Jamaica, also referred to as JAH-MEK-YAH or lovingly called JAM-ROCK, from the very beginning has had colourful tales being told about it. This article is a tribute to its rich history and culture as we contribute to tell the tale that is Jamaica by revealing how it got its name.
The first recorded inhabitants of our beautiful island (for we do not know if there were travellers who visited before them) were the Taino, affectionately called Arawaks. They came up through South America about 2,500 years ago and were so taken by the islands lush, verdant beauty they called it Xaymaca, which means 'land of wood and water' or 'land of springs.'(JIS) The Arawaks were a mild and simple people by nature. Physically, they were light brown in complexion, short and physically attractive with coarse, black hair. Their faces were broad and their noses flat.
When Christopher Columbus arrived in Jamaica in 1494, there were more than 200 villages on the island governed by caciques, the south coast being the most populated region of the island, especially Old Harbour in St. Catherine. One and a half kilometres west of St. Ann's Bay is the site of the first Spanish settlement on the island, Sevilla, which was established in 1509 and abandoned around 1524 because it was deemed unhealthy. The capital was moved to Spanish Town, then called St. Jago de la Vega, around 1534, now modern day St. Catherine.
Being a true coloniser Coloumbus presumptiously changed the island's name from Xaymaca to Santiago and claimed the island in the name of king Ferdinand and queen Isabella, who had graciously funded his voyage into the unknown.
Fortunately the new name never stuck because Xaymaca later recoined "Jamaica" by the British, was well-known and popular among sailors and settlers of the island.
Under Spanish colonisation the Taino suffered enslavement and diseases their bodies had no resistance to, many of them died. To supplement their labour the Spanish brought enslaved Africans to the island, who would later become our Maroons.
Even though the Spanish ruled the island between 1509 and 1670, there was much opposition to their domination of Jamaica and other territories in the western hemisphere. That's where the British came in, from as early as 1595, pirates, buccaneers and English privateers launched frequent attacks on the island, in order to challenge the papal bull*, which stated that all territories of the new world belonged to the kingdoms of Castile and Portugal.
The 1596 attack was followed by others in 1603, 1640 and 1643. The frequency and severity of the attacks led to the Spanish being forcibly evicted by the British empire at Ocho Rios in St. Ann. However, it was in 1655 when the English army, led by the British Admiral Sir William Penn and General Robert Venables, were able to conquer the Spanish and freely occupy Jamaica, taking over the last Spanish fort on the island. With the signing of the Treaty of Madrid in 1670, Spain eventually signed over authority of Jamaica and the Cayman Islands to the British empire.
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References:
UWI Open Campus - Map of Jamaica
Jamaican History - JIS
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Spanish_settlement_in_Jamaica
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Inter_caetera*
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jamaica
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