71-530: The Democratic Action Congress (DAC) was a Tobago -based political party in Trinidad and Tobago . The party was established in 1971 by A. N. R. Robinson , and was originally an autonomist party. It first contested general elections in 1976 , in which it won both Tobago seats, taken by Robinson and Winston Murray . The party went on to dominate the Tobago House of Assembly , and retained both seats in
142-403: A 4-foot (1.2-metre) jewfish , a member of the grouper family. The wreck was purposely sunk for divers, and so all the doors and windows were removed. The waters around the island are home to many species of tropical fish, rays , sharks, and turtles. Tobago is home to two golf courses, both of which are open to visitors. The older of the two is Mount Irvine Hotel Golf Course, built in 1968. It
213-462: A buffer against neighbouring states. With this goal in mind, the Dutch dispatched explorer Jacob Cornelisz to survey the area in 1597. His clerk, Adriaen Cabeliau, related the voyage of Cornelisz and his survey of Indian groups and areas of potential trade partnerships in his diary. Throughout the seventeenth century, the Dutch made gains by establishing trading colonies and outposts in the region and in
284-613: A cave on the island of Dominica . The earliest known record of the use of the name Tabaco to refer to the island is a Spanish royal order issued in 1511. That name was inspired by the resemblance of the shape of the island to the fat cigars smoked by the Taíno inhabitants of the Greater Antilles. Tobago was settled by indigenous people belonging to the Ortoiroid cultural tradition some time between 3500 and 1000 BCE. In
355-642: A growing proportion of the population in Guyana and Suriname. Javanese Surinamese are another major group in Suriname, who are descendants of indentured labourers recruited from Dutch colonies in Indonesia, and both Guyana and Suriname have Chinese and Portuguese communities, as well as a small number of Jews in Suriname . French Guiana's population is largely African; there are also minorities of European, Chinese, and Hmong descent. French Guiana has also been
426-570: A number of English, French and Dutch outposts that either failed or were expelled by the Portuguese. To the west, Spanish Guyana was thinly settled and interacted slightly with Pomeroon. Before the arrival of European colonials, the Guianas were populated by scattered bands of native Arawak people. The native tribes of the Northern amazon forests are most closely related to the natives of
497-584: A period of stability during which plantation culture began. Sugar, cotton and indigo factories sprang up and Africans were imported by the British to work as slaves. The economy flourished. France had abandoned the island to Britain in 1763, and by 1777 Tobago was exporting great quantities of cotton, indigo, rum and sugar. In 1781, the French retook the island during the Invasion of Tobago . On 24 May 1781,
568-462: A road along the northeast coast. There has also been damage to the reef in Charlotteville village caused by sealing the road at Flagstaff Hill and diverting more silty water down the stream from Flagstaff down to Charlotteville. The Guianas The Guianas , also spelled Guyanas or Guayanas , is a geographical region in north-eastern South America . Strictly, the term refers to
639-676: A single seat. In the 2007 national general elections the party failed to win a seat, despite forming an alliance known as the Tobago United Front. From this grouping emerged a new party— the Tobago Organisation of the People . Whilst the majority of the DAC supported the merger, Charles withdrew from the merger claiming that the DAC still existed as a separate organisation. However, it did not put forward any candidates for
710-484: A subsequent reinforcement later in the year, only two individuals remained alive long enough to reach the Dutch settlement on the Pomeroon River in 1645, begging for refuge. Though some trading outposts that could be considered permanent settlements were founded as early as 1624, French “possession” of the land now known as French Guiana is not recognised as having taken place until at least 1637. Cayenne itself,
781-622: A sugar-cultivating area, so the commandeur began shifting focus toward the development of the region, signifying his intentions by transferring the administrative center of the colony from Fort Kijkoveral to Flag Island, on the mouth of the Essequibo River, further east and closer to Demerara. These operations were carried out by Gravesande, acting as the Secretary of the Company under Gelskerke. Upon Gelskerke’s death, Gravesande continued
