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109-804: Tunapuna–Piarco is one of the most geographically diverse regions in Trinidad and Tobago . It features the country's two highest mountain peaks, El Cerro del Aripo at 3,084 feet and El Tucuche standing at a soaring 3,070 feet, which both tower the north of the region and the Northern Coast of Trinidad forming a part of the Northern Range . Tunapuna–Piarco is the fifth largest region in Trinidad and Tobago accounting for an area of 527.23 square kilometres (200 sq mi). The region has approximately 30 km (19 miles) of rugged coastline with

218-629: A church, and killed the Spanish governor José de León y Echales . Among those killed in the governor's party was Juan Mazien de Sotomayor, missionary priest to the Nepuyo villages of Caura, Tacarigua and Arauca. The Spanish retaliated severely, slaughtering hundreds of native peoples in an event that became known as the Arena massacre . As a result, continuing Spanish slave-raiding, and the devastating impact of introduced disease to which they had no immunity,

327-416: A fort. The next few decades were generally spent in warfare with the native peoples, until in 1592, the "Cacique" (native chief) Wannawanare (also known as Guanaguanare) granted the area around modern Saint Joseph to Domingo de Vera e Ibargüen, and withdrew to another part of the island. The settlement of San José de Oruña was later established by Antonio de Berrío on this land in 1592. Shortly thereafter

436-454: A maritime tropical climate . There are two seasons annually: the dry season for the first five months of the year, and the rainy season in the remaining seven of the year. Winds are predominantly from the northeast and are dominated by the northeast trade winds . Unlike many Caribbean islands Trinidad and Tobago lies outside the main hurricane alleys; nevertheless, the island of Tobago was struck by Hurricane Flora on 30 September 1963. In

545-532: A militia unit just outside the town of Arima. The revolt was crushed at the cost of some 40 dead, and Daaga and his party were later executed at St Joseph. The apprenticeship system ended on 1 August 1838 with full emancipation. An overview of the population statistics in 1838, however, clearly reveals the contrast between Trinidad and its neighbouring islands: upon emancipation of the slaves in 1838, Trinidad had only 17,439 slaves, with 80% of slave owners having enslaved fewer than 10 people each. In contrast, at twice

654-527: A minimum of goods moving through the ports. On 1 December 1919, the striking dockworkers rushed the harbour and chased off the strikebreakers. They then proceeded to march on the government buildings in Port of Spain. Other unions and workers, many with the same grievances, joined the dock worker's strike making it a General Strike. Violence broke out and was only put down with help from the sailors of British Naval ship HMS  Calcutta . The unity brought upon by

763-400: A period of five years, with a daily wage as low as 25 cents in the early 20th century, and they were guaranteed return passage to India at the end of their contract period. However, coercive means were often used to retain labourers, and the indentureship contracts were soon extended to 10 years from 1854 after the planters complained that they were losing their labour too early. In lieu of

872-450: A republic in 1976. Unlike most Caribbean nations and territories, which rely heavily on tourism, the economy is primarily industrial with an emphasis on petroleum and petrochemicals ; much of the nation's wealth is derived from its large reserves of oil and natural gas. Trinidad and Tobago is well known for its African and Indian cultures, reflected in its large and famous Carnival , Diwali , and Hosay celebrations, as well as being

981-855: Is a subregion of North America , surrounded by the North Atlantic Ocean and the Caribbean Sea , which comprises 13 independent island countries and 19 dependencies in three archipelagos : the Greater Antilles , the Lesser Antilles , and the Lucayan Archipelago . The subregion includes all the islands in the Antilles , in addition to The Bahamas and the Turks and Caicos Islands , which are in

1090-602: Is abundant, with several species of sea urchin , coral , lobster , sea anemone , starfish , manta ray , dolphin , porpoise and whale shark present in the islands' waters. The introduced Pterois is viewed as a pest, as it eats many native species of fish and has no natural predators; efforts are currently underway to cull the numbers of this species. The country contains five terrestrial ecoregions: Trinidad and Tobago moist forests , Lesser Antillean dry forests , Trinidad and Tobago dry forests , Windward Islands xeric scrub , and Trinidad mangroves . Trinidad and Tobago

1199-635: Is considered to be a continuation of the Andes Mountain Range on the mainland South American continent which is only 6.8 miles away from Trinidad . The densely forested peaks of the north are home to over 100 species of mammals and 430 species of birds as well as the Red Howler Monkeys, Capuchin Monkeys, Neotropical River Otters, Collared Peckaries, Ocelots and Red Brocket Deers to name a few. The nation's largest cave system,

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1308-460: Is likely to be far higher, given the generally accepted estimate that only about 7% of all fungi worldwide have so far been discovered. A first effort to estimate the number of endemic fungi tentatively listed 407 species. Information about micro-organisms is dispersed and very incomplete. Nearly 200 species of marine algae have been recorded. The true total number of micro-organism species must be much higher. West Indies The West Indies

1417-427: Is noted particularly for its large number of bird species, and is a popular destination for bird watchers . Notable species include the scarlet ibis , cocrico , egret , shiny cowbird , bananaquit , oilbird and various species of honeycreeper , trogon , toucan , parrot , tanager , woodpecker , antbird , kites , hawks , boobies , pelicans and vultures ; there are also 17 species of hummingbird, including

