The country of Trinidad & Tobago is located in the far south-east of the Caribbean region, with the island of Trinidad being just 11 kilometres (6.8 miles) off the coast of Venezuela.  Covering an area of 5,128 km2 (1,980 sq mi), the country consists of two main islands, Trinidad and Tobago, separated by a 32 km (20-mile) strait, plus a number of much smaller islands, Chacachacare, Monos, Huevos, Gaspar Grande, Little Tobago, and Saint Giles Island. 

The population is estimated at 1,405,838 (2022) of which 37.6% identified as Indo-Trinidadians; 36.3%  as Afro-Trinidadians; 24% as mixed ethnicity; 0.63% as White; 0.3% Chinese; 0.2% Syrian, Lebanese or Arab; 0.57% Amerindian 0.2% Other; 0.4 % Unknown. 

Petroleum was discovered in 1857 and became economically significant in the 1930s and following the collapse of sugarcane and cocoa, petroleum had become a staple in Trinidad's export market. Since 2003 the country entered a second oil boom, and petroleum, petrochemicals and natural gas continue to be the backbone of the economy.

Trinidad and Tobago gained its independence from the United Kingdom on 31 August 1962. In August 2020, the People's National Movement won the general election, giving Minister Keith Rowley a second term.

Image courtesy of Newsday.co.tt

National Flower

The national flower, the Chaconia, is also called “Wild Poinsettia” and is a flaming red forest flower, belonging to the family Rubianceae. This flower owes it’s botanical name Warszewiczia Coccinea to the polish-Lithuanian plant collector Joseph Warszewicz 1812 – 1866, who was one of the first plant collectors travelling to Central and South America between 1844 – 1853.

History

Both Trinidad and Tobago were originally settled by Amerindians who came through South America. Trinidad was first settled by pre-agricultural Archaic people at least 7,000 years ago, making it the earliest settled part of the Caribbean. Banwari Trace in south-west Trinidad is the oldest attested archaeological site in the Caribbean, dating to about 5000 BC. Trinidad was known to the native peoples as Ieri (Land of the Humming Bird), which continues to be used today.

Christopher Columbus was the first European to see Trinidad, on his third voyage to the Americas in 1498. He also reported seeing Tobago, naming it Bellaforma, but did not land on the island. 

In the 1530s Antonio de Sedeño, a Spanish soldier landed on Trinidad with a small army of men, intending to subdue the Amerindian peoples of the island. However Sedeño was unable to capture or subdue the native peoples and in 1592 the "Cacique" (native chief) Wannawanare granted the area around modern Saint Joseph to Domingo de Vera e Ibargüen as a settlement. From 1654 the Dutch and Courlanders managed to develop a plantation economy based on the production of sugar, indigo and rum, worked by large numbers of African slaves, who soon came to vastly outnumber the European colonists. Trinidad and Tobago changed hands 31 times prior to 1814, when the British managed to re-capture the island.  

In 1797 Trinidad became a British colony following Spanish rule of a largely French-speaking population. British rule led to an influx of settlers from the United Kingdom and the British colonies of the Eastern Caribbean. When the system of slavery 1838 was abolished with full emancipation, Trinidad had 17,439 slaves, with 80% of slave owners having enslaved fewer than 10 people each. In contrast, at twice the size of Trinidad, Jamaica had roughly 360,000 slaves, after 300 years of using slave labour on sugarcane plantations.

After the African slaves were emancipated in 1838, many refused to continue working on the plantations. Most indentured labour came from India between 1845 to 1917, bringing more than 147,000 Indians to Trinidad to work on sugarcane plantations. Whilst workers were paid, contracts and employers of indentured labour had no legal right to flog or whip their workers. Coercive measures were used to retain labourers and indentureship contracts were soon extended to 10 years from 1854 and in lieu of the return passage; portions of land encouraged settlement. By 1902, more than half of the sugar cane in Trinidad was being produced by independent cane farmers; the majority of which were Indians. 

From 1903 to 1945 the collapse of the sugarcane and cocoa industry contributed to an increased mobilisation amongst the workers to undertake strikes. Petroleum became economically significant only in the 1930s and gradually developed so that by the 1950s petroleum had become a staple in the economy. The presence of American military bases during WW2 vastly improved the infrastructure on Trinidad although the racial prejudice of the young soldiers stationed on the island caused resentment. The Americans left in 1961. Trinidad and Tobago gained its independence from the United Kingdom on 31 August 1962 and became a republic in 1976. 

Geography, climate and environment

The terrain of the islands is a mixture of mountains and plains. On Trinidad the Northern Range runs parallel with the north coast, and contains the country's highest peaks 940 metres (3,080 ft) above sea level. The rest of the island is generally flatter, with several large swamp areas, such as the Caroni Swamp and the Nariva Swamp.  Trinidad’s Pitch Lake is the largest natural reservoir of asphalt in the world. Tobago contains a flat plain in its south-west, with the eastern half of the island being more mountainous, culminating in Pigeon Peak, the island's highest point at 550 metres (1,800 ft). Tobago also contains several coral reefs off its coast. 

Trinidad and Tobago has a maritime tropical climate and unlike many Caribbean islands Trinidad and Tobago lie outside the main hurricane alleys. The biological diversity of Trinidad and Tobago is unlike that of most other Caribbean islands, and has more in common with that of Venezuela. Notable birds (images from left to right) include the blue grey tanger; scarlet ibis, hummingbird, from the Caroni Swamps Bird Sanctuary.