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How did this course affect my outlook on Caribbean Civilization?

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How did this course affect my outlook on Caribbean Civilization?

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Prior to this course there were many things that I was misinformed about. This course widened my understanding of the Caribbean civilization as well  as exposed common misconceptions that was previously thought to be facts. The course allowed me to have a greater appreciation for the Caribbean's history especially since the history was revised and thought not in an Eurocentric point of view which was the view that was previously known to me.  For example, a common myth was that the indigenous people were called Caribs and Arawaks, I learnt that the proper names were Tainos and Kalinagos. The incorrect terminology owed to the Europeans misinterpreting  the name of their language, Arawakan, and took it for the name of the people instead.
This course has been an eye opener to myself as well as a number of my colleagues. The book which was used in the course, "Beyond Massa," was also very insightful and gave the students a different view of the plantation system and further educated us, giving us insight with respect to the managerial side of the plantations.
I would like to thank our course coordinator, Dr. John F. Campbell for his wonderful works and allowing us the opportunity to delve into such a course that revealed a lot of common misconceptions to us and allowed us to have a greater understanding of our region.

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Importance of these groups that came to the Caribbean Region

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Importance of these groups that came to the Caribbean Region

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As one can see the Caribbean region has been colonized by  more than one  European power. With the way that they chose to rule their respective colonies as well  as the labour schemes they  put in place in order to sustain the plantation life on these territories shaped what the Caribbean Culture and Society is today.
Due to the many different peoples that came to the region they all brought some form of their own culture with them. They brought their way of dress, their music, their religious views as well as their cuisine. The existence of these many cultures created cultural diversity within the Caribbean region. Cultural diversity is defined as having people of many different races, ethnic groups, cultures, religions, nationalities and backgrounds making up a community.
How did the Caribbean become so culturally diverse?

1. The history played a very important part since the islands that make up the region have very similar histories with respect to European colonization.

2. Geography, the islands are separated by water and this facilitated the growth of cultural difference among similar races.

3. Migration, the Caribbean became the home to many  different  races due the settlement patterns.

4. Intermarriages, due to the mixing of races, new racial and ethnic groups were created.

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The Portuguese

The Portuguese came around 1835-1881

The Portuguese came from a small island in the Atlantic called Madeira.

Portuguese were also  seen as a way to build a predominantly white population

These individuals came on contracts ranging from 3-5 years

After the contract was up, most did not re-indenture themselves, rather they left the plantations and engaged in petty trading and peasant farming.

The Chinese

The Chinese were the first set of indentured labourers to come to the Caribbean, they came as early as 1806 (due to the impending abolition of slavery).

The second wave of Chinese immigrants came between  1853-1884.

They came from Canton, Hong Kong, Macao and Amoy on 5-7 year contracts.

The Chinese, like the Portuguese did not re-indenture themselves, rather they established small businesses to sustain themselves.

The Javanese

Javanese were brought from a small island of Indonesia called Java.

The Javanese were brought specifically to Suriname between the years 1874-1931.

The Indians

Indian indentured labourers started to come into the region in 1838.

They were deemed the most successful immigration scheme to replace the Africans.

The scheme was stopped and restarted many times due to high mortality rates, poor conditions and ill-treatment of the Indians.

India at the time was a British colony and many poor Indians would indenture themselves to work on a 5-7 year contract.

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Burning Spear (Winston Rodney) - Slavery Days (Do you remember the days of slavery)

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Burning Spear (Winston Rodney) - Slavery Days (Do you remember the days of slavery) This is one of the reggae classics.

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In 1640, the Dutch introduced the cultivation of sugar cane in Barbados, this was a result of the tobacco cultivated within the Caribbean  having a hard time competing with Virginian tobacco which was cheaper and of a better quality.

Over the next few decades sugar cane replaced tobacco as the main crop of the Caribbean.

The Portuguese were the first to start buying and selling enslaved Africans. Soon after the Dutch,English and French started trading enslaved Africans from West Africa.

The organization of slave trade became known as the triangular slave trade of commerce. Ships laden with cotton, iron bars, gun powder, salt and textiles and other items manufactured from Britain would sail for West Africa. There they would exchange the items for African slaves. After acquiring  enough slaves they would travel back to the Caribbean across the Atlantic Ocean was known as the middle passage.

Slavery was a harsh, brutal and oppressive system that lasted more than 200  years resulting in over 21 million Africans being shipped to the Caribbean.

In 1838 the African slaves were emancipated.

Due to the emancipation of the African slaves, new labour was needed in order to main the plantation and as such the indentured labourers were sought out.

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The gold and silver resources of the islands started to dwindle significantly and as such the colonists needed to find another way to attain wealth for their country. This  resulted in the shift to agriculture.

The Europeans began to export Tobacco which became popular in Europe hence fetching high prices for the product.

The Neo-Indians had virtually been wiped out at this time and as such a new labour force was needed in order to operate this  new agricultural regime.

By this time the English and French had pushed Spain out of the Caribbean.

They soon began to source labour from Ireland, England,Wales, Holland, France and Portugal to work the tobacco plantations.

