5000 BC Amerindians from South America settle in Trinidad

4000 BC Amerindians from Central America settle in Cuba

2500 BC Amerindians from Orinoco basin settle in eastern and western Caribbean

600 Development of Taino society in Hispaniola and Puerto Rico
1100 Development of more sophisticated Taino societies, characterized by chiefdoms rather than along tribal lines.

1492 Columbus lands in the Bahamas

1493 Columbus’ second voyage – establishes Spanish colony, Hispaniola

1498 Columbus’s third voyage

1502 Nicolás de Ovando sent to Hispaniola to rescue the colony

1504 Ovando destroys Taino leadership

1511 Antonio do Montesinos preaches sermon against the treatment of the Amerindians

1515 Spanish introduce sugar cultivation to Hispaniola

1516 Las Casas appointed Protector of the Indians

1562 John Hawkins successfully trades African slaves in Hispaniola

1585 Francis Drake sacks Santo Domingo, the capital of Hispaniola

1624 English and French settle St. Kitts

1627 English settle Barbados

1635 French settle Guadeloupe and Martinique

1640-50 Development of sugar cultivation in Barbados

1655 English capture Jamaica from the Spanish

1664 French establish the French Company of the West Indies to supply slaves to her Caribbean colonies

1672 Royal Africa Company chartered to supply slaves to the English colonies in the Caribbean

1674 Establishment of first Jamaica Coffee House in London

1692 Port Royal, Jamaica destroyed by earthquake

1697 France acquires Saint Domingue from the Spanish

1733-34 Rebellion in St. John, Danish Virgin Islands

1736 Outbreak of slave conspiracy/revolt in Antigua

1739 Treaty between the Jamaican Maroons and the British

1750 Thomas Thistlewood arrives in Jamaica and keeps important diary

1760 Outbreak of Tacky’s Revolt in Jamaica

1761 Jamaica passes law making it illegal for whites to leave property worth more than £1200 to any free person of colour

1768 Danish pass law obliging free coloureds to wear a cockade or badge at all times

1783 First Quaker petition to abolish the slave trade in the British Empire

1787 Establishment of the Abolition Society in Britain

1789 Outbreak of the French Revolution

1790 Meeting of the Colonial Assembly in Saint Domingue

1791 Outbreak of slave revolt in Saint Domingue

1792 French National Assembly grants full civil rights to the free people of colour

1794 French National Assembly abolishes slavery

1795 Outbreak of Fédon’s Rebellion in Grenada and the Second Maroon War in Jamaica

1796 Toussaint L’Ouverture made Deputy Governor of Saint Domingue

1800 Tousssaint becomes Governor of Saint Domingue

1802 Napoleon reimposes slavery in all French colonies

1804 Saint Domingue becomes independent and is renamed Haiti

1808 Britain and the United States abolish the slave trade

1812 Outbreak of the Aponte conspiracy in Cuba

1816 Outbreak of “Bussa’s Rebellion” in Barbados

1823 Outbreak of slave rebellion in Demerara and establishment of the Anti-Slavery Society in Britain

1831 Outbreak of the Christmas Rebellion in Jamaica led by Sam Sharpe and establishment of the Agency Committee seeking immediate emancipation in the British colonies

1833 Free coloureds and free blacks attain full civil rights in the British colonies

1834 Abolition of slavery and beginning of Apprenticeship System in the Anglophone Caribbean (except for Antigua)

1838 Ending of Apprenticeship System in the Anglophone Caribbean

1844 Conspiracy of La Escalera breaks out in Cuba; Outbreak of the Guerre Nègre in Dominica

1848 Uprising of the enslaved in St. Croix, Danish Virgin Islands

1848 Abolition of slavery in French and Danish West Indian colonies

1862 Riots in St. Vincent

1863 Abolition of slavery in the Dutch West Indian colonies

1865 Outbreak of Morant Bay Rebellion in Jamaica

1866 Establishment of Crown Colony Government in Jamaica; subsequently, in most of the Anglophone Caribbean

1868-78 Outbreak of Ten Years’ War in Cuba

1873 Slavery abolished in Puerto Rico

1876 Outbreak of riot in Tobago and Confederation Riots in Barbados

1880 Establishment of the patronato system in Cuba

1886 Abolition of slavery in Cuba

1887 Marcus Garvey born in Jamaica

1895-98 Second Cuban War of Independence – death of José Marti

1889 J.J. Thomas publishes Froudacity

1902 Passage of the Platt Amendment in the United States limiting Cuban sovereignty; Establishment of Cuban Republic; Volcanic eruption of Mt. Pelée in Martinique kills 30,000 people; Riots in Montego Bay, Jamaica