1526-661: The Boa constrictor and the spectacled caiman . There are at least 47 species of snakes, including only four dangerous venomous species (only in Trinidad and not in Tobago), lizards such as the green iguana , the Tupinambis cryptus and a few species of fresh water turtles and land tortoises. are present. Of the amphibians, the golden tree frog and Trinidad poison frog are found in the highest peaks of Trinidad's Northern Range and nearby on Venezuela 's Paria Peninsula. Marine life

1635-467: The Aripo Caves which are inhabited by oil birds as well as the country's highest waterfall, Maracas Waterfall at 300 feet high are also located in the region. The terrain consist mainly of sedimentary rocks-schists and limestones as well as volcanic rocks in the east. Tunapuna–Piarco is mainly tropical for the most, but changes to being mildly temperate in the highest elevations to the north in

1744-789: The British Virgin Islands and the Bahamas ) into the West Indies Federation . They hoped that the Federation would coalesce into a single, independent nation. The Federation had limited powers, numerous practical problems, and a lack of popular support; consequently, it was dissolved by the British in 1963, with nine provinces eventually becoming independent sovereign states and four becoming current British Overseas Territories . "West Indies" or "West India"

1853-845: The Caribbean Plate due to the subduction of the Atlantic seafloor of the North American and South American plates . Major islands of the Lesser Antilles likely emerged less than 20 Ma, during the Miocene . The volcanic activity that formed these islands began in the Paleogene, after a period of volcanism in the Greater Antilles ended, and continues today. The main arc of the Lesser Antilles runs north from

1962-492: The Caribbean Sea to the north. The Northern Range which covers 25% of the land area of Trinidad stretches the entire Northern Coast of Trinidad from the regions of Diego Martin and San Juan–Laventille in the west and through Tunapuna–Piarco to Sangre Grande in the east, is located to the north of the region and is the largest mountain range in the country. It is home to the nation's two tallest mountain peaks, El Cerro del Aripo and El Tucuche which both exceeds 3,070 feet and

2071-523: The Central Range fold and thrust belt consists of Cretaceous and Eocene sedimentary rocks , with Miocene formations along the southern and eastern flanks. The Naparima Plain and the Nariva Swamp form the southern shoulder of this uplift. The Southern Lowlands consist of Miocene and Pliocene sands, clays, and gravels. These overlie oil and natural gas deposits, especially north of

2180-1363: The European world power to which they belong. In the East Indies , there were the Spanish East Indies and the Dutch East Indies . In the West Indies, the Spanish West Indies , the Dutch West Indies , the French West Indies , the British West Indies , and the Danish West Indies . The term was used to name the Spanish Council of the Indies , the British East India Company , the Dutch East India and West India companies,

2289-583: The French East India Company , and the Danish East India Company . Many cultures were indigenous to these islands, with evidence dating some of them back to the mid-6th millennium BCE. In the late 16th century, French, English and Dutch merchants and privateers began operations in the Caribbean Sea , attacking Spanish and Portuguese shipping and coastal areas. They often took refuge and refitted their ships in

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2398-501: The Lesser Antilles group. Both Trinidad and Tobago were originally settled by Indigenous people who came through South America. Trinidad was first settled by pre-agricultural Archaic people at least 7,000 years ago, making it the earliest settled part of the Caribbean. Banwari Trace in south-west Trinidad is the oldest attested archaeological site in the Caribbean, dating to about 5000 BC. Several waves of migration occurred over

2507-671: The Miskito Kingdom of modern-day Nicaragua and Honduras and then began logging on the coast of modern-day Belize . These interconnected commercial and diplomatic relations comprised the Western Caribbean Zone in place in the early-18th century. In the Miskito Kingdom, the rise to power of the Miskito-Zambos , who originated in the survivors of a rebellion aboard a slave ship in the 1640s and

2616-831: The Netherlands Antilles (Dutch West Indies), and the Spanish West Indies . In 1916, Denmark sold the Danish West Indies to the United States for US$ 25 million in gold, per the Treaty of the Danish West Indies . The Danish West Indies became an insular area of the U.S., called the United States Virgin Islands . Between 1958 and 1962, the United Kingdom re-organised all their West Indies island territories (except

2725-772: The North American Plate (older than 539 million years), Jurassic aged limestone (201.3-145 million years ago), as well as island arc deposits and oceanic crust from the Cretaceous (145-66 million years ago). The Greater Antilles originated near the Isthmian region of present-day Central America in the Late Cretaceous (commonly referred to as the Proto-Antilles), then drifted eastward arriving in their current location when colliding with

2834-459: The North Atlantic Ocean . The term is often interchangeable with "Caribbean", although the latter may also include coastal regions of Central and South American mainland nations, including Mexico , Belize , Honduras , Panama , Colombia , Venezuela , French Guiana , Guyana , and Suriname , as well as the Atlantic island nation of Bermuda , all of which are geographically distinct from

2943-743: The Sanskrit Sindhu , or "river", specifically the Indus River and its well-settled southern basin. The ancient Greeks referred to the Indians as Indoi ( Ἰνδοί ), which translates as "The people of the Indus". In 1492, Christopher Columbus and his Spanish fleet left Spain seeking a western sea passage to the Eastern world , hoping to profit from the lucrative spice trade emanating from Hindustan , Indochina , and Insulindia ,

