hello everyone and welcome [Music] to this is the Caribbean and here's Trinidad and Tobago now let's go shall we the ancient history of these Tropical Islands is not very well known but Trinidad ended up inhabited by arakan speaking peoples and Tobago by Island Caribs Christopher Columbus spotted both Islands in 1498 but Europeans did not attempt settling them for nearly a century the Spanish were first and soon after the English under Sir Walter Raleigh arrived Who took possession of the Spanish settlement in Trinidad for a base to support a search for the legendary City of Gold Eldorado Raleigh never found the fabled city but one of his men was eaten by a crocodile so well the crocodile was happy in the mid 1600s a number of French settlers arrived in Tobago and established a plantation economy fueled by slaves from Africa and like anything that makes money rival Powers began to fight for control of the island meanwhile in Spanish run Trinidad the indigenous population dwindled L from years of conflict with the Europeans the following Century saw Trinidad encourage French Planters to Kickstart plantations on that island too then the British who already possessed Tobago said hm that Trinidad place looks pretty cool let's get it so they invaded and conquered it in 1797 the British abolished slavery in 1833 and with this source of Free Labor gone employers shipped in cheap workers from India after their contracts expired most Indians chose to remain in Trinidad after being damaged in riots over the cost of water the British rebuilt the government administration building which was called the red house but no one knows why yes they do no it's a mystery it really isn't no one knows why it's called red sorry about that anyway in the 1920s and 30s the islands sugar cane and cocoa Industries began to falter and Peter out and petroleum replaced them finally in 1962 Trinidad and Tobago attained independence with Eric Williams becoming the first Prime Minister the following year the category 4 hurricane Flora thresh the Caribbean including Trinidad and Tobago in 1976 hazley Crawford won the country's first Olympic gold medal after winning the 100 meters in 1990 a Muslim Revolt stormed the red house and attempted to take control of the government but failed and to this day no one knows why it's called the in 2001 the Trinidadian writer vs naol won the Nobel Prize in literature and the country today enjoys a very high level of human development with an economy grounded in oil and tourism so that's it for Trinidad and Tobago and that's all for me for now bye-bye [Music]