History of Tobago
The history of Tobago covers a period from the earliest human settlements on the island of Tobago in the Archaic period, through its current status as a part of the Republic of Trinidad and Tobago. Originally settled by indigenous people, the island was subject to Spanish slave raids in the sixteenth and early seventeenth century and colonisation attempts by the Dutch, British, French, and Courlanders beginning in 1628, though most colonies failed due to indigenous resistance. After 1763 Tobago was converted to a plantation economy by British settlers and enslaved Africans.
Tobago came under French control in 1781 during the Anglo-French War, returned to British control in 1793 during the War of the First Coalition, but was returned to France in 1802. The island was recaptured by the British in 1803, and remained under their control until independence in 1962.
The economy in the late eighteenth and early nineteenth centuries was entirely dependent on slavery, and most aspects of the lives of enslaved Tobagonians was governed by the Slave Act. The end of slavery came in 1838; coupled with a lack of money to pay labourers, Tobago planters resorted to metayage, a form of sharecropping, which remained the dominant mode of production until the end of the nineteenth century.
Declining sugar prices led to Tobago's consolidation with other British colonies in the Caribbean and the end of internal self-government. In 1889 Tobago was combined with Trinidad to form the colony of Trinidad and Tobago, which gained independence in 1962. Internal self-government was re-established in 1980 with the creation of the Tobago House of Assembly.
First Tobagonians
Tobago was first settled in the Archaic period by people who probably originated in Trinidad. The oldest settlements are in the southwest of the island near the Bon Accord Lagoon, and belong to a culture known as the Milford complex, which was named for the shell midden near Milford, Tobago. These first Tobagonians were hunters and gatherers who relied on, and probably managed, a range of edible roots, palm starch, and seeds. They fished and hunted sea turtles, shell fish, crabs and land mammals. Culturally, they have been associated with the Ortoiroid people. No pottery remains have been found at Ortoiroid sites.The age of archaeological sites associated with the Milford complex have not has not been established with much precision. Artefacts found at the Milford site and other stone artefacts found elsewhere in southwestern Tobago have been dated to between 3500 and 1000 BCE. The similarities between these artefacts and ones from more completely studied sites at St. John and Banwari Trace in Trinidad led Dutch archaeologist Arie Boomert to conclude that the actual age of the Milford complex sites in Tobago is likely to be on the older end of the date range.
In the first century of the Common Era, Saladoid people settled in Tobago. Like the Ortoiroid people who preceded them, these Saladoid people are believed to have come from Trinidad. They brought with them pottery-making and agricultural traditions, and are likely to have introduced crops which included cassava, sweet potatoes, Indian yam, tannia and corn. Saladoid cultural traditions were later modified by the introduction of the Barrancoid culture. People of the Barrancoid culture settled in the Orinoco Delta by about 350 CE and settled in south Trinidad starting around 500 CE, resulting in a cultural exchange that modified the pottery styles in Trinidad. Elements of this culture made it to Tobago, either by trade or a combination of trade and settlement.
After 650 CE, the Saladoid culture was replaced by the Troumassoid tradition in Tobago. While Tobago and Trinidad were culturally connected during the Saladoid period, there was now a cultural split as the Arauquinoid tradition became established in Trinidad, while Tobago became culturally aligned with the Windward Islands and Barbados. Diets remained similar to the Saladoid times, but the remains of collared peccaries are rarer, which archaeologists have interpreted as evidence of over-hunting of the relatively large mammals. Troumassoid traditions were once thought to represent the settlement of the Island Caribs in the Lesser Antilles and Tobago, but this is now associated with the Cayo ceramic tradition. No archaeological sites exclusively associated with the Cayo tradition are known from Tobago.
Early historic period
Tobago was seen by Christopher Columbus on 14 August 1498, during his third voyage. Columbus did not land, but named the island Belaforme, "because from a distance it seemed beautiful". Spanish friar Antonio Vázquez de Espinosa recorded that the Kalina called the island Urupaina because of its resemblance to a big snail, while the Kalinago called it Aloubaéra, believed to be a reference to the fact that it resembled alloüebéra, the giant snake which was supposed to live in a cave on the island of Dominica. The name Tabaco was first recorded in a Spanish royal order, issued in 1511. This name references the shape of the island, which resembles the fat cigars smoked by the Taíno inhabitants of the Greater Antilles.Tobago's position between the Lesser Antilles and the South American mainland made it an important point of connection between the Kalinago of the Lesser Antilles and their Kalina allies and trading partners in the Guianas and Venezuela. In the 1630s Tobago was inhabited by the Kalina, while neighbouring Grenada was shared by the Kalina and Kalinago.
The Spanish raided Tobago to provide slave labour to the pearl fisheries in Margarita. This was authorised under a 1511 Spanish royal order which allowed the Spanish of Hispaniola to wage war on and enslave the inhabitants of the Windward Islands, Barbados, Tobago and Trinidad. After the establishment of a permanent Spanish settlement in Trinidad in 1592, Tobago became the focus of their slave raids. Spanish slave raids from Margarita and Trinidad continued until at least the 1620s, decimating the island's population.
