Kamla Persad-Bissessar
became the first woman Prime Minister of Trinidad and Tobago in May
2010.
Sir Vidia Naipaul, born in Chaguanas, Trinidad, in August 1932, was
awarded the Nobel Prize in Literature in 2001; Earl Lovelace won the
Commonwealth Writers’ Prize in 1997; and Sharon Millar the Commonwealth
Short Story Prize in 2013.
Brian Lara, born in Santa Cruz, Trinidad, in May 1969, was Wisden
Leading Cricketer in the World in 1994 and 1995.
Scholarships for postgraduate study are awarded by Trinidad and Tobago
to citizens of other Commonwealth countries under the Commonwealth
Scholarship and Fellowship Plan.
Key facts
Joined Commonwealth: 1962
Population: 1,341,000 (2013)
GDP: 3.5% p.a. 1990–2013
UN HDI: World ranking 64
Official language: English
Timezone: GMT minus 4hr
Currency: Trinidad and Tobago dollar (TT$)
Geography
Area: 5,128 sq km: Trinidad (4,828 sq km) and Tobago (300 sq km).
Coastline: 362km
Capital city: Port of Spain
Population density (per sq. km): 262
The country, the most southerly of the West Indian island states,
situated 11.2 km off the Venezuelan coast, consists of two islands:
Trinidad and Tobago.
Main towns:
Port of Spain (capital, pop. 37,074 in 2011), Chaguanas (83,516), San
Juan (greater Port of Spain, 56,200), San Fernando (48,848), Arima
(greater Port of Spain, 33,606), Point Fortin (20,235), Tunapuna
(greater Port of Spain, 19,100), Sangre Grande (17,500) and Princes Town
(11,000) on Trinidad; and Scarborough (4,800) on Tobago.
Transport:
There are 8,320 km of roads, 51 per cent paved. There is no railway.
Port of Spain and Point Lisas are the main ports. Point Lisas deep-
water port on the west coast serves the petro-chemical industries. Other
terminals are at Pointe-à-Pierre, Point Fortin and Guayaguayare
(petroleum); Claxton (cement); Tembladora (bauxite); Brighton (asphalt);
Chaguaramas (dry-docks); and Scarborough on Tobago. Tourist cruiseships
dock in Scarborough and Port of Spain.
Piarco International Airport, 25 km east of Port of Spain, is a major
regional centre for passenger and cargo traffic and aviation-related
industries. Crown Point International Airport on Tobago can handle
wide-bodied intercontinental aircraft.
International relations:
Trinidad and Tobago is a member of the African, Caribbean and Pacific
Group of States, Association of Caribbean States, Caribbean Community,
Non-Aligned Movement, Organization of American States, United Nations
and World Trade Organization.
Trinidad and Tobago hosts the secretariat of the Association of
Caribbean States in Port of Spain.
Topography:
Trinidad and Tobago are unique among Caribbean islands in that only
10,000 years ago they were a part of the South American mainland; the
geology and rich flora and fauna are closely akin to Venezuela. A
mountain range runs along the north coast, rising to Trinidad’s highest
point, El Cirro del Aripo (940 metres); there are rolling hills in the
south and the flat Caroni Plain lies in between. Trinidad is well
supplied with rivers, some of which end in mangrove swamps on the coast.
The Pitch Lake in the south-west is the world’s largest natural
reservoir of asphalt. A string of small islands off the north-west
peninsula are the remnants of the land-link with the continent. There
are sandy beaches in the north and east, and Trinidad has many excellent
harbours. Tobago also has a central mountain range descending to a plain
in the south-west and many fine beaches.
Climate:
Tropical, tempered by north-east trade winds, with a temperature range
of 22–31°C and an average annual rainfall of 1,631 mm. The dry season is
January to May and the wet season June to December, with a short dry
sunny season called the Petit Careme during September and October.
Environment:
he most significant environmental issues are water pollution from
agricultural chemicals, industrial wastes and raw sewage; oil pollution
of beaches; deforestation; and soil erosion.