1905 Riots in British Guiana

1906 U.S. intervenes in Cuba

1912 Massacre of blacks in Cuba1914 Garvey establishes United Negro Improvement Association

1915 U.S. occupies Haiti

1916 U.S. occupies Dominican Republic

1917 U.S. purchases Danish Virgin Islands from Denmark

1923 Arthur Cipriani becomes president of the Trinidad Workingmen’s Association

1927 Garvey returns to Jamaica from the United States

1930 Crowning of Ras Tafari in Ethiopia and subsequent development of the Rastafarians in Jamaica

1933 Revolutionary government of Grau San Martín in Cuba

1934 Labour rebellions in Belize following by strikes and riots across the Anglophone Caribbean; U.S. abrogates Platt Amendment

1935 Riots in St. Vincent and St. Lucia

1937 Massacre of 20,000 Haitians in the Dominican Republic; Labour rebellions in Barbados and Trinidad

1938 Labour rebellion in Jamaica

1939 Aimé Césaire publishes Cahier d’un Retour au Pays Natal (Notebook of a Return to my Native Land)

1940 Death of Marcus Garvey in London

1944 First elections in Jamaica with universal suffrage

1945 Aimé Césaire elected mayor of Fort de France

1946 Universal adult suffrage in Trinidad; Guadeloupe, French Guiana and Martinique become overseas departments of France

1948 Arrival of the Empire Windrush with the first West Indian immigrants to Britain; Luis Muñoz Marin elected Governor of Puerto Rico

1951 Universal adult suffrage in Barbados

1952 Fulgencio Batista leads coup in Cuba; Puerto Rico becomes a Commonwealth

1953 First elections with universal suffrage in British Guiana; Castro unsuccessfully attacks Moncada barracks in Santiago de Cuba; Victory of Cheddi Jagan in British Guiana in 1953

1957 François Duvalier elected president of Haiti

1958 Establishment of West India Federation (dissolved in 1962)

1959 Fidel Castro topples Batista and takes over in Cuba

1961 Assassination of Trujillo in the Dominican Republic; Failure of invasion of Cuba at the Bay of Pigs

1962 Independence for Jamaica; Trinidad and Tobago; Cuban missile crisis

1965 U.S. invades the Dominican Republic

1966 Independence for Barbados and Guyana

1968 Rodney Riots in Kingston, Jamaica

1970 Black Power demonstrations – also called the “February Revolution” - in Port of Spain, Trinidad

1970s Emergence of Bob Marley

1970s-80s Independence for many former British colonies, including Dominica, Grenada, St. Lucia, St. Kitts- Nevis, St. Vincent, Antigua and Belize

1972 Michael Manley elected Prime Minister of Jamaica

1973 Establishment of Caribbean Comon Market and Community (CARICOM)

1975 Suriname becomes independent

1979 Establishment of Revolutionary Government of Grenada under Maurice Bishop

1980 Assassination of Walter Rodney in Guyana

1983 Assassination of Maurice Bishop and invasion of Grenada by U.S.

1988 Hurricane Gilbert devastates Jamaica and much of the Caribbean

1989 Collapse of Soviet Union and of Soviet support for Cuba

1990 Jean Bertrand Aristide becomes president of Haiti; Attempted coup by Jammat al-Muslimeen led by Abu Bakr in Port of Spain, Trinidad; Publication of Derek Walcott, Omeros

1992 Patrick Chamoiseau publishes Texaco

1997 Eruption of Mt. Soufrière in Montserrat making two-thirds of the island uninhabitable

2004 Hurricane Ivan devastates Grenada

2008 Resignation of Fidel Castro and replacement by his brother Raúl

2010 Massive earthquake devastates Haiti and kills over 200,000 people

2013 CARICOM takes up claim for reparations for slavery and the slave trade

2015 US reopens relations with Cuba

2016 Death of Fidel Castro

2017 Usain Bolt retires; Hurricanes Irma and Maria devastate the Caribbean