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#1732790751834852-589: A ward of Trinidad, thus terminating local government on Tobago and forming a unified colony government. In 1945 when the county council system was first introduced, Tobago was administered as a single county of Trinidad. In 1980 provisions were made for the Tobago House of Assembly to be revived as an entity providing local government in Tobago. Under the revived system, Tobago is made up of 12 local electoral districts with each district electing one Assemblyman to
923-400: Is along the coast. Due to the jungles to the south, the Guianas are one of the most sparsely populated regions on Earth. Prior to c. 1815 there was a string of mostly Dutch settlements along the coast which changed hands several times. They were mostly several miles upriver to avoid the coastal marshes which were only drained later. To the east and up the lower Amazon, there were
994-468: Is also a popular diving location, since it is the southernmost of the Caribbean islands that have coral communities. Trinidad, which is further south, has no significant coral because of low salinity and high silt content, the result of its position close to the mouth of Venezuela 's Orinoco River . Scuba diving on Tobago tends to be centred at Speyside , almost diametrically across the island from
1065-573: Is also one of the most racially diverse regions on Earth, particularly in Guyana, Suriname, and French Guiana, due to their long histories of migration to the region brought by slavery and indentured labour. The entire region has a large Amerindian population of the Arawak and Carib language groups. There are a number of uncontacted peoples in the region due to the region's isolation. The two largest ethnic groups in Guyana and Suriname are Indians , who are largely descended from indentured labourers from
1136-416: Is based on tourism, fishing, and government spending, government spending being the largest. The local governing body, the Tobago House of Assembly (THA), employs 62% of the labor force. Tourism is still a fledgling industry. Conventional beach and water-sports tourism is largely in the southwest around the airport and the coastal strip. Meanwhile, ecotourism is growing in significance, much of it focused on
1207-581: Is documented in his books The Discoverie of the Large, Rich, and Bewtiful Empyre of Guiana , published first in 1596, and The Discovery of Guiana, and the Journal of the Second Voyage Thereto , published in 1606. After the publication of Raleigh's accounts, several other European powers developed interest in the Guianas. The Dutch joined in the exploration of the Guianas before the end of
1278-589: Is linked to the world through the Arthur Napoleon Raymond Robinson International Airport (formerly Crown Point Airport) and Scarborough harbour. Domestic flights connect Tobago with Trinidad, and international flights connect with the Caribbean and Europe. There is a daily fast ferry service between Port of Spain and Scarborough. Tobago's economy is tightly linked with Trinidad's, which is based on liquefied natural gas (LNG), petrochemicals, and steel. Tobago
1349-634: Is one of the only creole languages that uses its own script, called Afaka syllabary . Pidgin languages spoken in the Guianas include Panare Trade Spanish , a pidgin between the Panare language and Spanish ; and Ndyuka-Tiriyó Pidgin , a pidgin spoken in Suriname until the 1960s formed between the creole Ndyuka language and the Amerindian Tiriyó language . Extinct creole languages in the Guianas are Skepi Creole Dutch and Berbice Creole Dutch , both based on Dutch and spoken in Guyana. The Guianas
1420-517: Is one that is inland, with a population of over 1 million people, Ciudad Bolivar with a population of 410,000 as well as another major city, Puerto Ayacucho , with a population of 41,000. Spanish , English , Dutch , French , and Portuguese are spoken in the Guianas: in Guayana , Guyana , Suriname , French Guiana , and Amapá , respectively. Suriname is the only sovereign nation, other than
1491-628: Is the main exposed portion of the Tobago terrane , a fragment of crustal material lying between the Caribbean and South American Plates . Tobago is primarily hilly, mountainous and of volcanic origin. The southwest of the island is flat and consists largely of coralline limestone . The mountainous spine of the island is called the Main Ridge . The highest point in Tobago is the 550 metres (1,800 ft) Pigeon Peak near Speyside . The climate