3052-626: The Trinidad Labour Party (TLP), Tubal Uriah "Buzz" Butler of the British Empire Citizens' and Workers' Home Rule Party , and Adrian Cola Rienzi , who led the Trinidad Citizens League (TCL), Oilfields Workers' Trade Union , and All Trinidad Sugar Estates and Factory Workers Union . As the movement developed calls for greater autonomy from British colonial rule became widespread; this effort

3161-555: The West Indies Federation in 1958 as a vehicle for independence, however the Federation dissolved after Jamaica withdrew following a membership referendum in 1961. The government of Trinidad and Tobago subsequently chose to seek independence from the United Kingdom on its own. Trinidad and Tobago gained its independence from the United Kingdom on 31 August 1962. However, Elizabeth II remained head of state, represented locally by Governor-General Solomon Hochoy , until

3270-755: The dry season . The region as well as the rest of the country does not fully observe winter, spring and autumn but experiences similar characteristics of the seasonal changes. The population of the Tunapuna–Piarco region was reported to be 212,825 by the Trinidad and Tobago Central Statistical Office on January 9, 2011. Other areas within the Tunapuna–Piarco Region include Airports Authority of Trinidad and Tobago has its head office at Piarco International Airport , Piarco . Caribbean Airlines had its headquarters in Iere House, Piarco . Prior to

3379-420: The ocelot , West Indian manatee , collared peccary (known as the quenk locally), red-rumped agouti , lappe , red brocket deer , Neotropical otter , weeper capuchin and red howler monkey ; there are also some 70 species of bat , including the vampire bat and fringe-lipped bat . The larger reptiles present include 5 species of marine turtles known to nest on the islands' beaches, the green anaconda ,

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3488-517: The tufted coquette which is the world's third smallest. Information about invertebrates is dispersed and very incomplete. About 650 butterflies, at least 672 beetles (from Tobago alone) and 40 corals have been recorded. Other notable invertebrates include the cockroach , leaf-cutter ant and numerous species of mosquitoes , termites , spiders and tarantulas . Although the list is far from complete, 1,647 species of fungi, including lichens, have been recorded. The true total number of fungi

3597-575: The 1620–40s, with the Dutch, English and Couronians (people from the Duchy of Courland and Semigallia , now part of Latvia ) all attempting to colonise the island with little success. From 1654 the Dutch and Courlanders managed to gain a more secure foothold, later joined by several hundred French settlers. A plantation economy developed based on the production of sugar, indigo and rum, worked by large numbers of African slaves who soon came to vastly outnumber

3706-614: The 1992 Rio Convention on Biological Diversity , and it has produced a biodiversity action plan and four reports describing the country's contribution to biodiversity conservation. These reports formally acknowledged the importance of biodiversity to the well-being of the country's people through provision of ecosystem services . Information about vertebrates is rather comprehensive, with 472 bird species (2 endemics), about 100 mammals, about 90 reptiles (a few endemics), about 30 amphibians (including several endemics), 50 freshwater fish and at least 950 marine fish. Notable mammal species include

3815-552: The Americas in 1498. He also reported seeing Tobago on the distant horizon, naming it Bellaforma , but did not land on the island. In the 1530s Antonio de Sedeño, a Spanish soldier intent on conquering the island of Trinidad, landed on its southwest coast with a small army of men, intending to subdue the Indigenous population of the island. Sedeño and his men fought the native peoples on many occasions, and subsequently built

3924-786: The Bahama Platform of the North American Plate ca. 56 million years ago in the late Paleocene . This collision caused subduction and volcanism in the Proto-Antillean area and likely resulted in continental uplift of the Bahama Platform and changes in sea level. The Greater Antilles have continuously been exposed since the start of the Paleocene or at least since the Middle Eocene (66-40 million years ago), but which areas were above sea level throughout

4033-451: The Bahamas and Turks and Caicos likely formed from accumulated deposits of wind-blown sediments during Pleistocene glacial periods of lower sea level. N.B.: Territories in italics are parts of transregional sovereign states or non-sovereign dependencies. These three Dutch Caribbean territories form the BES islands . Physiographically , these are continental islands not part of

4142-546: The Black Power leaders be arrested. Some army leaders who were sympathetic to the Black Power movement, notably Raffique Shah and Rex Lassalle , attempted to mutiny; however, this was quashed by the Trinidad and Tobago Coast Guard . Williams and the PNM retained power, largely due to divisions in the opposition. In 1963 Tobago was struck by Hurricane Flora , which killed 30 people and resulted in enormous destruction across

4251-464: The British without fighting. Trinidad thus became a British crown colony , with a largely French-speaking population and Spanish laws. British rule was later formalised under the Treaty of Amiens (1802). The colony's first British governor was Thomas Picton , however his heavy-handed approach to enforcing British authority, including the use of torture and arbitrary arrest , led to his being recalled. British rule led to an influx of settlers from

4360-645: The East Indians were imported in the largest numbers, starting from 1 May 1845, when 225 Indians were brought in the first ship to Trinidad on the Fatel Razack , a Muslim-owned vessel. Indentureship of the Indians lasted from 1845 to 1917, during which time more than 147,000 Indians came to Trinidad to work on sugarcane plantations. Indentureship contracts were sometimes exploitative, to such an extent that historians such as Hugh Tinker were to call it "a new system of slavery". Despite these descriptions, it