Vegetation:
Forest covers 44 per cent of the land area, having declined at 0.3 per
cent p.a. 1990–2010. The forest is tropical evergreen: high in the
mountains are mountain mangrove, tree-ferns and small palms; on the
lower slopes, hog-plums and sand-box; and in the fresh and brackish
swamps, mangrove and gable-palms. The most important agricultural areas
are in the central plain of Trinidad. Arable land comprises five per
cent and permanent cropland four per cent of the total land area.
Wildlife:
There are many more species of birds and butterflies than on any other
Caribbean island, including 15 varieties of hummingbird (in all some 130
species of birds). There is a wildlife sanctuary in the Northern Range
on Trinidad at El Tucuche with agoutis, golden tree-frogs and more than
400 species of birds, and the Caroni Swamp reserve is the home of
thousands of scarlet ibis. The government has proposed a National Parks
and Wildlife Bill, which aims to protect endangered species of which
there are now relatively very few. Two mammal species and four bird
species are thought to be endangered (2014).
History:
Until 1888, Trinidad and Tobago were separate territories. Both have a
history of repeated invasion and conquest by competing European powers.
Trinidad, named Iere (probably meaning ‘humming bird’) by the Arawak
inhabitants, was claimed for the Spanish Crown by Christopher Columbus
in 1498. The embattled Spanish colony that developed was raided by the
English, Dutch and French through the 17th century. Large-scale
importation of African slaves enabled a plantation economy to develop.
French Haitians (who were offered incentives by the Spanish Crown)
swelled the settler population.
In 1797, the island surrendered to a British expedition and became a
British Crown colony in 1802. Slaves were emancipated in 1834, free
trade adopted in 1846, and more than 150,000 immigrants from India,
China and Madeira brought in between 1845 and 1917. These indentured
labourers came on short contracts, after which they were free to return
home or buy plots of land. The Indians worked mainly on the sugar
plantations of the Caroni and Naparima plains and introduced the
cultivation of rice there.
Tobago’s name derives from the Carib word Tavaco, the pipe in which the
Amerindians smoked tobacco leaves, and was inhabited by Caribs at the
time of Columbus’s visit in 1498. These people had all been killed by
1632 when 300 Dutch settlers arrived. Further Dutch and French settlers
followed. Tobago changed hands more frequently between 1650 and 1814
than any other Caribbean territory – ownership shifting from a settler
(Cornelius Lampsius, declared owner and Baron of Tobago by Louis XIV of
France) to the Duke of Courland, to a company of London merchants, to
neutral status in 1748, to the English Crown by the Treaty of Paris of
1763.
Even then, Tobago was fought over. The French captured it in 1781; the
British took it back in 1793; the French regained it through the Treaty
of Amiens (1802), but it was returned to the British in 1814. Despite
these battles, Tobago was prosperous until its sugar industry was
weakened by the abolition of slavery, a hurricane, the decline of West
Indian sugar in general and the Belmanna riots. No longer viable as a
separate colony, it was amalgamated with the larger island of Trinidad
in 1888.
The Spanish constitution was retained after Trinidad became a British
Crown colony in 1802. The Governor was assisted by a council of advice
and a cabildo elected by the taxpayers. The council of advice evolved
into the nominated legislative council and the cabildo became Port of
Spain’s town council. When Tobago was amalgamated with Trinidad in 1888,
the laws of Trinidad were extended to the smaller island and, after a
period, the revenues of the two islands were merged and Tobago’s debt to
Trinidad cancelled. Tobago was administered by a commissioner (later a
warden) appointed by the colony’s Governor.
In the 1920s, the labour movement organised trade unions, and pressure
increased for greater local democracy and then independence. A new
constitution brought a limited form of electoral representation to
Trinidad for the first time (Tobago had had elections before). But only
seven of the 25 members were elected, and high property and language
qualifications limited the vote. This did not satisfy the growing demand
for political expression, which led to the 1937 labour disturbances, an
increase in the number of elected members in 1941 and, in 1945,
universal adult suffrage.