Most of these workers were criminals sent to carry out their sentence as labourers, others were captured in wars and other came voluntarily, signing a 5 year contract.

This labour scheme was not a successful one since the labourers quickly died out due to being overworked, undernourished and exposure to diseases.

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Relationship between the Neo-Indians and Europeans 

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Relationship between the Neo-Indians and Europeans 

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The Spanish,English, French and Dutch all enslaved the Neo-Indian people.

The Europeans believed that  their culture was superior than that of the native people and as such they  set out establishing their way of life.

The Europeans believed that the Neo-Indians should have felt honored to adopt their way of life. As a result of their biased view, they did not practice much tolerance or understanding when dealing with the Tainos and Kalinagos.

As such, in a short space of time the ways of life of millions of indigenous people were destroyed. There were a number of aspects which led to the wiping out of the Neo-Indian people.

War between the Europeans and Neo-Indians were one such aspect. The weapons of the natives which were made of bone,wood and shell were no match for that  of the weapons of metal that the Europeans possessed.

Deadly diseases brought by the Europeans such as measles, influenza, cholera and venereal diseases  killed many Neo-Indians since their immune systems were not well equipped to handle these foreign diseases.

Also being overworked and malnourished were other main factors that killed the native people.

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The other European nations followed the Spanish into the Caribbean territory because of the mass of wealth and power they were attaining and as such these other European nations wanted a share in the spoils that the Spanish was enjoying.

English

The English failed in its attempt to establish a settlement in Guiana.

The English were however successful in  establishing their first settlement in St. Kitts  which was used as a base for other explorations.

The English eventually moved into more territories in the Lesser Antilles.

French

The French settlement started due to a French ship stopping in the colony of St. Kitts for repairs.

The English was having some issues with the Kalinagos on the island and they  decided to strike a deal with the French in order to defeat the Kalinagos.

The deal was, if the French aided the English in defeating the natives , the English would settle in the middle of the island and allow the French to occupy the two ends of the island. The French agreed, hence joining forces with the English and defeating the Kalinagos.

Dutch

The Dutch were not interested in establishing settlements, rather they preferred to stay as traders . The few colonies they did colonize were used as trading ports.

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The Spanish crown desired to find a sea route to the India and as such they  supported Christopher Columbus'  first voyage.

Christopher Columbus first came to the Caribbean in 1492 and first ran ashore in the Bahamas.

Columbus went on to the Greater Antilles, Hispaniola(Haiti and Dominican Republic) and Cuba.

The Lesser Antilles were left alone since they were thought to be too small to have much gold and not much land for cattle ranching.

Hispaniola was used as a base to launch other explorations. As a result of this the Spanish  came to occupy the Greater Antilles.

The Spanish enslaved the neo-indian people wherever they settled and used them in the mining of  gold,silver and in cattle ranching operations.

Due to this Spanish quickly became one of the most wealthiest European nations and used her wealth to fund wars in order to extend her empire  and dominate other territories.

Due to the Spanish's uprising, this encouraged other European nations to want to venture into the Caribbean in order to acquire wealth and power for themselves.

Below shows a picture of Christopher Columbus.

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1.       Greater Antilles (Northern Caribbean)

-          Cuba

-          Jamaica

-          Haiti

-          Dominican Republic

-          Puerto Rico

2.       Lesser Antilles (Eastern Caribbean)

Leeward Islands

-          Virgin Islands (US & British)

-          St. Martin

-          St. Barthelemy

-          St. Eustatius

-          Anguilla

-          St. Kitts and Nevis

-          Antigua

-          Barbuda

-          Montserrat

-          Guadeloupe

Windward Islands

-          Dominica

-          Martinique

-          St. Lucia

-          St. Vincent and The Grenadines

-          Barbados

-          Grenada

-          Trinidad and Tobago

3.       Netherland Antilles (ABC islands)

-          Aruba

-          Bonaire

-          Curacao

4.       Islands in the General Area

-          Cayman Islands

-          Turks and Caicos

-          Bahamas

5.       Mainland Countries

Central America

-          Belize

South America

-          Guyana
-          Suriname
- French Guiana

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Summary of Different Groups  who came to the Caribbean:

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Summary of Different Groups  who came to the Caribbean:

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1.      Neo-Indians

·          Tainos and Kalinagos

·          Recently referred to as the Caribs and Arawaks which were in fact their language(arawakan) rather than their name.

2.      The European (1492-1600s)

·         The Spanish came first, they were then followed by the other European powers; British, Dutch and French.

3.      White Indentured Servants (1652-1659)

·         English, Irish, Welsh, German contract labourers.

4.      The Africans (1500s-1800s)

·         African slaves were transported to the Caribbean by the Portuguese, Dutch, British, and French slave traders.

·         African slaves were brought to the West Indies in order to provide labour for the tobacco and sugar cane plantations.

5.      The Post Emancipation Era (after 1838)

·         Due to the emancipation of the enslaved Africans, there was a labour shortage on the plantations and as such different immigration schemes were pursued in order to solve the labour issue.

·         They sourced indentured labourers which included Madeirans (Portuguese), Free African Immigrants, Chinese, East Indians and the Javanese.