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#17327907518341562-555: Is tropical, and the island lies just south of the Atlantic Main Development Region , making it vulnerable to occasional low-latitude tropical cyclones . Average rainfall varies between 3,800 mm (150 inches) on the Main Ridge to less than 1,250 mm (49 inches) in the southwest. There are two seasons: a wet season between June and December, and a dry season between January and May. The island
1633-528: The 1981 elections . In 1986 the party merged into the National Alliance for Reconstruction . However, after the NAR lost control of the Tobago House of Assembly in 2001, an attempt was made to oust Hochoy Charles as the NAR leader in Tobago in 2004. As a result, Charles left the NAR and re-formed the DAC. In the 2005 elections the DAC routed the NAR (which was reduced to just 113 votes), but only won
1704-454: The 2009 elections . Tobago Tobago ( / t ə ˈ b eɪ ɡ oʊ / ) is an island and ward within the Republic of Trinidad and Tobago . It is located 35 kilometres (22 mi) northeast of the larger island of Trinidad and about 160 kilometres (99 mi) off the northeastern coast of Venezuela . It lies to the southeast of Grenada and southwest of Barbados . Tobago
1775-456: The 2015 and 2020 Trinidad and Tobago general election . Historically, Tobago was divided into seven parishes (Saint Andrew, Saint David, Saint George, Saint John, Saint Mary, Saint Patrick and Saint Paul). In 1768 each parish of Tobago nominated representatives to the Tobago House of Assembly . On 20 October 1889 the British crown implemented a Royal Order in Council constituting Tobago as
1846-514: The Bhojpuri regions of India, with smaller numbers from South India ; and Africans , descendants of enslaved West Africans brought to the region during colonial times. Africans are further divided into Creoles, who are located along the coastal regions, and Maroons , who are descendants of people who escaped slavery into the interior regions of the country. Multiracial people, who are largely Dougla people , of African and Indian descent, make up
1917-596: The Caribbean ; most evidence suggests that the Arawaks immigrated from the Orinoco and Essequibo River Basins in Venezuela and Guiana into the northern islands, and were then supplanted by more warlike tribes of Carib Indians , who departed from these same river valleys a few centuries later. Over the centuries of the pre-colonial period , the ebb and flow of power between Arawak and Carib interests throughout
1988-685: The Dutch States-General , but even a few years prior to the official chartering a fort and trading post had been built at Kijkoveral, under the supervision of Aert Groenewegen, at the confluence of the Essequibo, Cuyuni , and Mazaruni Rivers . British settlers also succeeded in establishing a small settlement in 1606 and a much larger one in modern-day Suriname in 1650, under the leadership of former Barbadian governor Francis Willoughby, Lord Parham . The French had also made less significant attempts at colonisation , first in 1604 along
2059-517: The Louisiana Purchase and had lost all but Guadeloupe , Martinique , and French Guiana in the Caribbean region. The Dutch lost Berbice , Essequibo, and Demerara; these colonies were consolidated under a central British administration and would be known after 1831 as British Guiana . The Dutch retained Suriname. After 1814, the Guianas came to be recognised individually as British Guiana , French Guiana , and Dutch Guiana . Due to
2130-579: The Sinnamary River . The settlement collapsed within a summer, and initial attempts at settlement near modern-day Cayenne , beginning in 1613, were met with similar setbacks. French priorities — land acquisition and Catholic conversion — were not easily reconciled with the difficulties of initial settlement-building on the Wild Coast. Even as late as 1635, the King of France granted permission to
2201-785: The Walt Disney Company as the setting for a film based upon the Johann Wyss novel Swiss Family Robinson . When producers saw the island for the first time, they "fell instantly in love". The script required animals, which were brought from all around the world, including eight dogs, two giant tortoises, forty monkeys, two elephants, six ostriches, four zebras, one hundred flamingos, six hyenas, two anacondas, and one tiger. Filming locations include Richmond Bay (the Robinsons beach), Mount Irvine Bay (the Pirates beach), and
