Geological history The islands that make up modern-day Trinidad and Tobago lie at the southern end of the
Lesser Antilles group. The islands lie close to the continent of South America, separated by the
Gulf of Paria.
Indigenous peoples Trinidad and Tobago were originally settled by
Indigenous peoples migrating from South America. At the time of European contact, Trinidad was inhabited by various Indigenous groups, including
Arawakan-speaking peoples such as the
Nepoya and
Shebaya, and
Cariban-speaking groups like the Yao.
European colonisation Christopher Columbus was the first European to see Trinidad, on his third voyage to the Americas in 1498. He also reported seeing Tobago on the distant horizon, naming it
Bellaforma, but did not land on the island. The settlement of San José de Oruña was later established by
Antonio de Berrío on this land in 1592. From 1654 the Dutch and Courlanders managed to gain a more secure foothold, later joined by several hundred French settlers. The Spanish retaliated severely, slaughtering hundreds of native peoples in an event that became known as the
Arena massacre. As a result of continuing Spanish slave-raiding, and the devastating impact of introduced disease to which they had no immunity, the native population was virtually wiped out by the end of the following century. During this period Trinidad was an island province belonging the
Audiencia of Santo Domingo of the
Viceroyalty of New Spain, together with Central America, present-day
Mexico and what would later become the southwestern
United States. In 1757 the capital was moved from San José de Oruña to Puerto de España (modern
Port of Spain) following several pirate attacks. However the Spanish never made any concerted effort to colonise the islands; Trinidad in this period was still mostly forest, populated by a few Spaniards with a handful of slaves and a few thousand Indigenous people. Since Trinidad was considered underpopulated, Roume de St. Laurent, a Frenchman living in
Grenada, was able to obtain a
Cédula de Población from the Spanish king
Charles III on 4 November 1783. A
Cédula de Población had previously been granted in 1776 by the king, but had not shown results, and therefore the new Cédula was more generous. The Cédula was issued only a few years before the
French Revolution. During that period of upheaval, French planters with their slaves, free
coloureds and
mulattos from the neighbouring islands of
Martinique,
Saint Lucia, Grenada,
Guadeloupe and
Dominica migrated to Trinidad, where they established an agriculture-based economy (sugar and cocoa). Cascade,
Carenage and
Laventille. As a result, Trinidad's population jumped to over 15,000 by the end of 1789, and by 1797 the population of
Port of Spain had increased from under 3,000 to 10,422 in just five years, with a varied population of mixed race individuals, Spaniards, Africans, French republican soldiers, retired pirates and French nobility. British rule led to an influx of settlers from the United Kingdom and the British colonies of the Eastern Caribbean. English, Scots, Irish, German and Italian families arrived, as well as some free blacks known as "
Merikins" who had fought for Britain in the
War of 1812 and were granted land in southern Trinidad. Under British rule, new states were created and the importation of slaves increased, however by this time support for
abolitionism had vastly increased and in England the slave trade was under attack. Slavery was
abolished in 1833, after which former slaves served an "
apprenticeship" period. In 1837,
Daaga, a West African slave trader who had been captured by Portuguese slavers and later rescued by the British navy, was conscripted into the local regiment. Daaga and a group of his compatriots
mutinied at the barracks in St Joseph and set out eastward in an attempt to return to their homeland. The mutineers were ambushed by a militia unit just outside the town of Arima. The revolt was crushed at the cost of some 40 dead, and Daaga and two others were later executed at St Joseph. The apprenticeship system ended on 1 August 1838 with full emancipation.
Arrival of Indian indentured labourers in Trinidad and Tobago After the African slaves were emancipated many refused to continue working on the plantations, often moving out to urban areas such as Laventille and
Belmont to the east of Port of Spain. As a result, a severe agricultural labour shortage emerged. The British filled this gap by instituting a system of
indentureship. Various nationalities were contracted under this system, including Indians, Chinese, and Portuguese. Of these, the East Indians were imported in the largest numbers, starting from 1 May 1845, when 225 Indians were brought in the first ship to Trinidad on the
Fatel Razack, a Muslim-owned vessel. Indentureship of the Indians lasted from 1845 to 1917, during which time more than 147,000 Indians came to Trinidad to work on sugarcane plantations. Indentureship contracts were sometimes exploitative, to such an extent that historians such as
Hugh Tinker were to call it "a new system of slavery". Despite these descriptions, it was not truly a new form of slavery, as workers were paid, contracts were finite, and the idea of an individual being another's property had been eliminated when slavery was abolished. In addition, employers of indentured labour had no legal right to flog or whip their workers; the main legal sanction for the enforcement of the indenture laws was prosecution in the courts, followed by fines or (more likely) jail sentences. People were contracted for a period of five years, with a daily wage as low as 25 cents in the early 20th century, and they were guaranteed return passage to India at the end of their contract period. However,
coercive means were often used to retain labourers, and the
indentureship contracts were soon extended to 10 years from 1854 after the planters complained that they were losing their labour too early. Despite the trying conditions experienced under the indenture system, about 90% of the Indian immigrants chose, at the end of their contracted periods of indenture, to make Trinidad their permanent home. Few Indians settled on Tobago however, and the descendants of African slaves continued to form the majority of the island's population. An ongoing economic slump in the middle-to-late 19th century caused widespread poverty. Discontent erupted into rioting on the
Roxborough plantation in 1876, in an event known as the Belmanna Uprising after a policeman who was killed. The British eventually managed to restore control; however, as a result of the disturbances Tobago's Legislative Assembly voted to dissolve itself and the island became a Crown colony in 1877. With the sugar industry in a state of near-collapse and the island no longer profitable, the British attached Tobago to their Trinidad colony in 1889. By the 1950s petroleum had become a staple in Trinidad's export market, and was responsible for a growing middle class among all sections of the Trinidad population. The collapse of Trinidad's major agricultural commodities, followed by the Depression, and the rise of the oil economy, led to major changes in the country's social structure. The presence of American
military bases in Chaguaramas and
Cumuto in Trinidad during
World War II had a profound effect on society. The Americans vastly improved the infrastructure on Trinidad and provided many locals with well-paying jobs. The Americans left in 1961. In the post-war period the British began a process of decolonisation across the British Empire. In 1945 universal suffrage was introduced to Trinidad and Tobago. which later merged into the
Democratic Labour Party (DLP) in 1957. Britain's Caribbean colonies formed the
West Indies Federation in 1958 as a vehicle for independence, however the Federation dissolved after Jamaica withdrew following a
membership referendum in 1961. The government of Trinidad and Tobago subsequently chose to seek independence from the United Kingdom on its own.