4469-522: The English pronunciation is /təˈbeɪɡoʊ/ . Indo-Trinidadians called the island Chinidat or Chinidad which translated to the "land of sugar". The usage of the term goes back to the 19th century when recruiters in India would call the island Chinidat as a way of luring workers into indentureship on the sugar plantations. The islands that make up modern-day Trinidad and Tobago lie at the southern end of

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4578-599: The English sailor Sir Walter Raleigh arrived in Trinidad on 22 March 1595 in search of the long-rumoured " El Dorado " ("City of Gold") supposedly located in South America. He attacked San José, captured and interrogated Antonio de Berrío, and obtained much information from him and from the Cacique Topiawari; Raleigh then went on his way, and Spanish authority was restored. Meanwhile, there were numerous attempts by European powers to settle Tobago during

4687-612: The European colonists. Large numbers of forts were constructed as Tobago became a source of contention between France, Netherlands and Britain, with the island changing hands some 31 times prior to 1814, a situation exacerbated by widespread piracy. The British managed to hold Tobago from 1762 to 1781, whereupon it was captured by the French, who ruled until 1793 when Britain re-captured the island. The 17th century on Trinidad passed largely without major incident, but sustained attempts by

4796-444: The King of Spain. The land grant was 30 fanegas (13 hectares/32 acres) for each free man, woman and child and half of that for each slave that they brought with them. The Spanish sent a new governor, José María Chacón , to implement the terms of the new cédula . The Cédula was issued only a few years before the French Revolution . During that period of upheaval, French planters with their slaves, free coloureds and mulattos from

4905-483: The Los Bajos Fault. The Southern Range forms the third anticlinal uplift. The rocks consist of sandstones , shales , siltstones and clays formed in the Miocene and uplifted in the Pleistocene . Oil sands and mud volcanoes are especially common in this area. One of the natural wonders of the island is the Pitch lake lake, a natural pitch lake on the island of Trinidad. Which is the largest naturally occurring deposit of asphalt on Earth. Trinidad and Tobago has

5014-467: The Northern Range and the soils of the East–West Corridor are the most fertile. Trinidad is also notable for containing Pitch Lake , the largest natural reservoir of asphalt in the world. Tobago contains a flat plain in its south-west, with the eastern half of the island being more mountainous, culminating in Pigeon Peak, the island's highest point at 550 metres (1,800 ft). Tobago also contains several coral reefs off its coast. The majority of

5123-473: The Northern Range of Trinidad, the climate is often cooler than that of the sweltering heat of the plains below, due to constant cloud and mist cover, and heavy rains in the mountains. Record temperatures for Trinidad and Tobago are 39 °C (102 °F) for the high in Port of Spain, and a low of 12 °C (54 °F). Because the islands of Trinidad and Tobago lie on the continental shelf of South America, and in ancient times were physically connected to

5232-448: The South American mainland, their biological diversity is unlike that of most other Caribbean islands, and has much more in common with that of Venezuela. The main ecosystems are: coastal and marine (coral reefs, mangrove swamps, open ocean and seagrass beds); forest; freshwater (rivers and streams); karst ; man-made ecosystems (agricultural land, freshwater dams, secondary forest); and savanna. On 1 August 1996, Trinidad and Tobago ratified

5341-421: The Spaniards to control and rule over the Indigenous population was often fiercely resisted. In 1687 the Catholic Catalan Capuchin friars were given responsibility for the conversions of the indigenous people of Trinidad and the Guianas . They founded several missions in Trinidad, supported and richly funded by the state, which also granted encomienda right to them over the native peoples, in which

5450-517: The Spanish never made any concerted effort to colonise the islands; Trinidad in this period was still mostly forest, populated by a few Spaniards with a handful of slaves and a few thousand Indigenous people. Indeed, the population in 1777 was only 1,400, and Spanish colonisation in Trinidad remained tenuous. In 1777, the captain general Luis de Unzaga 'le Conciliateur', married to a French Creole, allowed free trade in Trinidad, attracting French settlers and its economy improved notably. Since Trinidad

5559-443: The United Kingdom and the British colonies of the Eastern Caribbean. English, Scots, Irish, German and Italian families arrived, as well as some free blacks known as " Merikins " who had fought for Britain in the War of 1812 and were granted land in southern Trinidad. Under British rule, new states were created and the importation of slaves increased, however by this time support for abolitionism had vastly increased and in England

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5668-462: The areas the Spanish could not conquer, including the islands of the Lesser Antilles, the northern coast of South America, including the mouth of the Orinoco , and the Atlantic Coast of Central America. In the Lesser Antilles, they managed to establish a foothold following the colonisation of Saint Kitts in 1624 and Barbados in 1626, and when the Sugar Revolution took off in the mid-17th century, they brought in thousands of enslaved Africans to work

5777-571: The birthplace of the steelpan , the limbo , and music styles such as calypso , soca , rapso , parang , chutney , and chutney soca music. The country gets fewer hurricanes than most of the Caribbean because it is farther south. Historian E. L. Joseph claimed that Trinidad's Indigenous name was Cairi or "Land of the Humming Bird ", derived from the Arawak name for hummingbird, ierèttê or yerettê . However, other authors dispute this etymology with some claiming that cairi does not mean hummingbird ( tukusi or tucuchi being suggested as