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2272-655: The 15 seats in the Assembly, with the Tobago Council of the People's National Movement led by Ancil Dennis controlling one seat since the December 2021 Tobago House of Assembly election . Tobago is represented by two seats in the Parliament of Trinidad and Tobago , Tobago East and Tobago West. The two seats are controlled by the Tobago Council of the People's National Movement , which won and retained them in
2343-470: The British in 1814. In 1662, the Dutch brothers Adrian and Cornelius Lampsins were granted the title of Barons of Tobago, and ruled until the English captured the island in 1666. Adrian briefly recaptured Tobago in 1673, but was killed in battle when the English, under Sir Tobias Bridge , yet again took control of the island. From about 1672, during the temporary English rule of 1672–1674, Tobago had
2414-587: The Caribbean resulted in a great deal of intermingling (some forced through capture, some accidental through contact). This ethnic mixing, particularly in the Caribbean margins like the Guianas, produced a hybridised culture. Despite their political rivalry, the ethnic and cultural blending between the two groups had reached such a level that, by the time the Europeans arrived, the Carib/Arawak complex in Guiana
2485-545: The Craig Hall Waterfalls. The treehouse was constructed in a 200-foot tall saman in the Goldsborough Bay area. After filming, locals convinced Disney, who had intended to remove all evidence of filmmaking, to let the treehouse remain, without interior furnishing. In 1960, the treehouse was listed for sale for $ 9,000, a fraction of its original cost, and became a popular attraction before the structure
2556-461: The Guianas in 1498, but real interest in the exploration and colonisation of the Guianas, which came to be known as the "Wild Coast," did not begin until the end of the sixteenth century. In 1542, when Francisco de Orellana reached the mouth of the Amazon, he was pushed by winds and currents northwest along the Guiana coast until he reached a Spanish settlement west of Trinidad. Walter Raleigh began
2627-655: The Guianas, but this was cut short by the untimely death of the Grand Duke. English and Dutch settlers were regularly harassed by the Spanish and Portuguese, who viewed settlement of the area as a violation of the Treaty of Tordesillas . In 1613, Dutch trading posts on the Essequibo and Corantijn Rivers were completely destroyed by Spanish troops. The troops had been sent into the Guianas from neighbouring Venezuela under
2698-510: The Island of Tobago, who colonized the island intermittently between 1637 and 1690. Over the ensuing years, the Curonians ( Duchy of Courland ), Dutch, English, French, Spanish and Swedish had caused Tobago to become a focal point in repeated attempts of colonization, which led to the island having changed hands 33 times, the most in Caribbean history, before the Treaty of Paris ceded it to
2769-708: The Kalinago of the Lesser Antilles and their Kalina allies and trading partners in the Guianas and Venezuela . In the 1630s Tobago was inhabited by the Kalina, while the neighbouring island of Grenada was shared by the Kalina and Kalinago. Columbus sighted Tobago on 14 August 1498, during his fourth voyage, but he did not land. The Spanish settlers in Hispaniola were authorised to conduct slave raids against
2840-1134: The Netherlands, where Dutch is the sole official language. Languages spoken locally by specific ethnic groups include Arawakan and Cariban languages, Caribbean Hindustani , Maroon languages , Javanese , Chinese , Hmong , Haitian Creole , and Arabic . The diverse population and isolation of the region has led to the development of a number of creole and pidgin languages; these include Guyanese Creole in Guyana, Sranan Tongo , Saramaccan , Ndyuka , Matawai , and Kwinti in Suriname, and French Guianese Creole in French Guiana, and Karipúna French Creole in Amapa. These creole languages are based on English in Suriname and Guyana with significant influence from Dutch , Arawak , Cariban , Javanese , Hindustani , West African languages , Chinese , and Portuguese . French Guianese Creole and Karipuna French Creole are based on French with influences from Brazilian Portuguese and Arawak and Cariban languages. Ndyuka
