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Caribbean history - learn what once happend
Christopher Columbus' voyages, although sometimes controversial, certainly set the mark for New World exploration. For his inaugural trek, Columbus solicited funds from all the major European kings until King Ferdinand and Queen Isabella of Spain agreed to sponsor his travels to the western world. In 1492, he readied his vessels - the Nina, the Pinta, and the Santa Maria--and set off with his crew from Palos. Columbus first spotted land on October 12, 1492. He christened this Bahamian island San Salvador. He would eventually touch down in Cuba before crashing the Santa Maria off the coast of Hispaniola, known today as the Dominican Republic and Haiti. Columbus abandoned thirty-eight of his crew members on Hispaniola and returned to Spain where he proclaimed that he had reached Asia. Some islands changed hands more than twenty times during the Caribbean wars. Cuba and Puerto Rico were ceded to the United States in the late 19th century, and Cuba gained its independence in 1901, but independence for all the island nations wasn't a legitimate prospect until the 1960s. The French possessions remain departments of France; citizens of these islands have the same rights and privileges as citizens of Burgundy or Province. In 1962, Jamaica and Trinidad and Tobago becameindependent states within the British Commonwealth; Barbados did the same four years later. Next came independence for Antigua, Barbuda, Redonda, Anguilla, St. Kitts and Nevis, St. Lucia, St. Vincent, and Dominica. Today, the islands continue to build on this self-reliance. Pirate ships pervaded the Caribbean coastline in the early 17th century. Their eventual home base was the island of Tortuga off the north coast of Haiti, overlooking the Windward Passage. From here they pirated the high seas, attacking vessels as far away as the Indian Ocean. The 18th century brought about a turning point in Caribbean history when slavery was brought to the islands. European importers demanded high quantities of sugar, the product of sugarcane, which grew easily in the Caribbean's temperate weather. In the 18th and early 19th centuries, sugar plantations dominated Caribbean agriculture and fueled the slave trading traditions. When the Emancipation Act of 1834 ended slavery, Europe could no longer depend on the islands for high-volume sugar production, so the Caribbean no longer seemed worth the fight to Europeans. Nowadays, the Caribbean's ever-expanding export base includes electronics, textiles, petroleum, and rum. Undeniably, though, the islands' most profitable industry is tourism, which saw its renaissance in the early 1990s. The tourism boom promoted growth in many other domestic industries such as construction and other tourism-related ventures. The modern Caribbean has a unique cultural identity shaped by the influential traditions of European settlers, African slaves, and native Indian tribesmen such as the peaceful Arawaks and warrior Caribs. This rich and varied history is set against a backdrop of dazzling beaches, mountains, rainforests, and bustling city streets. The distinctive culture and customs of the Caribbean nations have lovingly been preserved by native voices--artists, farmers, and merchants who are the oral historians preserving the cultural traditions of this incomparable region.
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Caribbean Vacations site
Our company is running one of the largest pc and mobile travel website networks, covering top hotel, vacation package, airline ticket, beach, cruise, all inclusive and honeymoon destinations worldwide.
We will also run a travel blog portal which centralises the blogs posted by our visitors on all of our websites and which represents one of the world's best travel information resources, totally build by people such as yourself.
In the link section, you can check more links to our travel website network as well as to other third party specialized websites as lastminute.com or orbitz.com which we suggest you to visit if are you planning a trip to Caribbean .
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