5886-439: The coast of The Guianas (which fell to the French, English and Dutch) and the Orinoco valley, which fell to the Spanish. The Dutch, allied with the Caribs of the Orinoco, would eventually carry the struggles deep into South America, first along the Orinoco and then along the northern reaches of the Amazon . Since no European country had occupied much of Central America, gradually, the English of Jamaica established alliances with

5995-427: The coast of Venezuela to the Anegada Passage , a strait separating them from the Greater Antilles, and includes 19 active volcanoes. The Lucayan Archipelago includes The Bahamas and the Turks and Caicos Islands , a chain of barrier reefs and low islands atop the Bahama Platform. The Bahama Platform is a carbonate block formed of marine sediments and fixed to the North American Plate. The emergent islands of

6104-440: The coast of northeastern Venezuela and 130 kilometres (70 nautical miles) south of Grenada . It shares maritime boundaries with Barbados to the east, Grenada to the northwest and Venezuela to the south and west. Trinidad and Tobago is generally considered to be part of the West Indies . The island country's capital is Port of Spain , while its largest and most populous municipality is Chaguanas . The island of Trinidad

6213-425: The colony were also subject to certain crown laws which segregated them from the rest of Trinidad and Tobago's population, such as the requirement that they carry a pass with them if they left the plantations, and that if freed, they carry their "Free Papers" or certificate indicating completion of the indenture period. Few Indians settled on Tobago however, and the descendants of African slaves continued to form

6322-513: The correct word) and some claiming that kairi , or iere , simply means island . Christopher Columbus renamed it "La Isla de la Trinidad" ("The Island of the Trinity "), fulfilling a vow made before setting out on his third voyage of exploration. Tobago's cigar-like shape, or the use of tobacco by the native people, may have given it its Spanish name ( cabaco , tavaco , tobacco ) and possibly some of its other Indigenous names, such as Aloubaéra (black conch) and Urupaina (big snail), although

6431-412: The country at the time, holding Robinson and country's government hostage for six days before surrendering. The coup leaders were promised amnesty, but upon their surrender they were arrested, ultimately being released after protracted legal wrangling. The PNM under Patrick Manning returned to power following the 1991 Trinidad and Tobago general election . Hoping to capitalise on an improvement in

6540-454: The country became a founding member state of CARIFTA's successor, the Caribbean Community (CARICOM), which is a political and economic union between several Caribbean countries and territories. Between the years 1972 and 1983, the country profited greatly from the rising price of oil and the discovery of vast new oil deposits in its territorial waters, resulting in an economic boom that substantially increased living standards. In 1976

6649-460: The country became a republic within the Commonwealth , though it retained the Judicial Committee of the Privy Council as its final appellate court. The position of governor-general was replaced with that of President ; Ellis Clarke was the first to hold this largely ceremonial role. Tobago was granted limited self-rule with the creation of the Tobago House of Assembly in 1980. Williams died in 1981, being replaced by George Chambers who led

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6758-568: The country consists of two main islands, Trinidad and Tobago , separated by a 37-kilometre (20-nautical-mile) strait, plus a number of much smaller islands , including Chacachacare , Monos , Huevos , Gaspar Grande (or Gasparee), Little Tobago , and Saint Giles Island . Trinidad is 4,768 km (1,841 sq mi) in area (comprising 93.0% of the country's total area) with an average length of 80 kilometres (50 mi) and an average width of 59 kilometres (37 mi). Tobago has an area of about 300 km (120 sq mi), or 5.8% of

6867-416: The country entered a second oil boom, and petroleum, petrochemicals and natural gas continue to be the backbone of the economy. Tourism and the public service are the mainstay of the economy of Tobago, though authorities have attempted to diversify the island's economy. A partnership resulted in Manning's defeat by the newly formed People's Partnership coalition in 2010, with Kamla Persad-Bissessar becoming

6976-401: The country until 1986. By this time a fall in the price of oil had resulted in a recession, causing rising inflation and unemployment. The main opposition parties united under the banner of National Alliance for Reconstruction (NAR) and won the 1986 Trinidad and Tobago general election , with NAR leader A. N. R. Robinson becoming the new Prime Minister. Robinson was unable to hold together

7085-400: The country's area, is 41 km ( 25 + 1 ⁄ 2  mi) long and 12 km ( 7 + 1 ⁄ 2  mi) at its greatest width. Trinidad and Tobago lie on the continental shelf of South America, and are thus geologically considered to lie entirely in South America. The terrain of the islands is a mixture of mountains and plains. On Trinidad the Northern Range runs parallel with

7194-416: The country's first female prime minister. However, the PP were defeated in 2015 by the PNM under Keith Rowley . In August 2020, the governing People's National Movement won general election , earning the incumbent Prime Minister Keith Rowley a second term in office. Trinidad and Tobago is situated between 10° 2' and 11° 12' N latitude and 60° 30' and 61° 56' W longitude , with the Caribbean Sea to

7303-432: The drainage pattern of Trinidad. The east coast is noted for its beaches, most notably Manzanilla Beach . The island contains several large swamp areas, such as the Caroni Swamp and the Nariva Swamp . Major bodies of water on Trinidad include the Hollis Reservoir , Navet Reservoir , Caroni Reservoir . Trinidad is made up of a variety of soil types, the majority being fine sands and heavy clays. The alluvial valleys of