2911-656: The Saladoid culture was replaced by the Troumassoid tradition in Tobago. Troumassoid traditions were once thought to represent the settlement of the Island Caribs in the Lesser Antilles and Tobago, but this is now associated with the Cayo ceramic tradition. No archaeological sites exclusively associated with the Cayo tradition are known from Tobago. Tobago's location made it an important point of connection between
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2982-492: The THA. The population was 60,874 at the 2011 census. The capital, Scarborough , has a population of 17,537. While Trinidad is multiethnic , Tobago's population is primarily of African descent, with a growing proportion of Trinidadians of East Indian descent and Europeans. Between 2000 and 2011, the population of Tobago grew by 12.55 percent, making it one of the fastest-growing areas of Trinidad and Tobago . Tobago's main economy
3053-523: The airport. The island has some of the best diving sites in the Caribbean. There are three wrecks located around its shores, but the one usually considered the best is the Maverick Ferry , which used to travel between Trinidad and Tobago. The ferry is 350 feet (110 metres) long and has been sunk in 30 metres (98 feet) just off Rocky Point, Mt. Irvine. The top of the wreck is at 15 metres (49 feet). The wreck has an abundance of marine life, including
3124-463: The century. Between the start of the Dutch Revolt in 1568 and 1648, when the Treaty of Münster was signed with the Spanish, the Dutch cobbled together different ethnicities and tribes and religious faiths into a viable economic entity. When beginning an empire, the Dutch concerned themselves more with trade and establishing viable networks and outposts than with claiming tracts of land to act as
3195-476: The colonies along the Guiana coast were converted to profitable sugar plantations during the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries. War continued off and on among the three principal powers in the Guianas (the Netherlands, France, and Britain) until a final peace was signed in 1814 (the Convention of London ), heavily favouring the British. By this time France had sold off most of its North American territory in
3266-502: The colonies, though his policy was in many ways an extension of his predecessor, Hermanus Gelskerke. Commandeur Gelskerke had begun pressing for change from a trading focus to one of cultivation, especially of sugar . The area east of the existing Essequibo colony, known as Demerara , was relatively isolated and encompassed the trading areas of just a few indigenous tribes, thus it contained only two trading outposts during Gelskerke’s term of office. Demerara, though, showed great potential as
3337-428: The competition from sugar with other European countries, marked the end of the sugar trade. In 1889, the island became a ward of Trinidad. Without sugar, the islanders had to grow other crops, planting acres of limes, coconuts and cocoa and exporting their produce to Trinidad. In 1963, Hurricane Flora ravaged Tobago, destroying the villages and crops. A restructuring programme followed and attempts were made to diversify
3408-501: The dancing blue-backed manakin ), mammals, frogs, (non-venomous) snakes, butterflies and other invertebrates. Tobago also has nesting beaches for the leatherback turtle , which come to shore between April and July. The island of Tobago has multiple coral reef ecosystems. The Buccoo Reef , the Culloden Reef and Speyside Reef are the three largest coral reef marine ecosystems in Tobago. These coral reef systems protect
3479-485: The economy changed direction away from cash crop agriculture and toward tourism. Hurricane Ivan , while less severe than Flora, also caused significant damage in 2004. Central and local government functions in Tobago are handled by the Tobago House of Assembly . The current Chief Secretary of Tobago is Farley Chavez Augustine from the Progressive Democratic Patriots , which controls 14 of
3550-540: The economy. The development of a tourist industry began. Trinidad and Tobago obtained independence from the British Empire in August 1962 and became a republic on 31 August 1976. Tobago has a land area of 300 km and is approximately 40 kilometres (25 miles) long and 10 kilometres (6.2 miles) wide. It is located at latitude 11° 15' N, longitude 60° 40' W, slightly north of Trinidad. The island of Tobago
