The+English+speaking+world+-+Jamaica


 * Jamaica** **– The English Speaking Country**
 * **Box of Facts:**
 * Official Language:** English
 * Capital** **City:** Kingston (also the biggest city)
 * Independence****:** 6 August 1962 (from The United Kingdom)
 * Population:** 2 800 000 (2008)
 * Area:** 10 992 km2
 * Climate:** Tropic ||

In this project I chose to have about Jamaica, because I had no previous knowledge about the country. Another reason is that in the capital city of my home country, Amsterdam in the Netherlands, there are lots of Jamaican immigrants with a roumour of only being marihuana smoking Rastafarians. So I thought it would be interesting to know something about Jamaica and to show that Jamaica is more than only that.

Jamaica is an island in the Caribbean Sea, and is a part of the Greater Antilles. Jamaica is about 145 kilometres south of Cuba, and is the third largest island in the Caribbean Sea after Cuba and Hispaniola. Jamaica also has some small uninhabited Islands in the south of the country. Jamaica was first discovered by Christofer Columbus who came to the island in 1494. Christofer named the island Santiago. In 1665 Jamaica became a British colony, and the country stayed under The British Empire until 1962, that is why Jamaica is the third most populous English speaking country in the Americas, after the USA and Canada.

When Christofer Columbus came to Jamaica for the first time in 1494, there were about 100 000 inhabitants. They were called Arawak-indians, and started living on the island about 700 BC. After Christofer discovered Jamaica, in 1510 Spanish farmers came, and after only 100 years, the Arawak-indians were totally extinct because of hard work, bad treatment and diseases the European brought with them, which the local inhabitants couldn’t resist.
 * History**

In 1654 trained British soldiers came to the Caribbean Islands. First they tried to conquer Hispaniola (today known as Haiti and the Dominican Republic), but it didn’t work out for the British soldiers, so they sailed over to Jamaica and actually managed to conquer Jamaica, in spite of that the loyal Spanish people and the Spanish liberated slaves called maroons desperate tried to protect their new country.

During its first 200 years of British rule, Jamaica became one of the world's leading sugar-exporter. Jamaica produced more than 77,000 tons of sugar annually between 1820 and 1824. Investment and other profits started to grow from the production of cocoa beans, coffee and sugar. Even tough the British were in a constant war against France and Spain, so even the British Empire had to surrender parts of the islands to pirates and criminals, because they could not protect all their land anymore. The riot of the slaves didn’t make the situation any better for the British. Runaway slaves and successors of the maroons fought together, and forced the British Empire to give them self-government in 1739.

After 1739, the interest to come to Jamaica grew. Many new slaves arrived to the island and started working at sugar plantations in really bad conditions. Slaves were burned to death, strangled and tortured in other ways to make them obedient.

The last and most awful slavery riot on Jamaica was «the Christmas Rebellion» in 1831. The riot developed to be intense, and over 20 000 slaves ruined plantations and the owners of them. 400 slaves were hung, and many more were whipped, before they finally got their freedom the first of August 1834. But even when the slaves had got their freedom, the white plantation owners still had more political influence than the slaves.

Jamaica is not a big island, but there are still lots of things to do. When you travel by air, you will probably come to the capital city of Jamaica, Kingston. Kingston is also the biggest city with about 650 000 inhabitants. It is a really beautiful place to see, there are lots of famous hotels and it is called the city of colour because the city is surrounded by Blue Mountains and Red Hills. Generally Jamaica’s nature is of valleys and lowlands with the worlds most beautiful natural rivers streaming through, but in the northern part of the country can you also find areas of rainforests. Although Jamaica has really many attractions to choose about, the most important of them all are all the beautiful beaches.
 * The modern Jamaica – Once you go, you know.**



Jamaica might seem totally different from England at some things, but there are also many similarities between the two countries. At many things Jamaica has been influenced by England, and some things reverse. Though Jamaica is a really small country, it is rich in culture, and is famous over the entire world. Now I’m going to mention some similarities in some important culture areas.
 * Similarities**

There are not big differences in the government of Jamaica and England. Jamaica is a monarchy with the monarch being represented by a Governor-General, and it’s almost the same as in England, with a royal leader and a prime minister. The Governor-General in Jamaica is nominated by the Prime Minister and the entire government, and is elected by the monarch. All the members of the government are elected by the Governor-General on the advice of the Prime Minister.

Major parts of the Jamaican economy include agriculture, mining, manufacturing and tourism. Tourism and mining are the most important ways of earning money. England is one of richest countries in the world compared with Jamaica. Jamaica is a country that is really dependent of their export and import just as England, mainly because they are islands. The most important imports are energy, machinery and consumer goods, and what they earn most of their money of exporting are natural resources. We can conclude with that the welfare in Jamaica is not at England’s level yet, but it’s increasing in a good tempo.

Jamaicans, in general, have a large interest in sports just as the English people. Cricket, Soccer, athletics and horse-racing are several popular sports in both Jamaica and England, but the sport most of us associate Jamaica with is sprinting. The best known Jamaican sprinter is Usain Bolt. Bolt holds the Olympic and world records for the 100 metres at 9.69 seconds, the 200 metres at 19.30 seconds and, along with his teammates, the 4x100 metres relay at 37.10 seconds, all set at the 2008 Summer Olympics in Beijing. Usain Bolt became the first man to win all three events at a single Olympics since Carl Lewis in 1984, and he is the first person in history to set world records in all three at the Olympic.

//Usain Bolt//

If you have ever seen Jamaica on the television, there has probably been some nice background music. Jamaica is the birthplace of many world-famous artists and is the root of many music styles, for instance dub, mento, ska and punk rock. Bob Marley was probably the most famous of the artists. He was a singer and songwriter who died in 1981. Marley performed reggae music, and is credited for helping spreading the Jamaican music to the worldwide audience.

//Bob marley//

English is the official Jamaican language. However the Jamaican English language is called Creole, which is a combination of English and some African languages. Most Jamaicans can speak or understand Patois, that is another form of native and local speech, but it is not a written language. The immigrants from outside have also brought with them their language as well, as for example Irish, Spanish and Scottish. So even though Jamaica have got their language from England, it’s hard for English people to understand when Jamaicans speak the language, because of all the international words.

Jamaica, the exotic land in the Caribbean Sea, discovered by Christofer Columbus with an extremely production of Sugar. Jamaica’s old culture of the Arawak-indians, with a forcible slave-history, has now become one of the main tourist attractions on the island. Both Jamaica and Britain have a culture which is mixed with an old and modern culture. For example, Britain’s architecture is most known of castles and forts, and Jamaica still got memories from the Arawak-indians. Go visit Jamaica if you want to see a totally different culture with plenty of places to travel to, the capital city Kingston or one of the many peaceful beaches and other attractions.
 * Conclusion:**

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jamaica http://no.wikipedia.org/wiki/Store_Antiller http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Greater_Antilles http://barbadosfreepress.files.wordpress.com/2007/02/slave-branding.jpg http://www.visitjamaica.com/JamMap.aspx http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/England#Cuisine http://www.visitjamaica.com/vacation-themes/beach.aspx http://blog.columbusalive.com/RiotAct/Jamaica.png http://www.purepoweryoga.net/Site/jamaica.gif http://www.everygeneration.co.uk/BluePlaquespics/BobMarley.jpg http://www.atletismoenmexico.com/2007/junio07/Usain%20Bolt.jpg
 * Sources of reference:**
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