Jamaica History part I (European colonisation) 1494 - 1692

Drawing of Spanish Town, former capital town in
Jamaica

Wednesday,  February 1, 2006

The recorded history of Jamaica may be roughly divided into six periods: The first period may be said to date from Columbus’ arrival in the island in 1494 to the destruction of Port Royal in 1692. This covers nearly 200 years. But very little is known about the days when the Spaniards were masters of Jamaica. On the other hand, a good deal is known about the first fifty years of Jamaica as a British colony.

The second period of our history extends from the destruction of Port Royal to the abolition of the slave trade in 1807. During this time Jamaica flourished as an agricultural colony and became very rich. It reached the height of its prosperity just before the slave trade was abolished; that is, just before the British Government decided that no more slaves were to be brought from Africa and sold as private property.
The third period of Jamaican history covers the years between the abolition of the slave trade and the Morant Bay rebellion in 1865. During the 46 years between the abolition of the slave trade and the rebellion, the country passed through many misfortunes and there was a great deal of misery and ill-feeling among the different classes of people in the island.

The fourth period dates from 1865 to the end of July, 1914.

The fifth period began with the outbreak of the First World War on August 1, 1914 and ended on August 1962.

The sixth period began on August 6, 1962, and records the history of Jamaica as an independent country.

In 1494 on May 4, Christopher Columbus arrived at the island of Jamaica. This was on his second voyage to the New World, which was afterwards called America. Columbus annexed the island in the name of his master and mistress, the King and Queen of Spain. But it was not occupied until Juan de Esquivel came from Santo Domingo in 1509 and for 146 years Jamaica remained a Spanish colony.

Jamaica was then inhabited by a gentle race of people called the Arawaks or Tainos. They had probably come from the country now known as Guyana, where Arawak Indians are still to be found. They were short people, rather stout, with straight black hair and flattish noses; they were copper-coloured. They lived in huts shaped like those of the peasants of Jamaica. They slept in hammocks. They made rough seats of wood, and spears tipped with stone, or with the teeth of sharks. They did not have the bow and arrow. The men were skilful fishermen, and caught fish and turtle to eat. They made their cooking vessels out of clay, and burnt them in fire until they became hard. The women grew cassava, corn and sweet potatoes for food. Cotton grew wild in the island, and they twisted the fibre into cloth, strips of which they wore around their waists. They also wore strings of beads and shells.

But the Spaniards made slaves of them and put them to difficult tasks. The Spaniards treated the Arawaks so harshly that in about fifty years all of them were dead. They had numbered fully sixty thousand. The Spaniards got slaves from Africa to take their place.

The Spaniards first settled on that part of the northern coast of Jamaica, which is now known as the parish of St Ann. There they built a town called Sevilla Nueva, or New Seville. Afterwards they moved to the southern part of the island and built the town of St Jago de la Vega (St James of the Plain), which is still called Spanish Town. The island was given to the Columbus family as a personal estate in 1540, but they did nothing to develop it. The Spanish colony in Jamaica was never a very large or a very flourishing one.

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