Jamaica is an island country situated in the Caribbean Sea. Originally inhabited by the indigenous Arawak and Taíno peoples, the island came under Spanish rule following the arrival of Christopher Columbus in 1494. The majority of Jamaicans are of Sub-Saharan African ancestry, with significant European, East Asian, Indian, Lebanese, and mixed-race minorities. The population of Jamaica is 2.7 million, making it the fourth-largest island in the region.
About Jamaica in brief
Jamaica is an island country situated in the Caribbean Sea. Originally inhabited by the indigenous Arawak and Taíno peoples, the island came under Spanish rule following the arrival of Christopher Columbus in 1494. Many of the indigenous people were either killed or died of diseases to which they had no immunity, and the Spanish then forcibly transplanted large numbers of African slaves to Jamaica as labourers. The island remained a possession of Spain until 1655, when England conquered it, renaming it Jamaica. Under British colonial rule Jamaica became a leading sugar exporter, with a plantation economy dependent on the African slaves and later their descendants. The majority of Jamaicans are of Sub-Saharan African ancestry, with significant European, East Asian, Indian, Lebanese, and mixed-race minorities. Jamaica is an upper-middle income country with an economy heavily dependent on tourism; it has an average of 4. 3 million tourists a year. The country has a global influence that belies its small size; it was the birthplace of the Rastafari religion, reggae music, and it is internationally prominent in sports, most notably cricket, sprinting and athletics. With 2.9 million people, Jamaica is the third-most populous Anglophone country in the Americas. Kingston is the country’s capital and largest city. Andrew Holness has served as Prime Minister of Jamaica since March 2016. The Jamaican National Heritage Trust is attempting to locate and document any remaining evidence of the Taí no.
The island achieved independence from the United Kingdom on 6 August 1962. It is a parliamentary constitutional monarchy with legislative power vested in the bicameral Parliament of Jamaica, consisting of an appointed Senate and a directly elected House of Representatives. The British Overseas Territory of the Cayman Islands lies some 215 kilometres to the north-west of the island and is part of the British Commonwealth. The population of Jamaica is 2.7 million, making it the fourth-largest island in the region and the third largest in the Greater Antilles and the Caribbean. The largest city is Kingston, which was established in 1509 by Juan de Esquivel, which is the site of the first Spanish settlement on the island, Sevilla de Sevilla. It has a population of around 1.5 million people and is home to a large diaspora, particularly in Canada, the U.S. and the United States. The indigenous people, the Yamaye, called the island Xaymaca in an A Rawakan language, meaning the \”Land of Wood and Water\” or the ‘Land of Springs\”. Colloquially, Jamaicans refer to their home island as the “Rock’ or ‘Jamrock’. The first Europeans to visit the island were the Spanish, who established Sevilla in 1508. Christopher Columbus was the first European to see Jamaica, claiming the island for Spain on his second voyage to the Americas, and named it Discovery Bay, Dry Harbour, and Dry Harbour.
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This page is based on the article Jamaica published in Wikipedia (as of Dec. 07, 2020) and was automatically summarized using artificial intelligence.
