and many of those who are native to Jamaica are direct descendants of many of the African slaves brought by the English. During the period when slaves were brought from Africa (1655 to 1838) 15,000 of them died in Jamaica alone.

As you can see, the history of Jamaica is interesting.