Jamacia Case - an Island Nation in Central America

Jamaica is an island nation in Central America, with an amazing history, part of the Greater Antilles archipelago, located in the Caribbean Sea, south of Cuba, near the Dominican Republic and the island of Haiti. In this region, the African culture combined perfectly with the natives, with the Chinese, Irish, and other Europeans who wanted to live the dream "New World" in the largest island in the Caribbean. The island was the first colony in which was built a railway, long before the United States, only 18 years after such facilities had taken birth in the UK. Here were built the first water pipe, the first cathedral, and the first postal service.

The first inhabitants of Jamaica were the Taino and Arawak Indians, tribes that settled on this island some 7000 years ago.

Short history

In 1494, in the second voyage of Christopher Columbus to the New World, Jamaica was the first island that he noticed and he claimed it on behalf of Spain, describing it as "the most beautiful island I have ever seen." Jamaica was the first colony in the Western Hemisphere in which the British used military force to remove the Spanish, which happens in 1655. After the Spaniards left, thousands of slaves brought from Africa to work on sugar cane plantations, banana plantations or in the distilleries that were producing the famous rum were lest behind. In 1962 Jamaica win their independence from the British Crown, and the decades that followed were marked by a surprising growth, about 6% per year, tourism being of the main engines of Jamaican economy.

Geography

Jamaica is the third largest island in the Caribbean Sea, having the shape an almond kernel. With an area of 11,000 square kilometers, the island measures 235 km from East to West, 82 km long and 32 km wide. Jamaica is divided into three regions: Cornwall, Middlesex and Surreys. These in turn are divided into 14 parishes: Kingston (the capital of the island is the largest of them), Clarendon, Hanover, Manchester, Portland, Saint Andrew, Saint Ann, Saint Catherine, Saint Elizabeth, Saint James, Saint Mary, Saint Thomas, Trelawny, Westmoreland.

Official language: Official language is English but the local language commonly called patois is also spoken. Patois is a simplified grammar English with many words borrowed from African languages.