The Arawaks were a peaceful indigenous people that thrived in harmony until the Spanish occupation in 1494.

Christopher Columbus landed in Jamaica on May 4,1494. In his log, he described Jamaica as "the fairest island that eyes have beheld;

Mountains and the land seem to touch the sky...all full of valleys and fields and plains."

In Jamaica, the Spanish mariners found a gentle America Indian people, the Tainos; a peaceful people who had never experienced war. Sadly. under the Spanish settlement. the entire Indian population. perhaps a hundred thousand, died from a combination of forced labor and European infections like the common cold, to which they had no immunity.
The Spaniards never fully colonized Jamaica, although Columbus himself spent nearly a year on the island in 1503.
The adverse impact on the Arawak by the Spanish invasion was devastating to its existence. Through plunder and killing by the Spanish, combined with new-brought disease, the indigenous Arawak became extinct. Only a few artifacts remain in Jamaican museums.
" The words "hurricane," "tobacco" and "barbecue" , were also derived from their language.
In 1509, the Spaniards established a capital, New Seville, near the town of Ocho Rios. The Spaniards actually called the area Las Chorreras, meaning "waterfalls." The English misunderstood, interpreting Las Chorreras to mean "eight rivers," hence the name Ocho Rios. Today, the foundations of New Seville are under excavation, and the search continues for the two ships that Columbus beached nearby. In their century and a half of rule, the Spaniards brought sugar cane, and later, slaves from Africa to cultivate the cane. In 1655 the British captured Jamaica from the Spanish who did little to defend its occupation because Jamaica offered no riches of gold and silver. The Spanish fled Jamaica to other areas of the Caribbean, Mexico and South America in pursuit of riches and new conquests. Before fleeing they released and armed their slaves that became known as "Maroons".

The Maroons mostly sought refuge from the British in the Jamaican area just south of what is known today as Montego Bay. As fierce defenders, the Maroons were never controlled by the British and even became self-governing in some areas.

THe British turned the island into one vast sugar plantation, making the planters rich. In England, they used to say, “as rich as a West Indian planter" to mean the richest person around.
To grow the sugar cane, the English brought many more Africans to work as slaves, most from the west coast of the continent and from present-day Nigeria.

Production of cane sugar became the economic and political strength of the Jamaican British Colony. Sugar plantations dominated Jamaican life and led to massive importation of slaves from Africa to provide manual labor and comforts to the plantation owners.
Newfound prosperity led to extensive trade among other Caribbean Islands, Jamaica and England, not only in sugar trade and other manufactured goods, but in slave trade as well.
The sugar plantations dominated economic and political life in Jamaica in every sense. They occupied the best lands and the laws supported the slave system which motivated many slaves to escape to the mountains to become Maroons as well.

Buccaneers soon operated out of Jamaica, attacking the treasure ships of Spain and France. One was a young indentured labourer from Wales named Henry Morgan. He would prosper and rise to Lieutenant Governor. His home base, Port Royal, was known as "the richest and wickedest city in Christendom." But, in 1692, an earthquake destroyed Port Royal, pushing it below the sea.

When the English arrived, the Spaniards had fled to the neighbouring islands. Their slaves escaped into the mountains and formed their own independent groups, called Maroons. The Maroons were in time joined by other slaves who escaped from the English. For a long time they fought against the English who sought to re-enslave them. So successful were the Maroons, fighting from their fortresses, that the English were forced to sign peace treaties granting the Maroons self-government and ceding to them the mountain lands that they inhabited.
The runaways periodically staged rebellions until the treaty in 1739 that gave them a measure of local autonomy that they still retain today. Slavery was abolished in 1834.

In the economic chaos that followed emancipation, one event stood out: the Morant Bay Rebellion of 1865. The uprising was led by a black Baptist deacon named Paul Bogle and was supported by a wealthy Kingston businessman, George William Gordon. Both were executed and are now among Jamaica's national heroes.

To combat the growing unrest of rebellious slaves, an uneasy alliance was established between the plantation owners and the governor who represented the crown royalty of England. The alliance became progressively weakened because of excessive taxation on the plantations.
Motivated by Jamaican heroes such as Rev. Sam Sharpe and incited by rebellions of which the Christmas Rebellion is perhaps the most famous, emancipation of the Jamaican slaves eventually occurred.

In the years that followed, much of modern Jamaica was forged. Migrants from India and China came as indentured workers for sugar estates and rapidly moved to other occupations. Soon, Jewish settlers came to Jamaica. followed by migrant Arab traders from Palestine.
Mixed marriages created today's unique racially mixed Jamaican people, and are the basis of Jamaica's national motto, "Out of Many, One People,"

Ambition and aspirations sent many abroad. A Jamaican workforce helped to build the Panama Canal. Others grew cane in Cuba and mahogany in Belize while some early enterprising migrants started communities in the United States, Great Britain and elsewhere.

Jamaicans continue to prosper and to give the world men and women of distinction: American civil rights activist Marcus Garvey, legendary entertainer Harry Belafonte, basketball player Patrick Ewing. baseball player Charles (Chilli) Davis, Olympic medallist Merlene Ottey, reggae superstar Bob Marley, middleweight boxing champion Michael McCallum (Hall of Fame inductee), heavyweight boxing champion Lennox Lewis, and among the top female polo players in the world, our very own Lesley Ann Masterton.

After emancipation, ex-slaves dispersed to mountain areas far from the Jamaican plantations. Many began cultivating new crops including coffee and bananas. Others settled marginally productive lands that were either leased or bought through the efforts of Christian groups, particularly the Baptists. During this period of peasant history of about 1838-1938, there were many struggles and battles over land.

In the 1930s, political life was reborn.
The following periods beyond 1938 experienced major political changes and economical transformation. No longer was Jamaica a single export economy of sugar. The Jamaican economy became diversified into other agricultural products as well as the export of bauxite and alumni. Gradually, tourism became a leading industry as the world discovered the beauty and attractions of Jamaica.
The political and economic strength of the overwhelming majority of descendants of the ex-slaves became the stimulation of achieving political independence from England in 1962.

Two very dissimilar men, Norman Manley and Alexander Bustamante (who, in a uniquely Jamaican coincidence, happened to be cousins), founded the two political parties, the Peoples National Party and the Jamaica Labor Party, respectively. For 30 years, the island's rich bauxite (alumina) deposits were the bedrock of the economy, supplying nearly two thirds of the U.S. requirement for aluminum in the 1970's. Today, tourism is the economy's cornerstone.

Today. Jamaica is the jewel and vacation destination of the Caribbean. It has indeed come a long way.