Caribbean Societies
Summary- The Historical Context

After Christopher Columbus made voyages to the Americas, Portuguese and Spanish ships began to claim territories in Central and South America. These colonies acquired European powers such as England, France, and the Netherlands who had hopes to create profitable colonies of their own. For centuries imperial rivalries made the Caribbean a contested area during European wars.

Throughout the region there is a striking cultural and linguistic diversity. The differences were significant such as socioeconomic development and political traditions. While some islands had British Parliament traditions other islands such as for Spanish colonies had experienced strong presidential regimes. They also had other things in common such as their use of agriculture. The development of agriculture in the Caribbean required a large workforce of manual labourers, which the Europeans found by taking advantage of the slave trade in Africa. Countries in the Caribbean were primarily English, French, Spanish, and Dutch. Together the quickly destroyed all through their interest in extending the country's power and influence and left little of the natural population. This caused the Caribbean to appear differently with its great force of migrations of slaves from Africa. This took place from the seventeenth century up to the middle of the nineteenth. After the emancipation and importation of workers from China and India became popular races in the region.

Conquest and Colonization, 1492-1800

Although it can be argued whether or not Christopher Columbus arrival to the Americas was truly a discovery it can be agreed that there is historical importance of the colonization of the Caribbean by European imperial powers after 1492. There was a huge movement of European, African, and Asian people to the Americas after the first voyage. This had a huge affect on the region in that it drastically altered the demographic structure. This also led to the formation of European colonies all throughout the Western Hemisphere which would later on gain independence as states (Understanding the Contemporary Caribbean 2nd Edition; Page 52 Par. 4).

Queen Elizabeth of Spain did not have the interest of settlements of a new world but instead her focus was on the discovery of mineral wealth such as gold and silver. This was found only on Columbus's third voyage where he found gold in Santa Domingo and a while later Juan Ponce de Leon located more in Puerto Rico. Mexico, Peru, and Bolivia soon became the main sources of gold and silver. Issues arose because the Spanish at this time throughout the years of Columbus's first voyage had unchallenged supremacy in the Caribbean. They had settlements and structure in Santa Domingo, Cuba, Haiti (First to gain independence through 1790's revolt), Puerto Rico, Jamaica, Trinidad, Martinique, and Dominican Republic. The Spanish wanted to attain parts of the Caribbean for several reasons such as gaining land for agriculture to expand and create metropolis. In 1509 the first sugarcane Cultivation was created by Juan de Esquivel.

The natural population of the Caribbean when the Spanish first entered was between 750,000 to 10 million. The region was populated with mainly Arawak, Caribs, and Ciboneys. The population was dramatically reduced withing years due to enslavement, warfare, and diseases. The Law of Burgos in 1512 addressed the issues over the treatment of the natural people of the land. The law permitted colonial officials to free native people from the Encomienda System (that enslaved them).

Spanish mistreatment of the natives and their displeasure in engaging Spanish colonist in agricultural labor faced many ramifications. Due to decimalization of the labor force, it led to Spain seeking other forms of manual labor. In 1518, authorization was given to import African Slaves. Millions of slaves came to the Americas. Eventually, Spain was forced to give up its