What is the brief history of Jamaica?

What is the brief history of Jamaica?

Between 1660 and 1670 pirates used Jamaica as a place of resort. In 1670 Spain formally ceded the island to Britain. Two years later the Royal Africa Company, a slave-trading enterprise, was formed. The company used Jamaica as its chief market, and the island became a centre of slave trading in the West Indies.

How Jamaica got its name?

The name Jamaica is derived from Xaymaca, the Taíno-Arawak name for the island, which translates, as ‘isle of springs’. Jamaica was charted by Christopher Columbus during his second voyage and the first Europeans to arrive on the island were the Spanish in 1509.

When did slavery begin in Jamaica?

The Spaniards also introduced the first African slaves. By the early 17th century, when virtually no Taino remained in the region, the population of the island was about 3,000, including a small number of African slaves.

What was Jamaica’s original name?

Xaymaca
Christopher Columbus, who first sighted the island in 1494, called it Santiago, but the original indigenous name of Jamaica, or Xaymaca, has persisted. Columbus considered it to be “the fairest isle that eyes have beheld,” and many travelers still regard it as one of the most beautiful islands in the Caribbean.

What are 5 interesting facts about Jamaica?

Jamaican Geography Facts

• It’s the 3rd Largest Island in the Caribbean.
• Jamaica Is Home to 4 Major Mountain Ranges.
• Jamaica Is One of 6 Island States Which Make Up the Greater Antilles.
• The Island Sits on Top of a Large Underwater Mountain.
• A third of all Jamaicans live in Kingston.
• They Drive on the Left Side of the Road.

What is the old name for Jamaica?

Although the Taino referred to the island as “Xaymaca”, the Spanish gradually changed the name to “Jamaica”. In the so-called Admiral’s map of 1507 the island was labeled as “Jamaiqua” and in Peter Martyr’s work “Decades” of 1511, he referred to it as both “Jamaica” and “Jamica”.

Who lived in Jamaica first?

The original inhabitants of Jamaica are believed to be the Arawaks, also called Tainos. They came from South America 2,500 years ago and named the island Xaymaca, which meant ““land of wood and water”. The Arawaks were a mild and simple people by nature.

What does the word Jamaica mean?

The island’s name, Jamaica, is derived from the Arawak word Xaymaca, which probably means “land of wood and water” or “land of springs”. Although the official language is English, most Jamaicans speak an English-based dialect which is known as patois.

Do Arawaks still exist?

A small number of mainland Arawak survive in South America. Most (more than 15,000) live in Guyana, where they represent about one-third of the Native American population. Smaller groups are found in Suriname, French Guiana, and Venezuela.

What was Jamaica’s first motto?

Indus Uterque Serviet Uni
The Jamaican Arms The original Latin motto, “Indus Uterque Serviet Uni” has been changed to one in English: “Out of Many, One People”. The arms show a male and female Taino (Arawak) standing on either side of the shield which bears a red cross with five golden pineapples superimposed on it.

Is Arawak black?

They are a non-white community of indigenous peoples of South America and the Caribbean. Specifically, the term “Arawak” has been applied at various times to the Lokono of South America and the Taíno, who historically lived in the Greater Antilles and the northern Lesser Antilles in the Caribbean.