🇯🇲 Jamaica

National Flag

Geography & Borders

This country has no land borders.

Introduction & Background

Jamaica (/dʒəˈmeɪkə/ⓘ; Template:Lang-jam) is an island country situated in the Caribbean Sea. Spanning 10,990 square kilometres (4,240sqmi) in area, it is the third-largest island of the Greater Antilles and the Caribbean (after Cuba and Hispaniola).11 Jamaica lies about 145 kilometres (90mi) south of Cuba, and 191 kilometres (119mi) west of Hispaniola (the island containing the countries of Haiti and the Dominican Republic); the British Overseas Territory of the Cayman Islands lies some 215 kilometres (134mi) to the north-west.11

Originally inhabited by the indigenous Taíno peoples, the island came under Spanish rule following the arrival of Christopher Columbus in 1494. Many of the indigenous people either were killed or died of diseases, after which the Spanish brought large numbers of African slaves to Jamaica as labourers.11 The island remained a possession of Spain until 1655, when England (later Great Britain) 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 British fully emancipated all slaves in 1838, and many freedmen chose to have subsistence farms rather than to work on plantations. Beginning in the 1840s, the British began using Chinese and Indian indentured labour to work on plantations. The island achieved independence from the United Kingdom on 6 August 1962.11