7412-521: The economy, Manning called an early election in 1995, however, this resulted in a hung parliament . Two NAR representatives backed the opposition United National Congress (UNC), which had split off from the NAR in 1989, and they thus took power under Basdeo Panday , who became the country's first Indo-Trinidadian Prime Minister. After a period of political confusion caused by a series of inconclusive election results, Patrick Manning returned to power in 2001, retaining that position until 2010. In 2003

7521-440: The establishment of Caribbean Airlines, BWIA West Indies Airways was headquartered at Piarco International Airport in Piarco. Trinidad and Tobago Trinidad and Tobago , officially the Republic of Trinidad and Tobago , is the southernmost island country in the Caribbean . Consisting of the main islands Trinidad and Tobago and numerous much smaller islands , it is situated 11 kilometres (6 nautical miles) off

7630-450: The fields and mills as labourers. These enslaved Africans wrought a demographic revolution, replacing or joining with either the indigenous Caribs or the European settlers who were there as indentured servants . The struggle between the northern Europeans and the Spanish spread southward in the mid to late seventeenth century, as English, Dutch, French and Spanish colonists, and in many cases, enslaved Africans first entered and then occupied

7739-430: The first President of the Senate was J. Hamilton Maurice. The 1960s saw the rise of a Black Power movement , inspired in part by the civil rights movement in the United States. Protests and strikes became common, with events coming to head in April 1970 when police shot dead a protester named Basil Davis. Fearing a breakdown of law and order, Prime Minister Williams declared a state of emergency and ordered that many of

7848-585: The following centuries, which can be identified by differences in their archaeological remains. At the time of European contact, Trinidad was occupied by various Arawakan -speaking groups including the Nepoya and Suppoya, and Cariban -speaking groups such as the Yao , while Tobago was occupied by the Island Caribs and Galibi . Christopher Columbus was the first European to see Trinidad, on his third voyage to

7957-593: The fragile NAR coalition, and his economic reforms, such as the implementation of an International Monetary Fund Structural Adjustment Program and devaluation of currency led to social unrest. In 1990, 114 members of the Jamaat al Muslimeen , led by Yasin Abu Bakr (formerly known as Lennox Phillip) stormed the Red House (the seat of Parliament ), and Trinidad and Tobago Television , the only television station in

8066-453: The history of the islands remains unresolved. The oldest rocks in the Greater Antilles are located in Cuba. They consist of metamorphosed graywacke , argillite , tuff , mafic igneous extrusive flows, and carbonate rock . It is estimated that nearly 70% of Cuba consists of karst limestone . The Blue Mountains of Jamaica are a granite outcrop rising over 2,000 meters (6000'), while

8175-525: The infrastructure on Trinidad and provided many locals with well-paying jobs; however, the social effects of having so many young soldiers stationed on the island, as well as their often unconcealed racial prejudice, caused resentment. The Americans left in 1961. In the post-war period the British began a process of decolonisation across the British Empire. In 1945 universal suffrage was introduced to Trinidad and Tobago. Political parties emerged on

8284-519: The introduction of enslaved Africans by British settlers within the Miskito area and in Belize, also transformed this area into one with a high percentage of persons of African descent as was found in most of the rest of the Caribbean. From the 17th through the 19th century, the European colonial territories of the West Indies were the French West Indies , British West Indies , the Danish West Indies ,

8393-450: The island became a Crown colony in 1877. With the sugar industry in a state of near-collapse and the island no longer profitable, the British attached Tobago to their Trinidad colony in 1889. In 1903, a protest against the introduction of new water rates in Port of Spain erupted into rioting; 18 people were shot dead, and the Red House (the government headquarters) was damaged by fire. A local elected assembly with some limited powers

8502-566: The island, however these were largely divided along racial lines: Afro-Trinidadians and Tobagonians primarily supported the People's National Movement (PNM), formed in 1956 by Eric Williams , with Indo-Trinidadians and Tobagonians mostly supporting the People's Democratic Party (PDP), formed in 1953 by Bhadase Sagan Maraj , which later merged into the Democratic Labour Party (DLP) in 1957. Britain's Caribbean colonies formed

8611-523: The island. Partly as a result of this, tourism came to replace agriculture as the island's primary source of income in the subsequent decades. On 1 May 1968, Trinidad and Tobago joined the Caribbean Free Trade Association (CARIFTA), which provided a continued economic, rather than political, linkage between the former British West Indies English-speaking countries after the West Indies Federation failed. On 1 August 1973,

8720-804: The known Indies of the Eastern Hemisphere and the newly discovered Indies of the Western Hemisphere , the Spanish named the territories in the East Indias Orientales (East Indies) and the territories in the West Indias Occidentales (West Indies) . Originally, the term West Indies applied to all of the Americas . The Indies from both regions were further distinguished depending on

8829-455: The less populated colonies of the West Indies, with the least developed plantation infrastructure. The British had begun to take a keen interest in Trinidad, and in 1797 a British force led by General Sir Ralph Abercromby launched an invasion of Trinidad . His squadron sailed through the Bocas and anchored off the coast of Chaguaramas . Seriously outnumbered, Chacón decided to capitulate to

