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Tobago is the smaller of the twin island state of Trinidad and Tobago. Although, only, eleven miles apart they are two very different islands. Trinidad is an oil-rich island that is highly commercialised and fettered with a lot of traits of a anglo-western society. Tobago on the other hand is a laid-back island still with a rural society with tourism its main industrial activity. This is a result of two entirely differnt colonial histories.
Tobago had a very violent and unsteady colonial history. It changed hand many times having French, Dutch, English and Latvian masters. The small size of the island made it relatively easy to conquer but relatively unprofitable to commercialize, or settle in large numbers and therefore to difficult to defend. The combination of the Emancipation of Slavery, 1834, and the collapse of the Sugar Industry in 1880s made the island seem largely and unprofitable to the Colonial landowners. Most of them migrated, those that remained employed various systems of corporation with the now emancipated slaves e.g. metayage system and ‘nothing day’. This resulted in a large number of abandoned, sold off estates, and pseudo colonial estates. As a result most African ex-slaves became landowners or at the very least peasants farmers. But the absence of the capital, colonial economic links, the size of country and thus the farms made Tobago a subsistence rather than industrial society.
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