Jamaica Essay Research Paper The country of

Jamaica Essay, Research Paper

The country of Jamaica has an ideal location. Located just south of Cuba, it is the third largest island in the Caribbean Sea with 10,990 km.. Although the capital is Kingston, there are many other important centers of trade and business. The official language is English and the major religion is Protestantism. Transportation in Jamaica connects the entire country and movement thought out the island is very easy. There is a coastal highway traveling the whole coast. Air Jamaica and cruise ships make traveling to and from the island very easy. But despite all of the joys, there are very serious human-environmental interactions present. Mining on the island causes serve pollution and soil erosion. Most of the natural rainforest is destroyed. But the many beautiful beaches seem to make all of the worries disappear.

I. History

The history of Jamaica starts at about 1000 AD when a Tiano tribe called the Arawaks crossed the Caribbean Sea in canoes to settle on the island. The Arawaks lived in simple villages, relying on fishing and hunting for substance. They lived there peacefully for 500 years until Columbus landed at Discovery Bay in 1494.

The contact with the Spanish was very traumatic to the Arawaks. Within 70 to 100 years of first contact, the entire Arawaks population was eliminated, leaving only a few artifacts behind. With the natural inhabitants gone, the Spanish had unlimited control over the island. Since the island had no rich abundant gold sources, it meant little to the Spanish Crown. Instead, Jamaica was used as a base in which to launch attacks on the rest of the Americas. The population of Jamaica, even its capital Santiago de la Vega (now Spanish Town) never grew very large and was easy to capture.

The British, after failed to capture Hispaniola, needed a solid base in the Caribbean. So in 1655, Admirals Penn and Venables attacked the sparsely defended island of Jamaica. Having little importance to the Spanish at this point, the British had no trouble seizing the island and establishing Port Royal (near modern day Kingston) as the capital. This would turn out to be a pivotal moment in Jamaica.s history.

The British brought in large numbers of slaves to the area, needing thousands of hands to work the newly developing sugar plantations. In a short time, Jamaica turned into the “.jewels of the English crown.” (Essix). Many port cities back in England that serviced trade to Jamaica, as well as the slave traders and plantation owners all prospered during this time. The capital city of Jamaica was moved to modern day Kingston in 1703 when Port Royal was burned down

1838 saw great changes in Jamaica. That year the slaves were emancipated and the whole structure of society began to crumble. The slaves soon left the plantations to do substance farming. The tension between the plantations owners and the representatives from England began to grow. Several riots broke out and many plantations struggled to pay the wages of the workers.

The riots continued until 1962 when Jamaica was granted political independence. A socialist government was soon elected, which led to immediate U.S. blockades. However, the 1980.s began a period of a more conservative government for Jamaica.

II. Population

Jamaica is a sparsely populated country of 2,600,000 people. These 2.6 million people live on 10,990 km., for a population density of about 1 acre per person. This gives Jamaica the distinction of being a developed countries and being not being overpopulated. However, in some places of Jamaica, especially along the coast, the cities are overcrowded.

The largest city is Kingston with a population of 600,000 followed by Spanish Town, Portmore, Montego Bay and others (see graph 6). Still the largest percentage of people live in rural areas. However, many rural farmers are moving to the cities in search of work.

Jamaica has many ethnic groups living with its boundaries. The largest group, about 75% of the population, are descendants of the slaves brought to Jamaica in the 1800.s. Another large percentage of the population is composed of descendants of the European settlers from around the same time period. Over time, small percentages of people from East India and China have settled in Jamaica.

The 1940.s to 1970.s saw a large emigration pattern out of Jamaica to the United States. As many as 465,000 Jamaicans left to help in the reconstruction of the States. economy after World War II. Since that time, no large scale immigration or emigration has occurred within the Jamaican population.

The average male in Jamaica has a life expectancy of 73 years, compared to his female counterpart of 77 years. The birth rate of Jamaica is 20/1,000, compared to its death rate of 5/1,000. This gives Jamaica a .7% growth rate. Jamaica has a high literacy rate of 98%, but a malnourished children rate of 7% and an infant mortality rate of 14 deaths to 1,000 births.

Jamaica has a regressive population pyramid. About 33% of the population is under 15, while 7% of it is over 65. This leaves 60% between the ages of 16 and 64. Some 16% of this ideal work force (about 1.5 million Jamaicans) is unemployed, while Jamaica.s debt continues to grow. Not helped by this fact is that the per capita income in Jamaica is only US $1,340.

III. Culture

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