Jamaica is an island nation of the Greater Antilles, 240 kilometers around length & up to Fourscore kilometers in breadth placed in the Caribbean Sea. These are 630 kilometers from either a Central American mainland, 150 kilometers from Cuba on a north, & 180 kilometers from either the island of Hispaniola, on which Haiti and the Dominican Republic are situated, on the east. Its indigenous Arawakan-speaking Taíno inhabitants named a island Xaymaca, meaning either a "land of springs," or even a "Land of wood and water." At one time the Spanish posession known as Santiago, so a British West Indies Crown colony of Jamaica, the united states's population is composed mainly of the descendent of previous African slaves. These are a third virtually all thickly settled Anglophone country in the Americas, after a United States and Canada.

History
Independent article: History of Jamaica

A original Arawak or Taino people from South America, first fixate the island between 1000 and 400 BC. It became virtually out resulting email by having Europeans.

Jamaica was claimed for Spain after Christopher Columbus first landed there in 1494. Columbus utilized it when his personal's personal estate. A English Admiral William Penn (father of William Penn of Pennsylvania) and General Venables seized a island around 1655. In the period of its foremost 200 years of British rule, Jamaica became the world's big sugar exporting nation & produced above 77,000 all about of sugar annually between 1820 - 1824, which was achieved through the massive have of imported African slave labor.

Per beginning of the 19th century, Britain's heavy reliance within slavery resulted in blacks outnumbering whites by the ratio of virtually 20 to of these, leading to constant threat of rising. Below the series of rebellions, slavery was formally abolished inside 1834, with to the full emancipation from chattel slavery declared around 1838.

Jamaica slowly gained increasing independence from either a United Kingdom, and within 1958 Jamaica became a province in the Federation of the West Indies, a federation between all the British West Indies. Jamaica attained fully independence by allowing a federation around 1962.

Still, the initial optimism charted Jamaican independence for the next decade approximately vanished when Jamaica became a victim of the international economic patterns. Rising foreign debt under the food and drug administration of Michael Manley, who was determined to alleviate Jamaica's severe economic inequality, led to the imposition of IMF austerity measures. Deteriorating economic conditions led to the desperately fraught re-election campaign between Manley's People's National Party and the main opposition the, Jamaican Labour Party. Each political parties became coupled by having rival gangs inside Kingston which were punctually armed. This policy along by using a increasing emergence of Jamaica as a smuggling point for cocain when you took a 1980s led to recurrent violence & exclusively served to increase the impoverishment of a big division of the Jamaican public. A ultimate effect of this period of violence, doses & impoverishment has been a brutal gun warfare seen in Jamaica's streets from either a mid-1990s onwards. A Jamaican law has likewise been accused of complicity in that homicidal side of the island.

Previous upper case of Jamaica include Port Royal, where a pirate Governor Morgan held sway, & which was destroyed by the storm & earthquake, and Spanish Town, in St. Catherine parish, a places of a old Spanish compound capital & a English capital when you took the Eighteenth & 19th century.

Politics
Independent article: Politics of Jamaica

Jamaica's todays Constitution was drafted in 1962 by the two-party joint committee of the Jamaican legislative. It inherit inflict by having a Jamaica Independence Work, 1962 of the United Kingdom Parliament, which gave Jamaica political independence.

A Jamaican head of state is Queen Elizabeth II, who is given a title of "Queen of Jamaica." the Queen is represented by a governor general, appointed by the Prime Minister. Each help largely ceremonial roles.

A Jamaican Parliament is bicameral, consisting of the House of Representatives and the Senate. Members of the Home (referred to as 'Members of Parliament' or even MPs) come directly elected, & a leader of a majority person in the Home becomes the Prime Minister. Senators come appointed per Prime Minister, & a parliamentary Leader of the Opposition.

A todays Prime Minister of Jamaica is P. J. Patterson who has held office since the 1992 resignation of Michael Manley. He has been since re-elected threefold, a survive existence around 2002. Jamaica's constitution takes a Prime Minister to call for a next general election by October 2007.

Jamaicthe has traditionally got a two party system, with power typically alternating between a People's National Party and Jamaican Labour Party.

Jamaica occurs as to the full & active member of the Caribbean Community (CARICOM).

Geography
Independent article: Geography of Jamaica

the island of Jamaica has mountainous inlands surrounded by a narrow coastal plain. For this cause, virtually all major cities come placed on the coast. Principal towns include a capital Kingston, Spanish Town, Mandeville, and Montego Bay. Supplementary detailed satellite maps which allow zoom in & zoom retired come available from either Google's map server. The survive [http://www.go-jamaica.com/webcam/ webcam atop the Gleaner Newspaper] building inside 7 N Street in Kingston is available.

A climate within Jamaica is tropical, sustaining hot & humid weather condition, although inland regions have a further moderate climate. A few regions on a in a south coast, like the Liguanea Plain & the Pedro Plains come comparatively dry rain-shadow areas.

