Jamaica

1983. In November 1983, Jamaica joined the small group of Caribbean nations that diplomatically backed up –and even dispatched a symbolic military contingent- the U.S. invasion on Grenada.

1972-76. The People’s National Party (PNP) won elections in 1972. In the December 1976, the PNP raked up a landslide victory that buttressed its already solid parliamentary majority. With a renewed boost, Michael Manley called for Socialism within the constitutional framework in force in Jamaica.

1962. As it happened in almost all of the colonies under British rule, the island of Jamaica also had its own time of national vindication and the island nation officially achieved its independence on August 6, 1962.

1760-95. In 1790, a general uprising broke out in the colony, eventually quelled with blood and fire. In 1795, a second revolutionary wave shook the island.

1596-1636. British skirmishes in 1596 and 1636 took a new spin when in 1655, 6,500 British soldiers led by William Penn, forced the eviction of the meager 1,500 Spanish and Portuguese troops on the island. Shortly after that Jamaica drew the attention of pirates and corsairs bent on sabotaging Spanish trade in the Caribbean.
The quilombos –slaves rebelling against their inhumane conditions who usually found shelter in hard-to-reach spots like the Blue Mountains- put up quite a fight to the British.

1494The island was discovered by Christopher Columbus, who founded the villages of Nueva Sevilla and Santa Ana in 1509 and the former island’s capital, Santiago de la Vega in 1538. The Spaniards were the first-ever to bring African slaves to work in tobacco and sugar cane plantations, the economy’s main staples back then. The Arawacks were killed off in four decades of Spanish rule. In 1655, British troops seized the island.

1400Formerly called “Xaymaca”, meaning land of wood and water in Arawackan language. It’s the Caribbean’s third largest island.