3621-536: The exploration of the Guianas in earnest in 1594. He was in search of a great golden city at the headwaters of the Caroní River . A year later he explored what is now Guyana and eastern Venezuela in search of "Manoa", the legendary city of the king known as El Dorado . Raleigh described the city of El Dorado as being located on Lake Parime far up the Orinoco River in Guyana. Much of his exploration
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#17327907518343692-552: The first century of the Common Era , Saladoid people settled in Tobago. They brought with them pottery-making and agricultural traditions, and are likely to have introduced crops which included cassava , sweet potatoes , Indian yam , tannia and corn . Saladoid cultural traditions were later modified by the introduction of the Barrancoid culture, either by trade or a combination of trade and settlement. After 650 CE,
3763-454: The first permanent settlement of comparable size to the Dutch colonies, experienced instability until 1643. The Dutch appointed a new governor of the Guiana settlements in 1742. In this year, Laurens Storm van 's Gravesande took over the region. He held the position for three decades, coordinating the development and expansion of the Dutch colonies from his plantation Soesdyke in Demerara . Gravesande’s tenure brought significant change to
3834-405: The fleet of Comte de Grasse landed troops on the island under the command of General Marquis de Bouillé. By 2 June 1781, they had successfully gained control of the island. In 1814, when the island again came under British control, another phase of successful sugar-production began. But a severe hurricane in 1847, combined with the collapse of plantation underwriters, end of slavery in 1834 and
3905-422: The island in a royal order issued in 1511. These raids, which continued until at least the 1620s, decimated the island's population. In 1628, Dutch settlers established the first European settlement in Tobago, a colony they called Nieuw Walcheren at Great Courland Bay. They also built a fort, Nieuw Vlissingen, near the modern town of Plymouth . The settlement was abandoned in 1630 after indigenous attacks, but
3976-427: The isolated geography of the Guianas, the region is one of the most isolated and sparsely populated on Earth. In most of the region, the population is almost entirely concentrated on the coast of the Atlantic Ocean at the mouth of river deltas, in the cities of Georgetown , Paramaribo , Cayenne , and Macapá . However, in Venezuela, major cities are inland: the largest city in the Guianas, Ciudad Guayana in Venezuela,
4047-448: The large area of protected forest in the centre and north of the main island and on Little Tobago , a small island off the main island's northeast tip. The southwestern tourist area around Crown Point, Store Bay, Buccoo Reef, and Pigeon Point has large expanses of sand and is dominated by resort-type developments. Tobago has many idyllic beaches along its coastline, especially those at Castara , Bloody Bay, and Englishman's Bay . Tobago
4118-441: The neighbouring Caribbean islands under the banner of the Dutch West India Company . The company, established in 1621 for such purposes, benefited from a larger investment of capital than the English, primarily through foreign investors like Isaac de Pinto , a Portuguese Jew. The area was also cursorily explored by Amerigo Vespucci and Vasco Núñez de Balboa , and in 1608 the Grand Duchy of Tuscany also organised an expedition to
4189-431: The policy of Demerara expansion and the move to sugar cultivation. Conflict among the British, Dutch, and French continued throughout the seventeenth century. The Treaty of Breda (1667) sealed peace between the English and the Dutch. The treaty allowed the Dutch to retain control over the valuable sugar plantations and factories on the coast of Suriname which had been secured by Abraham Crijnssen earlier in 1667. All
4260-411: The premise of stamping out privateering and with the support of a cédula passed by the Spanish Council of the Indies and King Philip III . Nonetheless, the Dutch returned in 1615, founding a new settlement at present-day Cayenne (later abandoned in favour of Suriname ), one on the Wiapoco River (now more commonly known as the Oyapock) and one on the upper Amazon. By 1621, a charter was granted by
4331-415: The shores of Tobago from eroding. Little Tobago , the small neighbouring island, supports some of the best dry forest remaining in Tobago. Little Tobago and St Giles Island are important seabird nesting colonies, with red-billed tropicbirds , magnificent frigatebirds and Audubon's shearwaters , among others. Coral reefs have been damaged recently by silt and mud runoff during construction of
