Jamaica English
1655-1815







Jamaica, 1509-1655



Discovered in 1494 by Christopher Columbus, Jamaica was conquered and settled by the Spanish in 1509. The Spanish established a number of settlements, most notably the capitals SPANISH TOWN (founded 1534) and PORT ROYAL, founded in 1650. They forced the indigenous population to work for them; the native Arawaks sharply declined in number until they went extinct. African slaves were brought in.






EXTERNAL
FILES 		From Island Connoisseur : Jamaica, History of, Port Royal
Articles from Infoplease : Jamaica
DOCUMENTS
REFERENCE Jan Rogozinski, A Brief History of the Caribbean (1992) London : Penguin 1994



This page is part of World History at KMLA
First posted in 2001, last revised on November 6th 2004

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