The History of Trinidad and Tobago

Trinidad and Tobago was the British Caribbean colony in which the demographic, economic, and political transformations of the twentieth century came together most clearly. The island’s 1797 capture from Spain inaugurated a century of immigration that turned Trinidad, by the 1940s, into the most demographically complex society in the Caribbean, with an African majority, an Indian near-majority, and substantial Chinese, French-Creole, Spanish, and British minorities. The 1937 labour disturbances, the oil boom of the 1940s, and the political leadership of Eric Williams produced, by 1962, an independent state that was, in many respects, the most economically and politically stable of the post-independence Caribbean. Trinidad and Tobago became independent on 31 August 1962 and became a republic in 1976.

The British Capture of Trinidad

The capture of Trinidad from Spain in 1797 was a significant event. The British expedition, led by Sir Ralph Abercromby, took advantage of the political instability in Spain and the disorganisation of the Spanish colonial government. The Treaty of Amiens in 1802 formally ceded Trinidad to Britain. The British administration, which was established under Sir Thomas Picton as the first governor, was initially harsh, and Picton was eventually tried for the torture of a young woman named Luisa Calderon. Picton, as the historian Bridget Brereton has shown in A History of Modern Trinidad (1981), “set the tone of British Trinidad: an administration that was, in its own way, as authoritarian as the Spanish it had replaced.”

The Cocoa Economy and the Arrival of the French

The early development of Trinidad was characterised by the arrival of French settlers and the development of cocoa and sugar plantations. The British government encouraged immigration from the French Caribbean, where the Haitian Revolution had produced political instability. The Spanish authorities had previously issued the Cédula de Población of 1783, which had offered generous land grants to Roman Catholic settlers, and this continued to attract French settlers. The cocoa economy of Trinidad, which developed in the late eighteenth and early nineteenth centuries, was the foundation of the colonial economy, and the sugar economy of Trinidad developed in parallel. The arrival of the French settlers gave Trinidad a distinctive French-Creole cultural character that remains visible in the modern country.

The Abolition of Slavery and the Indentured Labour System

The abolition of slavery in 1834 had profound effects on Trinidad. The plantation economy went into decline, and the freed population, now legally entitled to wages, demanded better working conditions and political rights. The British government responded by developing the indentured labour system, which brought Indian, Chinese, and other workers to Trinidad. The Indian diaspora in the Caribbean was particularly important in Trinidad, where the Indian population grew rapidly in the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries. By 1945, Indians formed about 40 percent of the population of Trinidad, and they were the largest single ethnic group. The political tensions between the Indian and African communities have shaped the modern history of Trinidad.

The Oil Industry

The discovery of oil in Trinidad in the early twentieth century, particularly at Pitch Lake in 1901, transformed the colony’s economy. The oil industry brought new wealth to Trinidad and produced a more diverse economy than most British Caribbean colonies. The Trinidad Leaseholds Limited, controlled by the British company Aston Betters, was the principal operator, and the production of oil and asphalt was the largest single industry. The oil industry also produced an industrial working class, and the development of the trade union movement in the 1930s was closely tied to the oil industry. The strategic importance of Trinidad’s oil was recognised in the establishment of a major US military base at Chaguaramas during the Second World War.

The Path to Independence

The twentieth century saw a long struggle for political rights in Trinidad and Tobago. The 1937 labour rebellion, led by Uriah Butler, was a major turning point. Butler, a trade unionist who had been influenced by Marcus Garvey, founded the British Empire Workers’ and Citizens’ Home Rule Party in 1936. The 1937 rebellion led to the Moyne Commission (1938–1939) and to a major expansion of political rights. Eric Williams, the most significant political figure in the country’s history, returned from Oxford and founded the People’s National Movement (PNM) in 1956.

Williams’s Capitalism and Slavery (1944), published when he was 33, was one of the foundational works of Caribbean historiography. The argument that British abolition was driven more by the declining profitability of the West Indian sugar economy than by humanitarian considerations has been contested, but the book remains required reading. Williams led the country to independence on 31 August 1962, and he served as prime minister until his death in 1981. The country became a republic in 1976.

The Cultural Diversity of Trinidad and Tobago

The cultural diversity of Trinidad and Tobago is one of its most distinctive features. The population includes descendants of African, Indian, European, Chinese, and indigenous Caribbean peoples, and the cultural expressions of the islands reflect this diversity. Carnival in Trinidad, with its roots in the French plantation period, is one of the most famous cultural expressions in the Caribbean. Calypso and soca music, developed in the twentieth century, are the most distinctive musical traditions. The steelband, developed in the 1940s, is a uniquely Trinidadian musical form. The cultural diversity of Trinidad and Tobago is one of a particularly important legacies of the British period, and the cultural expressions of the islands have become central symbols of Trinidadian national identity.

The Post-Independence Period

The post-independence history of Trinidad and Tobago has been marked by the dominance of the PNM and its successors, the long-running challenge of economic diversification, and the role of the country as a regional leader in the Caribbean Community (CARICOM). The country has been a relatively stable democracy, although the 1990 coup attempt by the Jamaat al Muslimeen was a major shock. The economy of Trinidad and Tobago has been heavily dependent on oil and gas, and the country has faced major economic challenges from fluctuations in the world energy market. The legacy of the British period is still felt in the legal and educational systems, and Trinidad and Tobago continues to be a member of the Commonwealth.

Historiographical Note

The historiography of Trinidad and Tobago was, for a long time, dominated by Eric Williams’s own account, and by the work of his students at the University of the West Indies. The post-Williams scholarship, led by Bridget Brereton, Kirk Meighoo, and Selwyn Ryan, has produced a more nuanced picture, in which the colonial period is read as a contested terrain. The current debate, exemplified in the recent work of Brinsley Samaroo and the contributors to the Oxford History of the British Empire, is over how far the political stability of independent Trinidad and Tobago was the result of Williams’s political genius and how far it was a consequence of the demographic and economic conditions of the colonial period.

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