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#17327907518344402-406: The size and location of the island in Robinson Crusoe , described as being located close to Trinidad and the mouth of Orinoco . However, the book is generally thought to be based on the experiences of Alexander Selkirk , who was marooned in the Pacific's Juan Fernández Islands , on the island later named after Robinson Crusoe . On Tobago, there is Crusoe Cave . In 1958, Tobago was chosen by
4473-400: The three Guianas: Guyana , Suriname , and French Guiana , formerly British, Dutch, and French Guiana. Broadly, it refers to the South American coast from the mouth of the Orinoco to the mouth of the Amazon. Politically it is divided into: The three Guianas proper have a combined population of 1,718,651; Guyana: 804,567, Suriname: 612,985, and French Guiana: 301,099 Most of the population
4544-450: The whole of Guiana to a joint-stock company of Norman merchants. When these merchants made a settlement near the modern city of Cayenne, failure ensued. Eight years later, a reinforcement contingent led by Charles Poncet de Brétigny found only a few of the original colonists left alive, living among the aborigines. Later that year, among the combined total of the original surviving settlers, the reinforcement contingent led by de Brétigny, and
4615-422: Was destroyed by Hurricane Flora in 1963. The tree still remains, however, and is located on the property of the Roberts Auto Service and Tyre Shop, located in Goldsborough, just off of Windward Road. A local Tobago resident says, "The tree has fallen into obscurity; only a few of the older people knew of its significance. As a matter of fact, not many people know of the film Swiss Family Robinson , much less that it
4686-470: Was filmed here in Tobago." The Tobago Forest Reserve (Main Ridge Reserve) is the oldest protected rain forest in the Western hemisphere and is biodiverse. It was designated a protected Crown reserve on 17 April 1776 after representations by Soame Jenyns , a Member of Parliament in Britain responsible for Tobago's development. It has remained a protected area since. This forested area has great biodiversity , including many species of birds (such as
4757-411: Was named Belaforme by Christopher Columbus "because from a distance it seemed beautiful". The Spanish friar Antonio Vázquez de Espinosa wrote that the Kalina (mainland Caribs) called the island Urupina because of its resemblance to a big snail, while the Kalinago (Island Caribs) called it Aloubaéra , supposedly because it resembled the alloüebéra , a giant snake which was supposed to live in
4828-449: Was re-established in 1633. The new colony was destroyed by the Spanish in Trinidad after the Dutch supported a Nepoyo-led revolt in Trinidad. Attempts by the English to colonize Tobago in the 1630s and 1640s also failed due to indigenous resistance. The indigenous population also prevented European colonization in the 1650s, including an attempt by the Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth , but the Polish or Lithuanian explorers did not colonize
4899-418: Was seen throughout the world after hosting the popular golf show "Shell's Wonderful World of Golf". The course is built amongst coconut palms and has a view of the Caribbean Sea from almost every hole. Formerly known as Tobago Plantations Golf Course, the recently renamed Magdalena Grand Hotel & Golf Club was opened in 2001 and has hosted the European Seniors Tour on three occasions. Tobago roughly matches
4970-406: Was so homogeneous that the two groups were almost indistinguishable to outsiders. Through the contact period following Columbus's arrival, the term "Guiana" was used to refer to all areas between the Orinoco, the Rio Negro , and the Amazon , and was seen so much as a unified, isolated entity that it was often referred to as the “Island of Guiana.” Christopher Columbus first spotted the coast of
5041-440: Was struck by Hurricane Flora in 1963. The effects were so severe that they changed the face of Tobago's economy. The hurricane laid waste to the banana, coconut, and cacao plantations that largely sustained the economy, and it wreaked considerable damage on the largely pristine tropical rainforest that makes up a large proportion of the interior of the island's northern half. Many of the plantations were subsequently abandoned, and
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