8938-556: The majority of the island's population. An ongoing economic slump in the middle-to-late 19th century caused widespread poverty. Discontent erupted into rioting on the Roxborough plantation in 1876, in an event known as the Belmanna Uprising after a policeman who was killed. The British eventually managed to restore control; however, as a result of the disturbances Tobago's Legislative Assembly voted to dissolve itself and

9047-415: The mountains where the elevation is about 2,500 feet at a moderately high elevation outside of the astronomical tropical zone where it is considered temperate land. Cloud Forest and heavy fog covers the mountains to the north while the rest of the region experiences cloudy skies and heavy rainfall with moderately cool daytime temperatures during the rainy season and dry spells and abundant sunshine in

9156-587: The nations in the West Indian islands. The West Indies are a geologically complex island system consisting of 7,000 islands and islets stretching over 3,000 km (2000 miles) from the Florida peninsula of North America south-southeast to the northern coast of Venezuela . These islands include active volcanoes , low-lying atolls , raised limestone islands, and large fragments of continental crust containing tall mountains and insular rivers. Each of

9265-563: The native peoples were forced to provide labour for the Spanish. One such mission was Santa Rosa de Arima, established in 1689, when Indigenous people from the former encomiendas of Tacarigua and Arauca ( Arouca ) were relocated further west. Escalating tensions between the Spaniards and Indigenous people culminated in violence in 1689, when Indigenous people in the San Rafael encomienda rebelled and killed several priests, attacked

9374-497: The native population was virtually wiped out by the end of the following century. During this period Trinidad was an island province belonging to the Viceroyalty of New Spain , together with Central America, present-day Mexico and what would later become the southwestern United States . In 1757 the capital was moved from San José de Oruña to Puerto de España (modern Port of Spain ) following several pirate attacks. However

9483-476: The neighbouring islands of Martinique , Saint Lucia , Grenada, Guadeloupe and Dominica migrated to Trinidad, where they established an agriculture-based economy (sugar and cocoa). These new immigrants established local communities in Blanchisseuse , Champs Fleurs, Paramin , Cascade, Carenage and Laventille . As a result, Trinidad's population jumped to over 15,000 by the end of 1789, and by 1797

9592-480: The north coast, and contains the country's highest peak ( El Cerro del Aripo ), which is 940 metres (3,080 ft) above sea level, and second highest ( El Tucuche , 936 metres (3,071 ft)). The rest of the island is generally flatter, excluding the Central Range and Montserrat Hills in the centre of the island and the Southern Range and Trinity Hills in the south. The three mountain ranges determine

9701-609: The north, the Atlantic Ocean to the east and south, and the Gulf of Paria to the west. It is located in the far south-east of the Caribbean region, with the island of Trinidad being just 11 kilometres (6 nmi) off the coast of Venezuela in mainland South America across the Columbus Channel . The islands are a physiographic extension of South America . Covering an area of 5,128 km (1,980 sq mi),

9810-476: The passage of the 1976 Republican Constitution. Eric Williams of the People's National Movement became the first Prime Minister , serving in that capacity uninterrupted until 1981. The dominant figure in the opposition in the early independence years was Opposition Leader Rudranath Capildeo of the Democratic Labour Party . The first Speaker of the House of Representatives was Clytus Arnold Thomasos and

9919-562: The population of Port of Spain had increased from under 3,000 to 10,422 in just five years, with a varied population of mixed race individuals, Spaniards, Africans, French republican soldiers, retired pirates and French nobility. The total population of Trinidad was 17,718, of which 2,151 were of European ancestry, 4,476 were "free blacks and people of colour", 10,009 were enslaved people and 1,082 Indigenous people. The sparse settlement and slow rate of population-increase during Spanish rule (and even later during British rule) made Trinidad one of

10028-615: The population reside on the island of Trinidad, and this is thus the location of largest towns and cities . There are four major municipalities in Trinidad: the capital Port of Spain, San Fernando , Arima and Chaguanas . The main town on Tobago is Scarborough . The Northern Range consists mainly of Upper Jurassic and Cretaceous metamorphic rocks . The Northern Lowlands (the East–West Corridor and Caroni Plain ) consist of younger shallow marine clastic sediments . South of this,

10137-674: The regions currently found within the Indian Subcontinent and Southeast Asia , which were first simply referred to by Spanish and Portuguese explorers as the Indias (Indies) . Thinking he had landed on the easternmost part of the Indies in the Eastern world when he came upon the New World , Columbus used the term Indias to refer to the Americas , calling its native people Indios (Indians) . To avoid confusion between

10246-542: The rest of the island to the west consists mainly of karst limestone. Much of Hispaniola, Puerto Rico, and the Virgin Islands were formed by the collision of the Caribbean Plate with the North American Plate and consist of 12 island arc terranes . These terranes consist of oceanic crust , volcanic and plutonic rock . The Lesser Antilles is a volcanic island arc rising along the leading edge of

10355-523: The return passage, the British authorities soon began offering portions of land to encourage settlement, and by 1902, more than half of the sugar cane in Trinidad was being produced by independent cane farmers; the majority of which were Indians. Despite the trying conditions experienced under the indenture system, about 90% of the Indian immigrants chose, at the end of their contracted periods of indenture, to make Trinidad their permanent home. Indians entering

