The Early History Of Jamaica And Development

In 1655 a force of 2,500 men in a large fleet of ships set out from England with orders to seize any Spanish West Indian possession which could be used as a base for the conquest of all Central America. This was the first direct challenge to Spanish supremacy in the Caribbean. Up to that time the only non-Spanish settlements in the area were the smaller islands which Spain had never bothered to occupy.

The expedition touched first at Barbados, where a further 4,000 men were recruited. Most of these were dissatisfied British indentured servants glad of the opportunity to leave the colony. After still more men had been added to their numbers as they sailed northwards through the Leeward Islands, an attempt was made to capture Hispaniola. It failed, so the leaders decided to try to take Jamaica instead.

This time they were successful, though the Spaniards with the aid of their freed slaves, the Maroons, and with occasional reinforcements from Cuba were able to fight on in the hills for five years before they were finally overcome. This is a brief overview history of Jamaica. Even then the Maroons did not submit and, as their numbers were continually reinforced by escaped slaves, they resisted conquest. Some of their descendants remain to this day, living in semi-isolation in the hills in the interior of the island.

Throughout the century and a half of Spanish occupation Jamaica was poorly developed. Manual labor was scarce, for the original Arawak population estimated at 60,000 quickly died out, and few African slaves were imported. In any case the Spaniards never paid much attention to the island. Only a very small area was cultivated and most of the settlers made their living by rearing cattle, horses and pigs on the savannas. They sent their products to Europe and the mainland of Central America. Hides and tallow were most in demand and much of the meat was wasted.

Under the British, things changed rapidly. The island’s position in the heart of the Spanish Empire was immediately exploited by buccaneers who soon turned Port Royal into a treasure-chest of Spanish booty. For the first thirty years or so, while the new colony needed their protection, the buccaneers were given official encouragement. Once it was secure they were suppressed. Soon afterwards Port Royal, still one of the largest, richest and most riotous ports in the Caribbean, was almost entirely destroyed by an earthquake in 1692, much of it disappearing beneath the sea.

Port Royal was used as a naval base throughout the eighteenth century, but its other functions were transferred to Kingston, which grew up on the opposite side of the same harbor. Kingston rapidly became one of the chief centers of trade in the Caribbean. In the mid- eighteenth century it was declared a free port. Slaves, foodstuffs, cloth, ironware and other manufactured goods were landed there, transferred to smaller ships and taken too many other parts of the Caribbean. The Spanish colonists, in need of all these things, were glad to buy them in spite of their government’s laws declaring such trade to be illegal.

But the greatest profits were made by the estate owners and those engaged in the sugar trade. Simply because of its size Jamaica was destined to become the richest British West Indian colony. At the beginning of the nineteenth century a thousand estates were in operation, producing about 100,000 tons of sugar a year. Coffee was important too, and for a while Jamaica was England’s richest overseas possession. What happened to alter this position we shall learn later.