Contemporary era Trinidad and Tobago gained its
independence from the
United Kingdom on 31 August 1962.
Eric Williams of the
People's National Movement became the first
prime minister, serving in that capacity uninterrupted until 1981. In 1963 Tobago was struck by
Hurricane Flora, which killed 30 people and resulted in enormous destruction across the island. Partly as a result of this, tourism came to replace agriculture as the island's primary source of income in the subsequent decades. On 1 May 1968, Trinidad and Tobago joined the
Caribbean Free Trade Association (CARIFTA), which provided a continued economic, rather than political, linkage between the former
British West Indies English-speaking countries after the
West Indies Federation failed. On 1 August 1973, the country became a founding member state of CARIFTA's successor, the
Caribbean Community (CARICOM), which is a
political and
economic union between several
Caribbean countries and territories. Between 1972 and 1983, the country profited greatly from the rising
price of oil and the discovery of vast new oil deposits in its territorial waters, resulting in an economic boom that substantially increased living standards. Tobago was granted limited self-rule with the creation of the
Tobago House of Assembly in 1980. Williams died in 1981, being replaced by
George Chambers who led the country until 1986. By this time a fall in the price of oil had resulted in a recession, causing rising inflation and unemployment. The main opposition parties united under the banner of
National Alliance for Reconstruction (NAR) and won the
1986 Trinidad and Tobago general election, with NAR leader
A. N. R. Robinson becoming the new prime minister. Robinson was unable to hold together the fragile NAR coalition, and his economic reforms, such as the implementation of an
International Monetary Fund Structural Adjustment Program and devaluation of currency led to social unrest. The coup leaders were promised amnesty, but upon their surrender they were arrested, ultimately being released after protracted legal wrangling. The PNM under
Patrick Manning returned to power following the
1991 Trinidad and Tobago general election. After a period of political confusion caused by a series of inconclusive election results, Patrick Manning returned to power in 2001, retaining that position until 2010. A partnership resulted in Manning's defeat by the newly formed
People's Partnership (PP) coalition in 2010, with
Kamla Persad-Bissessar becoming the country's first female prime minister. Under the PP, a state of emergency (SOE) was declared because of a spike in killings, and curfews were declared in so called "hotspots" around the country. The SOE lasted from 21 August 2011 to 5 December 2011. However, the PP were defeated in 2015 by the PNM under
Keith Rowley. In August 2020, the governing People's National Movement won general
election, earning the incumbent prime minister Keith Rowley a second term in office. During the second term of
Dr. Keith Rowley there were two declarations of states of emergency (SOE). The first, which came into effect on 15 May 2021, was to deal with the
COVID-19 pandemic. It involved curfews and restrictions on activities and public events. The second SOE came into effect on 30 December, 2024. The PM announced that it was to "address individuals who pose a threat to public safety, particularly those involved in criminal activities and the illegal use of firearms"
. No curfews or restrictions on public events was announced. The SOE was expected to end in mid April 2025. A curfew imposed on 18 July 2025 remains in effect as of November 2025. During the same period, Trinidad and Tobago hosted the seventh Commonwealth Youth Games. It was originally scheduled for 2021 but was delayed due to the COVID pandemic. The games were successfully heldt 4–11 August 2023, in Trinidad and Tobago. It is first time a Caribbean country hosted the games. On 3 January 2024, Prime Minister Keith Rowley announced his intention to leave office as Prime Minister before the
2025 Trinidad and Tobago general election. On 26 February 2025 Prime Minister Keith Rowley announced he will officially resign from office on 16 March. In April 2025, the opposition, centrist
United National Congress (UNC), won the
election, meaning
Kamla Persad-Bissessar became the next prime minister. == Geography ==