10464-476: The rural and agricultural workers in Trinidad, and encouraged the rise of a labour movement. Conditions on the islands worsened in the 1930s with the onset of the Great Depression , with an outbreak of labour riots occurring in 1937 which resulted in several deaths. The labour movement aimed to unite the urban working class and agricultural labour class; the key figures being Arthur Cipriani , who led

10573-550: The size of Trinidad, Jamaica had roughly 360,000 slaves. After the African slaves were emancipated many refused to continue working on the plantations, often moving out to urban areas such as Laventille and Belmont to the east of Port of Spain. As a result, a severe agricultural labour shortage emerged. The British filled this gap by instituting a system of indentureship . Various nationalities were contracted under this system, including Indians, Chinese, and Portuguese. Of these,

10682-528: The slave trade was under attack. Slavery was abolished in 1833 , after which former slaves served an " apprenticeship " period. In 1837 Daaga, a West African slave trader who had been captured by Portuguese slavers and later rescued by the British navy, was conscripted into the local regiment. Daaga and a group of his compatriots mutinied at the barracks in St Joseph and set out eastward in an attempt to return to their homeland. The mutineers were ambushed by

10791-429: The strike was the first time of cooperation between the various ethnic groups of the time. Historian Brinsley Samaroo says that the 1919 strikes "seem to indicate that there was a growing class consciousness after the war and this transcended racial feelings at times." However, in the 1920s, the collapse of the sugarcane industry, concomitant with the failure of the cocoa industry, resulted in widespread depression among

10900-507: The three archipelagos of the West Indies has a unique origin and geologic composition. The Greater Antilles is geologically the oldest of the three archipelagos and includes both the largest islands ( Cuba , Jamaica , Hispaniola , and Puerto Rico ) and the tallest mountains ( Pico Duarte , Blue Mountain , Pic la Selle , Pico Turquino ) in the Caribbean. The islands of the Greater Antilles are composed of strata of different geological ages including Precambrian fragmented remains of

11009-634: The three main island groups, but culturally related. The English term Indie is derived from the Classical Latin India , a reference to the territories in South Asia adjacent and east to the Indus River . India itself derived successively from Hellenistic Greek India ( Ἰνδία ), ancient Greek Indos ( Ἰνδός ), Old Persian Hindush (an eastern province of the Achaemenid Empire ), and ultimately its cognate ,

11118-748: The volcanic Windward Islands arc. Based on proximity, these islands are sometimes grouped with the Windward Islands culturally and politically. Disputed territories administered by Colombia . The United Nations geoscheme includes Mexico in Central America . These three form the SSS islands that with the ABC islands comprise the Dutch Caribbean , of which the BES islands are not direct Kingdom constituents but subsumed with

11227-793: Was a part of the names of several companies of the 17th and 18th centuries, including the Danish West India Company , the Dutch West India Company , the French West India Company , and the Swedish West India Company . West Indian is the official term used by the U.S. government to refer to people of the West Indies. The term survives today mainly through the West Indies cricket team , representing all of

11336-517: Was considered underpopulated, Roume de St. Laurent, a Frenchman living in Grenada , was able to obtain a Cédula de Población from the Spanish king Charles III on 4 November 1783. A Cédula de Población had previously been granted in 1776 by the king, but had not shown results, and therefore the new Cédula was more generous. It granted free land and tax exemption for 10 years to Roman Catholic foreign settlers who were willing to swear allegiance to

11445-537: Was inhabited for centuries by Indigenous peoples before becoming a colony in the Spanish Empire , following the arrival of Christopher Columbus , in 1498. Spanish governor José María Chacón surrendered the island to a British fleet under the command of Sir Ralph Abercromby in 1797. Trinidad and Tobago were ceded to Britain in 1802 under the Treaty of Amiens as separate states and unified in 1889. Trinidad and Tobago obtained independence in 1962, and became

11554-407: Was introduced in 1913. Economically Trinidad and Tobago remained a predominantly agricultural colony; alongside sugarcane, the cacao ( cocoa ) crop also contributed greatly to economic earnings in the late 19th and early 20th centuries. In November 1919, the dockworkers went on strike over bad management practices, low wages compared to a higher cost of living. Strikebreakers were brought in to keep

11663-455: Was not truly a new form of slavery, as workers were paid, contracts were finite, and the idea of an individual being another's property had been eliminated when slavery was abolished. In addition, employers of indentured labour had no legal right to flog or whip their workers; the main legal sanction for the enforcement of the indenture laws was prosecution in the courts, followed by fines or (more likely) jail sentences. People were contracted for

11772-554: Was responsible for a growing middle class among all sections of the Trinidad population. The collapse of Trinidad's major agricultural commodities, followed by the Depression, and the rise of the oil economy, led to major changes in the country's social structure. The presence of American military bases in Chaguaramas and Cumuto in Trinidad during World War II had a profound effect on society. The Americans vastly improved

11881-582: Was severely undermined by the British Home Office and by the British-educated Trinidadian elite, many of whom were descended from the plantocracy class. Petroleum had been discovered in 1857, but became economically significant only in the 1930s and afterwards as a result of the collapse of sugarcane and cocoa, and increasing industrialization. By the 1950s petroleum had become a staple in Trinidad's export market, and

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