Jamaica [ a ] is an island country in the Caribbean Sea and the West Indies. At 10, square kilometres 4, sq mi , it is the third-largest islandβafter Cuba and Hispaniola βof the Greater Antilles and the Caribbean. Many of the indigenous people either were killed or died of diseases, after which the Spanish brought large numbers of Africans to Jamaica as slaves. It became an important part of the colonial British West Indies.
Under Britain's colonial rule, Jamaica became a leading sugar exporter, with a plantation economy dependent on continued importation of African slaves and their descendants. The British fully emancipated all slaves in , and many freedmen chose to have subsistence farms rather than to work on plantations. Beginning in the s, the British began using Chinese and Indian indentured labourers for plantation work. Jamaicans achieved independence from the United Kingdom on 6 August With 2.
Kingston is the country's capital and largest city. The country has a global influence that belies its small size; it was the birthplace of the Rastafari religion and reggae music and such associated genres as dub , ska , and dancehall ; and it is internationally prominent in sports, including cricket , sprinting , and athletics.
Jamaica is an upper-middle-income country [ 15 ] with an economy heavily dependent on tourism; it has an average of 4. Jamaicans often refer to their home island as "yaad" - the Jamaican Patois word for yard, meaning home. Other colloquial names such as "Jamrock", "Jamdown" "Jamdung" in Jamaican Patois , or briefly "Ja" are also widely used.
There is no archaeological evidence of any human presence on Jamaica until about Christopher Columbus was the first European to see Jamaica, claiming the island for Spain after landing there in on his second voyage to the Americas. Ann's Bay was named "Saint Gloria" by Columbus, as the first sighting of the land. He later returned in ; however, he was shipwrecked and he and his crew were forced to live on Jamaica for a year while waiting to be rescued.
