Facts about Caribbean island colonization
- 09
Barbados became England's most valuable Caribbean colony by 1660, generating annual revenues exceeding those of Jamaica through sugar production on an island just 166 square miles in size.
- 08
Saint-Domingue's enslaved population grew from approximately 10,000 in 1680 to over 500,000 by 1789, making French colonial Saint-Domingue the most profitable Caribbean sugar colony despite brutal mortality rates exceeding 5 percent annually.
- 07
Puerto Rico's indigenous Taíno population declined from approximately 600,000 in 1492 to roughly 500 by 1550 due to Spanish colonization's brutal labor systems and introduced diseases.
- 06
Dutch colonists established a major trading post on Curaçao in 1634, using the island as a hub for the slave trade and commerce that would make it one of the Caribbean's wealthiest colonies by the 18th century.
- 05
The 1713 Treaty of Utrecht transferred control of Saint Kitts from French to British rule, dividing the island between the two powers until 1783 when Britain gained complete control.
- 04
Jamaica's British colonization beginning in 1655 displaced the Spanish settlers and subsequently imported over 700,000 enslaved Africans across two centuries to work sugar and rum plantations.
- 03
Columbus established the first European settlement in the Caribbean on Hispaniola in 1492, naming it La Navidad before it was destroyed within a year by indigenous resistance and harsh weather.
- 02
French colonists established sugar plantations on Martinique after 1635, transforming the island's economy and creating a demand for enslaved African labor that would grow to over 100,000 people by 1700.
- 01
By 1550, Spanish colonizers had reduced the Taíno population of Hispaniola from approximately 1 million to fewer than 500 people through disease, forced labor, and warfare.