In 1950, the constitution was redrawn, providing for a legislative
council of 26 members, 18 of them elected; a policy-making executive
council of nine (five elected by the legislative council), and a
rudimentary ministerial system. Further constitutional changes followed,
and by 1959, the legislative council had more elected members and an
elected Speaker, and the ministerial system had developed into a cabinet
elected from the legislative council. The Governor’s powers were
circumscribed: he did not normally chair cabinet meetings, and had to
act in accordance with the cabinet’s advice.
The 1956 elections gave the majority to the People’s National Movement
(PNM), led by Dr Eric Williams. Williams instituted further
constitutional talks with the UK in 1959–60, resulting in full internal
self-government and a bicameral legislature (nominated Senate and
elected House of Representatives). The general election of 1961 was
again won by the PNM, which implemented the new constitution.
In 1958 Trinidad and Tobago became a co-founder of the Federation of the
West Indies, which aimed to become an independent country, but Jamaica
withdrew in 1961, and Trinidad and Tobago also decided to seek its own
independence. Further constitutional talks with the UK began, and a
draft constitution was drawn up after much consultation. The country
became independent in August 1962, and a republic in 1976.
The PNM under Williams (and after his death in 1981, George Chambers)
had a long run of electoral successes. Economic conditions worsened in
the early 1980s and the PNM was ousted in 1986 by a coalition of
opposition parties, the National Alliance for Reconstruction (NAR) led
by A. N. R. Robinson. However, the coalition was troubled, and soon the
United Labour Front (led by Basdeo Panday, Robinson’s deputy) quit the
alliance to form the United National Congress (UNC).
In July 1990, an attempted coup was staged by a militant Muslim faction,
which stormed parliament and took Robinson and members of parliament
hostage for five days and led to an outbreak of looting in poor areas of
the capital. The hostages were released on the promise of an amnesty,
but the NAR government was never able to recover and the PNM, under
Patrick Manning, won an easy electoral victory in December 1991.
The PNM lost its substantial majority at the November 1995 elections: it
won 17 seats, exactly the same number as Panday’s UNC, while the NAR won
two and thus held the balance of power. The NAR chose to support the UNC,
which was then able to form a government, headed by Panday. Following
the retirement of President Noor Hassanali, Robinson became the
country’s President in February 1997.
The UNC’s position was strengthened by divisions within the PNM.
Although its leader, Patrick Manning, won a leadership contest in
October 1996, his challenger received 40 per cent of the votes. Two PNM
MPs subsequently left the party, becoming independents. Both later began
to support the UNC and were appointed government ministers.
Consequently, although the UNC–NAR coalition remained intact, the UNC
had a parliamentary majority on its own from the middle of 1997.
In June–July 1999, ten convicted murderers were hanged. These executions
– the first since 1994 – had been delayed for several years by appeals
to the Privy Council in the UK, and had only been carried out when the
Privy Council had ruled that hanging was not in itself inhumane. The
Caribbean Court of Justice was subsequently established in Port of Spain
as the final court of appeal for CARICOM countries.
In the December 2000 general election, the UNC was re-elected, winning
19 of the 36 elected seats, while PNM took 16 and NAR one; Panday
continued as Prime Minister. However, the PNM immediately challenged the
result on the grounds that two UNC candidates had had dual nationality.
There was further controversy when the President was unwilling to
appoint seven of Panday’s nominations to cabinet posts who had all been
defeated in the elections.
President Robinson finally gave way in February 2001 but the PNM’s
challenge to the legitimacy of the two UNC members took far longer to
resolve and the new administration continued in 2001 amid considerable
uncertainty, which was only dispelled when a fresh national election was
called for December 2001.
After many days: a memoir.
Being a sketch of the life and labours of Rev. Alexander Kennedy, first
Presbyterian missionary to Trinidad by Franklin, C. B. (1910) (pdf)
Trinidad Vacation Travel
Video Guide
Tobago (travel-documentary
from the season "Caribbean Moments")
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