History Of The Spaniards In Jamaica

There should be a clear understanding of the history of Spaniards in Jamaica. Once the Spaniards had discovered the great riches of gold, gems and silver in Central and South America, they concentrated their energies there, neglecting the small islands altogether and using the large ones chiefly as cattle ranches. Other European nations, especially the Netherlands, France and England, seized their chance to challenge the Spanish claim to the monopoly of the New World. They traded wherever they could, they established settlements wherever they could and they allowed and even encouraged their seamen to plunder the Spaniards wherever they could. This led to the brevity of Jamaica’s history with the Spaniards.

There were innumerable harbors where pirates and buccaneers could careen their ships and lie in wait for the Spanish treasure fleets. The buccaneers were at times even powerful enough to assault Spanish towns, so the Spaniards chose defensible sites for their towns and fortified them. This caused immense pressure on the history of the Spanish economic system in Jamaica. Santo Domingo in Hispaniola, Havana in Cuba and San Juan in Puerto Rico were the most important bases in the islands, and Veracruz, Porto Bello and Cartagena were amongst the most important on the mainland. With the exception of Veracruz, which is in Mexico, other locations were just as important, especially for crops and hence left a major mark of Spanish food in Jamaican history.

One of the Spanish rules was that no other nation could trade with her Caribbean possessions unless given permission to do so. As permission was hard to obtain, certain ventures towards the end of the sixteenth century took the risk of trading illicitly with the Spanish colonies. Their cargoes of manufactured goods, clothes, wine and slaves were so eagerly sought after that large Dutch, French and English companies were formed to handle West Indian trade and colonization. A lot of these facts have been documented in the mandarin history of Jamaica. Colonization began in the small islands farthest from the Spanish centre of interest. The English successfully occupied Bermuda in 1612 and St Kitts in 1624. Barbados, Nevis, Antigua, Montserrat, some of the Bahamas, Anguilla and Barbuda followed in quick succession. This was a major contributing factor to Jamaica’s sugar plantation history.

The French landed on St Kitts shortly after the English, and for some years the two nations shared the island. This practice was not uncommon as Jamaica history facts attest to this as a common practice among the allies out of war time. The French also took St Barthélemy, Guadeloupe, Marie Galante and Martinique, and shared St Martin with the Dutch. The Dutch seized Saba and St Eustatius in the northern Caribbean, and Curacao, Bonaire and Aruba in the south and began the settlement of the Guianas. The first of the Greater Antilles fell in Jamaica history 1655, when an English expedition captured Jamaica.

From Jamaica a few settlers ventured to the Central American coast. This settlement persisted, in spite of Spanish opposition, to become Belize. French colonists, in league with the buccaneers of Tortuga, settled in the western part of Hispaniola and in 1697 the Spaniards were forced to cede this part of the island to them. It became the French colony of St Dominguez. However, Spain held on to most of her possessions and it was not until the nineteenth century, when one by one they broke away to become independent republics, that Spain lost her power in the New World and then came the end of the Spaniards history in Jamaica.