Amerindians were living in the Caribbean islands when Christopher Columbus arrived there from Spain in 1492. They were farmers and fisherman. The Europeans soon learned how to use the many local objects and plants that they had never seen before. They borrowed the Amerindian names for them which were then adapted into their own languages: for example, the English words hammock, canoe and tobacco. In exchange the Europeans brought the Amerindians diseases such as smallpox and influenza. These diseases, together with cruelty and slavery, killed most of the Amerindians and their languages and cultures disappeared.

Although Columbus claimed all the Caribbean islands for Spain, adventurers from other European countries colonised many of them. Islands changed hands as a result of wars between Spain, Britain, France, Denmark and the Netherlands: Saint Eustatius changed flags 22 times until it finally became Dutch in 1816.

The Caribbean islands were very valuable to the Europeans because the land was good for growing crops like sugar and tobacco. The Amerindians were made to work as slaves on the plantations, but many of them died. Then, European traders brought slaves captured in West Africa to work on the plantations.

“In the English Speaking World”