page_title: History of Tobago
hierarchical_section_title: History of Tobago
caption_attribution_description: English: hand colored map of Tobago island, Trinidad and Tobago, Caribbean, with subdivision into seven "divisions" (later parishes with different names)
context_page_description: The history of Tobago covers a period from the earliest human settlements on the island of Tobago in the Archaic period, through its current status as a part of the Republic of Trinidad and Tobago. Originally settled by indigenous people, the island was subject to Spanish slave raids in the sixteenth and early seventeenth century and colonisation attempts by the Dutch, British, French, and Courlanders beginning in 1628, though most colonies failed due to indigenous resistance. After 1763 Tobago was converted to a plantation economy by British settlers and enslaved Africans.
  Tobago came under French control in 1781 during the Anglo-French War, returned to British control in 1793 during the War of the First Coalition, but was returned to France in 1802. The island was recaptured by the British in 1803, and remained under their control until independence in 1962.
  The economy in the late eighteenth and early nineteenth centuries was entirely dependent on slavery, and most aspects of the lives of enslaves Tobagonians was governed by the Slave Act.
context_section_description: The history of Tobago covers a period from the earliest human settlements on the island of Tobago in the Archaic period, through its current status as a part of the Republic of Trinidad and Tobago. Originally settled by indigenous people, the island was subject to Spanish slave raids in the sixteenth and early seventeenth century and colonisation attempts by the Dutch, British, French, and Courlanders beginning in 1628, though most colonies failed due to indigenous resistance. After 1763 Tobago was converted to a plantation economy by British settlers and enslaved Africans. 
  Tobago came under French control in 1781 during the Anglo-French War, returned to British control in 1793 during the War of the First Coalition, but was returned to France in 1802. The island was recaptured by the British in 1803, and remained under their control until independence in 1962.
  The economy in the late eighteenth and early nineteenth centuries was entirely dependent on slavery, and most aspects of the lives of enslaves Tobagonians was governed by the Slave Act. The end of slavery came in 1838; coupled with a lack of money to pay labourers, Tobago planters resorted to metayage, a form of sharecropping, which remained the dominant mode of production until the end of the nineteenth century. 
  Declining sugar prices led to Tobago's consolidation with other British colonies in the Caribbean and the end of internal self-government. In 1889 Tobago was combined with Trinidad to form the colony of Trinidad and Tobago, which gained independence in 1962. Internal self-government was re-established in 1980 with the creation of the Tobago House of Assembly.
caption: 1779 map of Tobago by Thomas Bowen
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