Jamaica History

Jamaica History
Christopher Columbus sighted the island of Jamaica during his second voyage, and it became a Spanish colony in 1509. Saint Jago de la Vega (now Spanish Town) was founded about 1523. Colonization was slow under Spanish rule.
Jamaica was captured by an English naval force under Sir William Penn in 1655. The island was formally transferred to England in 1670. During the final decades of the 17th century, growing numbers of English immigrants arrived; the sugar, cacao, and other agricultural and forest industries were rapidly expanded; and the consequent demand for plantation labor led to large-scale importation of black slaves. Jamaica soon became one of the principal slave-trading centers in the world. But, by 1838, slavery was abolished by parliamentary legislation, and $30 million was granted as compensation to the owners of the nearly 310,000 liberated slaves.


Large numbers of the freed blacks abandoned the plantations following emancipation and took possession of unoccupied lands in the interior, gravely disrupting the economy. Labor shortages, bankrupt plantations, and declining trade resulted in a protracted economic crisis. Oppressive taxation, discriminatory acts by the courts, and land-exclusion measures ultimately caused widespread unrest among the black population.



Independence for Jamaican slaves in the early 19th century brought great unrest for the island's white population. Both societies co-existed for several decades before conditions reached the boiling point. In October 1865, an insurrection occurred at Port Morant. Imposing martial law, the government speedily quelled the uprising and inflicted brutal reprisals. Jamaica was made a crown colony, thus losing the large degree of self-government it had enjoyed since the late 17th century. Representative government was partly restored in 1884.


Jamaica was one of the British colonies that, on January 3, 1958, was united in the Federation of the West Indies. Disagreement over the role Jamaica would play led to the breakup of the federation, and on August 6, 1962, the island gained independence.

In 1962, Sir Alexander Bustamante became prime minister, succeeded by Hugh Lawson Shearer in 1967. The following year, Jamaica was a founding member of the Caribbean Free Trade Area (CARIFTA).


Elections in 1972 brought the People's National Party (PNP) to power under Michael N. Manley, a labor leader who promised economic growth. His leftist policies and open friendship with Cuba's Communist leader Fidel Castro, however, polarized the population. When he proved unable to revitalize the economy, Manley was voted out in 1980 following a turbulent election campaign that left about 800 Jamaicans dead, mainly as a result of clashes between political gangs. Election-related violence remained a part of Jamaica's political scene into the 1990s.


Edward Seaga of the Jamaica Labor Party (JLP), a former finance minister, then formed a government. Repudiating socialism, he severed relations with Cuba, established close ties with the United States, and tried hard to attract foreign capital. However, weak prices for Jamaica's mineral exports impeded economic recovery. In September 1988 Hurricane Gilbert caused an estimated $8 billion in property damage and left some 500,000 Jamaicans homeless.


The PNP won a large parliamentary majority in 1989, returning Manley to power. He introduced moderate free-market policies before resigning in March 1992 because of poor health. Percival J. Patterson, his successor as prime minister and PNP leader, easily won reelection a year later. In 1997 the PNP won an unprecedented third consecutive electoral victory, in an election reported as one of the least violent elections in Jamaica's recent history.

The eighties saw the development of Free Zone manufacturing especially of garments for export to the USA, the gradual recovery of bauxite/alumina production, and the rapid growth of tourism from North America. In the process, the traditional international economic relations, particularly with the USA, were strengthened at the expense of regional relations. In addition, more and more Jamaicans are immigrating to the USA, swelling the ranks of established overseas Jamaican communities, and creating new ones.


For more information about the history of Jamaica, see the National Library of Jamaica. and EmulateMe.