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The History of Trinidad and Tobago
16
The History of
Trinidad and Tobago
The Amerindians
1300 A.D.
When and Where did they come from?
When
&
Where
The Amerindians came from South America in 1300 A.D.
A.D. - "A.D." stands for anno domini (Latin for "in the year of the Lord") after the birth of Christ.
The two main groups of Amerindians that travelled to the Caribbean were:
- The Tainos
- The Kalinagos
The Tainos
They were a peaceful farming tribe, with a Cacique (chief). The Cacique acted as both the priest and the judge. They lived in farming communities where they grew crops of maize (corn), tobacco, and cassava.
The Tainos
The Kalinagos
The kalinagos
They had straight, long, black hair that was worn loose. Their brown skin was always painted with vegetable dye called roucou. They had flattened foreheads that were considered a beauty. The Kalinogo people wore loincloths around the middle of their bodies. They were a warlike tribe that mainly got their food by hunting animals and stealing from the Tainos.
Why did they come?
They first had to travel down the Orinoco river to the Atlantic Ocean. Groups of Amerindians travelled north in large canoes, moving from one island to the next.
The peaceful Tainos came first and reached the Greater Antilles to flee from the warlike Kalinagos but the Kalinagos later followed them many years later and settled mainly in the Lesser Antilles.
In Trinidad which the Amerindians called Iere (Land of the Hummingbird) they named many places such as: Arima, Paria, Salybia, Caura, Arouca, Tacarigua, Chaguanas, Carapichaima, Couva, Mucurapo, Guayaguayare, and Mayaro.
Greater
&
Lesser Antilles
The Orinoco River
The path they took
Point out the Amerindian place names on a map of Trinidad.
Activity
Our Heritage
Culture is...
the way that people live. Food, clothing, language and celebrations are all a part of culture.
Culture
Cleaver Woods
The Amerindian Contributions
What did they bring?
When the Amerindians came they brought many different things with them:
- Food
- Music
- Religion
- Clothing
- Furniture
- Animal Names
- Names of Places
Food
-They planted crops like cassava, maize (corn), coffee, cocoa, chadon beni and tobacco. They made cassava bread and farine, barbecued wild game and corn pastelles. They also made a special dish called pepper pot. When cooking, Amerindians used outdoor dirt ovens to bake cassava bread. These ovens can still be seen in remote villages and at the Cleaver Woods Heritage Park in Arima.
Music
-They played the chac-chac, drums, whistles
-Parang music, which is popular at Christmas time in Trinidad, is a hybrid of Spanish and Amerindian musical styles.
Religion
-The Amerindians worshipped nature.
-Some Tribes had house gods called Zemis, they were usually made from wood or shell.
-Medicine men in the Tribes used dried tobacco leaves.
Clothing
-They wore cotton skirts, decorated with special beads. Their tools and weapons (spears, bows and arrows) were simple and were made of stones, shells, bones, corals or wood.
Furniture
Furniture
- They created the canoe which they dug out from tree trunks, and the ajoupa (bamboo hut).
-They slept in hammocks.
-They also made clay and wooden bowls and calabashes or gourds for drinking water.
Animal Names
They also had names for animals, like agouti and manicou
Think & Share
?
How do you think the Amerindians affected the culture of Trinidad and Tobago Today?
The Europeans
1400s - 1700s
The Europeans
Who came?
In 1498 Christopher Columbus captained a ship for Spain and set sail to find ? however he did not. On his journey he rediscovered Trinidad, which he named the Holy Trinity after the three peaks that he saw. He found that the island was already inhabited by the Amerindians (Tainos and Kalinagos). The Spaniards (people from Spain) were the first to settle in the Caribbean. Later they were followed by the French (from France) in 1781, the British (from Britain) in 1797 and the Dutch (from Holland or the Netherlands).
Find the three European countries on the map and place a black X and label them (France, England, Spain).
Activity
Activity Map
Why did the
Europeans come?
Why did they come?
Find new trade routes:
-The Europeans wanted undiscovered trade routes that would allow them to get to the other counties faster.
-Christopher Columbus landed in San Salvador (in the Bahamas) in 1492. He thought he had found a new route to get to Asia or the Indies. This is why our region is also called the West Indies.
New Trade Routes
Wealth
Wealth:
-The Spaniards were searching for El Dorado (the city of gold) for riches, but there was little to be found. Instead many of the European settlers grew crops such as tobacco and sugar which they sold back home. However, the demand for sugar in Europe was very high so they started very large farms known as plantations. They later developed the slave trade so that they had people to work on the plantations.
-Wealth was also the reason why the Europeans settled in Jamaica, Hispaniola, Puerto Rico and Cuba. In these islands they either killed or enslaved the Amerindians.
-The other European countries were jealous of the wealth the Spaniards were getting from their new colonies, and fought them for it. The British, French and Dutch settled in different countries, often fighting each other for possession.
The three Europeans countries that came to Trinidad and Tobago were:
The Europeans
When the Europeans came they made many contributions in:
- Food
- Music
- Religion
- Language
- Place Names
The Contributions that they made
Food
Pastelles
Arepas
Spanish
Many of our baked dishes (Shepherds Pie)
British
Creole cooking was partly influenced by them.
French
Music
Music
Spanish
Song- Parang
Dance- Joropo, Castilian, Bolera
Musical Instruments- guitar and cuatro
British
Dance:
- Tobago Jig
- Brushback
- Heel and Toe
French
Dance:
- Cabinay
- Grand Bele
- Creole Bele
Religion
- Spanish and French - Roman Catholic
- British- Anglican
Religion
Language
- Spain- Spanish
- Britain- English
- French- Patois
Language
Names ofPlaces
- Spanish- San Fernando, Santa Cruz, Barataria, San Juan, Maracas, Esperanza, Rio Claro
- British- Palmiste, Waterloo, Harmony Hall, Brighton, Edinburgh, Perseverance, Mount Pleasant
- French- Point-a-Pierre, Champ Fleur, Grand Riviere
Names of Places
Britain has also influenced both the court system and the school system in Trinidad and Tobago.
France has also influenced Carnival here in Trinidad and Tobago as well.
Other
Activity
Pick one of the groups: Spanish, British, French
You went to the museum where you saw a display. The display was decorated in the colours of the country’s flag.
Neatly draw, colour and label a picture of the display that you saw. Show how the things were laid out.
In your picture, make sure to identify which country you chose.
In the display, include at least two pictures of examples of the contributions that that group made.
Include one sign with 2 facts about the group.
Under the picture write a sentence describing how this group has affected Trinidad and Tobago’s culture.