Jamaica is an island in the West Indies, 90 mi (145 km) south of Cuba and 100 mi (161 km) west of Haiti. It is a little smaller than Connecticut. The island is made up of coastal lowlands, a limestone plateau, and the Blue Mountains, a group of volcanic hills, in the east. the government system is a Constitutional parliamentary democracy . The first settler on Jamaica were called the Arawaks. these people lived in around the sea side the were farmer ,fishermen and hunters.Colubus discovered jamaica during the year of 1494. the spanish weren't the frist settlers. In 1655 the british took over.While the spanish where there the worked the Arawaks to death ,some died from disease like small pox and typhoid fever.There was a establishment of large sugar plantations,banana citrus tobacco etc.On May 10, 1655, the English, under the leadership of Sir William Penn conquered a depleted Spanish fleet and took the island. The Spanish, we understood, offered very little resistance. During the latter part of the 17th Century, the agricultural sector blossomed, particularly with respect to produce such as cocoa and sugar cane. This led to the necessity for increased labour. The English turned to the importation of slaves from the African continent, this continued despite growing opposition to the idea of slavery.
The Trans-Atlantic Slave trade was outlawed in 1807 and slavery was eventually abolished in 1838. This monumental achievement (abolition of slavery) brought increased unrest as a result of the new found freedom.
The history of Jamaica would have recorded minor and major uprisings in the island. Two of the larger ones were the 1865 Morant Bay rebellion and the 1938 sugar riots.
At the hearts of the riots were concerns over rights, working conditionsand improvement in the standard of living.
After the 1938 riots a new Jamaica began to evolve, politicalconsciousness was at an all time high. The two now major political parties were soon established-The Jamaica Labour Party and The Peoples' National Party. The country lobbied for independence from British rule and in August 6,1962, Jamaica raised its own national flag! a defining moment in the history of Jamaica.Alexander Bustamante was installed as the first prime minister of Jamaica.Since then, control of the government has changed hands only between these two traditional parties. Today, we have many informal (and formal) public debates as to which party brought improvement (economic, social, political etc.) to Jamaica.