Early European settlements
In 1628 Jan de Moor, the burgomaster of Vlissingen in the Netherlands, acquired the rights to colonise Tobago from the Dutch West India Company. He established a colony of a hundred settlers called Nieuw Walcheren at Great Courland Bay and built a fort, Nieuw Vlissingen, near the modern town of Plymouth. The goal of the colony was to grow tobacco for export, but the colonists were also permitted to trade with the indigenous inhabitants.The indigenous inhabitants of Tobago were hostile to the colonisers; in 1628 a visiting warship from Zeeland lost 54 men in an encounter with a group of Amerindians whose identity was not recorded. The town was also subject to attack by Kalinago from Grenada and St. Vincent. The colony was abandoned in 1630, but was reestablished in 1633 by a fresh group of 200 settlers. The Dutch traded with the Nepoyo in Trinidad and established fortified trading posts on the east and south coasts of that island. They allied with Hierreyma, a Nepoyo chief, in his rebellion against the Spanish. In retaliation, the Spanish destroyed the Dutch outposts in Trinidad before gathering a force which captured the Dutch colony in Tobago in December 1636. In violation of the terms of their surrender agreement, all but two of the Dutch prisoners were shipped to Margarita, where almost all of them were executed.
English settlers from Barbados attempted to establish a colony in Tobago in 1637, but they were attacked by Caribs shortly after their arrival and the colony was abandoned. This was followed by a series of attempts to settle the island by colonists under the patronage of the Earl of Warwick. In 1639 a group of "a few hundred" settlers established a colony, but they abandoned it in 1640 after attacks by Kalinago from St. Vincent. A new group of colonists arrived in 1642 and established tobacco and indigo plantations. This settlement was abandoned as a consequence of Carib attacks and a shortage of supplies. A fourth English colony was established in 1646 but only lasted a few months.
Courlander and Dutch colonies
Duke Friedrich Kettler of Courland tried to establish a colony on Tobago in 1639, but the colony failed. Duke Friedrich's successor, Jacob Kettler, made a second attempt in 1642 when he sent a few hundred colonists from Zeeland under the leadership of Cornelius Caroon. This settlement was attacked by Kalinago from St. Vincent and the survivors were evacuated to the Guiana coast by Arawaks from Trinidad.A new colony was established on Great Courland Bay in 1654 near the ruins of the old Dutch fort at Plymouth. The fort was rebuilt and renamed Fort Jacobus. The settlement around the fort was named Jacobusstadt and included the first Lutheran congregation in the Caribbean. The settlers were a mixture of Dutch and Courlanders under the command of Willem Mollens, and they renamed the island Neu Kurland. A few months later, a Dutch colony was established on the other side of the island, under the patronage of brothers Adriaen and Cornelius Lampsins, who were wealthy merchants from Walcheren in Zeeland. The Dutch named their settlement Lampsinsstad, which was built on the site of the current capital, Scarborough. When the Courlanders discovered the presence of the Dutch colony, they attacked it and forced the Dutch settlers to accept Couronian sovereignty. Lampsinsstad grew through the arrival of Jews, French Huguenots, and Dutch planters from Brazil who brought African slaves and Amerindian allies with them after they were forced out of Brazil by the Portuguese. By 1662, the Dutch settlement had grown to 1250 white settlers and between 400 and 500 enslaved Africans.
The Courlander settlement attempted to maintain good relationships with the local Kalina population, but was attacked by Kalinago from St. Vincent and Arawaks from Trinidad. From a maximum of about 500 settlers, the colony shrank to 50 people by 1658. In 1659, while Courland was at war in Europe, the Dutch colony mutinied and took control of the island. Fort Jacobus was renamed Fort Beveren after Hubert van Beveren, governor of the Dutch colony.
In 1666, during the Second Anglo-Dutch War, Lampsinsstad was captured and looted by Jamaican buccaneers. The fort was occupied by English forces from Barbados and then captured by French forces from Grenada before being recaptured by the Dutch in 1667. New settlers from the Netherlands re-established the colony in 1668, but were attacked by Nepoyo from Trinidad. They were able to fend off the attacks with the help of Tobagonian Kalina, but were attacked again by Kalinago from St. Vincent. At the outbreak of the Third Anglo-Dutch War, the colony was captured and looted by Barbadians.
After the end of that war, a new Dutch colony was established in 1676, but was attacked by the French in March of the following year. The resulting naval battle resulted in serious losses on both sides, and the French forces withdrew, but returned the following year, captured the island, and destroyed the settlement. Fresh Courlander attempts to establish a colony in Tobago in 1680 and 1681 were abandoned in 1683. A final Courlander attempt to settle the island in 1686 was largely abandoned by 1687; the last mention of the colony was a small group of settlers encountered by a Danish ship in 1693.