Spanish Rule

Posted by Carlos de la Puerta

SPANISH RULES

The members of Arawak's tribe were the natives from Jamaica. They called this island "Xaymaca" that means land of forest and water. They were pacific and self-sufficient

Original Chistopher Columbus card about Jamaica

Christopher Columbus (Cristobal Colón) discovered the island of Jamaica on 5 May 1494, and he called it Santiago. He wrote in his diary "they dont wear weapons neither they know it, because I show them one, they took it for the blade and cut themselves". In the year 1509, the island became a Spanish colony. Giacomo Colombo (Diego Colón), brother of Christopher, named Don Juan Esquivel gobernor of the island.

Spanish Town, was the first settlement and the capital for 350 years, it was founded in 1523.

What was what Christopher Colombus wanted? In the first two weeks, there was a word that it was repeated seventy-five times in his diary "Gold". He thought that this island was complety full of gold, but as he noticed later, there weren't so many brillant metal. Disappointed, he used the island as a base to hold on the American conquest.

Because of the diseases and internal fights, the Arawaks disappeared fastly, so he had to bring some african slaves to work collecting gold.

In 1655 an English fleet, ordered by sin William Penn, landed in Kingston's port, with 5.000 soldiers and sailors.

They were fighting for three years. In 1670 the island was transfered to England

In a few years, Jamaica turn into one of the main slaves trade center in the world and sugar exporting, producing more than 77.000 tons of sugar annually between 1820 and 1824.

Because of the few time that this island was colonized by spanish people, the language don't perpetuated. Nowadays you can study Spanish in some schools (mostly privates schools). But there is a mark of this conquest, jamaican people don't say "My father took me to the cinema" but "My father carried me to the cinema" that is a literal traduction for Spanish into English or "It is six month I don't see him" instead of "I haven't seen him for six months".

Painted of Chistopher Columbus