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Sunday 18 November 2018

Trinidad and Tobago

Twin islands located just off the northern edge of South America, Trinidad and Tobago are the most southern islands in the Caribbean.

Wikipedia

HISTORY

Until 10,000 years ago, Trinidad and Tobago were both part of the South American mainland.

Christopher Columbus became the first European to discover the island of Trinidad on July 31, 1498. 

Trinidad was a Spanish colony from the arrival of Christopher Columbus in 1498 until Spanish governor Don José María Chacón surrendered the island to a British fleet under the command of Sir Ralph Abercromby in 1797.

A medallion showing the capture of Trinidad and Tobago by the British in 1797.

The island of Tobago got its name from its resemblance to a cigar-shaped tobacco pipe (tavaco) used by local natives.

During the 17th and 18th centuries, Tobago changed hands among Spanish, British, French, Dutch and Courlander colonizers.

Trinidad and Tobago were ceded to Britain in 1802 under the Treaty of Amiens as separate states and unified in 1889. 


Trinidad and Tobago received independence from the United Kingdom on August 31, 1962.

The flag of Trinidad and Tobago was adopted upon independence from the United Kingdom. Red, black and white symbolizes fire (the sun, representing courage), earth (representing dedication) and water (representing purity and equality. 


September 24th is Republic Day in Trinidad and Tobago, a public holiday celebrating their becoming a republic in 1976 and ceasing to be a Commonwealth realm. Actually they did that on August 1, 1976. September 24 was when their first parliament met.

In 1990 The Jamaat al Muslimeen attempted a coup d'état in Trinidad and Tobago, occupying the studios of Trinidad and Tobago Television. They held Prime Minister A. N. R. Robinson and most of his Cabinet as well as the staff at the television station hostage for six days.

FUN TRINIDAD AND TOBAGO FACTS

Port of Spain is the capital city of Trinidad and Tobago. It is the third largest city in the country

Trinidad and Tobago is the only country whose capital city is named after another country.

The novelist VS Naipaul was born in Trinidad. He is the country's only Nobel Prize winner. 


Pitch Lake in Trinidad is the world's largest natural asphalt deposit covering almost 100 acres. The lake is reported to be 250 feet deep.

In the Americas, only the USA and Canada have a higher GDP per head than Trinidad and Tobago. 

Calypso music is the folk music of Trinidad. It generally has simple melodies and the words are often about persons prominent in current events. 

In Trinidad and Tobago an orchestra of frying pans, oil drums and dustbin lids recalls earlier styles of makeshift percussion music, which eventually evolved into steel pan music. The steel band is Trinidad and Tobago's national instrument. 


Calypso music, steel drum bands and limbo dancing all originated in Trinidad and Tobago. 

Source Daily Express

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