Economy
Independent article: Economy of Jamaica

Jamaica operates when a mixed, loose free enterprise using state enterprises also as personal sector businesses. Major sectors of the Jamaican economy include agriculture, mining, manufacturing, touristry & fiscal & insurance services. Touristry & mining come a leading foreign exchange wage earner.

Supported by many-sided financial institutions, Jamaica has, since a early 1980's, sought to implement structural reforms aimed at fostering personal sector activity & increasing a role of market forces inside resource allocation. Since 1991, a food & drug administratiin has followed a program of economic relaxation & stabilization by removing exchange controls, swimming the rate of exchange, cutting duty, stabilizing the Jamaican currency, reducing inflation and removing restrictions on foreign investment. Emphasis has been laid in maintaining nonindulgent fiscal discipline, greater openness to trade & financial flows, market liberalisation & reduction in the size of government. In the cycle of this period, the big part of the economy was returned to personal sector ownership across divestment & privatisation software online.

the macroeconomic stabilizatiin program introduced around 1991, which focused on pinching financial & pecuniary policies, has contributed to a restricted reduction in the rate of inflation. the annual rate of inflation has decreased from either a high of Eighty.2% around 1991 to 7.9% around 1998. inflation for FY1998/99 was Sestet.2% in comparison Vii.2% inside the corresponding time in FY1997/98. The food and drug administration remains committed to lowering inflation, by using an extended-semipermanent objective of bringing it within line thereupon of its major stock trading partners.

Fallowing the period of steadily incubation from either 1985 to 1995, really GDP decreased by 1.8% & Deuce.4% around 1996 & 1997, severally. a decrease inside GDP inside 1996 & 1997 was largely due to important problems inside the fiscal sector &, inside 1997, a severe island-wide drought (the worst in Seventy years) that drastically reduced agrarian production. Within 1997, nominal GDP was some J$220,556.Two million (Me$6,198.9 million according to a norm annual rate of exchange of a time period).

A economy within 1997 was marked by great levels important incubation, high levels of personal capital influx & proportional stability in the foreign exchange market.

Recent economic performance shows a Jamaican economy is recovering. Agricultural production, an important engine of incubation increased Xv.3% withinside third quarter of 1998 in comparison a corresponding time period in 1997, signaling a 1st caring rate of growth in the sector since January 1997. Bauxite and alumina production increased 5.5% from either January to December, 1998 inside comparison a corresponding time in 1997. January's bauxite production recorded the Sevener.1% increase relative to January 1998. Tourism, which is the largest foreign exchange wage earner, showed improvement too. Incubation around tourer arrivals accelerated in the third quarter of 199Eighter & touristry earnings, increased 8.5% from either January to December 31, 1998 within comparison a corresponding period of time in 1997.

Demographics
Independent article: Demographics of Jamaica

Jamaicthe is primarily a blend of African and Anglo-Irish cultures, with influences from either a Spanish and Taino cultures, although the Tainos as a population were totally wiped out per Spanish presently when their arrival inside 1494. These Tainos (sub-Arawaks) were known for archery & st& left numbers of remnants of their culture inside artefact and around at least of these popular food (bammy- the little flat cake mass produced of grated cassava).

A majority of Jamaicans come Black, some Xc.9%. People world health organization keep around melanated black & white mixed ancestry & upright recently mixed Chinese & more produce a 2nd big class action by owning Seven.3%. Victims world health organization come Chinese, European (principally British, and Irish), and Christian Syrian and Lebanese make up the little however influential total.

A official language is English, although the patois form Jamaican Creole is widely spoken. There are too little many humans that speak Hindi, Chinese, Hebrew, & Arabic.

Based on data from adherants.com, Fourscore.0% of Jamaica's Ii.7 million population come Christian, a brobdingnagian majority of the babies from either various Protestant denomination which is evident of Jamaica's Anglo preceding. Roman Catholicism too enjoys the siginificant presence on the island. Top Five denominations inside Jamaica: Church of God: 21.2%, Seventh-Day Adventist: 9.0%, Baptist: 8.8%, Pentecostal: 7.6%, & Anglican: 5.0%

Non-Christless religions come many, a largest existence Rastafari, which is related to Christianity very strongly. Hinduism, and Buddhism are significant & growing due to immigration from either India and China. Islam & Judaism total to the lesser degree half a by the cent combined.

Emigration
Across a past many decades, hundreds of thousands of Jamaicans develop emigrated, especially to the United States but also to Canada and the United Kingdom. This out-migration appears to use at times been tapering off somewhat around recent years, but, when a low total of Jamaicans residing overseas has get called a "Jamaican diaspora".

Concentrations of expatriate Jamaicans are big in the South Florida metro area of Miami/Fort Lauderdale, Atlanta, New York City, Los Angeles in the United States; Toronto in Canada centred mostly in the borough of Scarborough, Ontario; London, when well as a locality of Chapeltown in Leeds, in the United Kingdom. A city of Lauderhill, a suburb of Fort Lauderdale, claims the greatest concentration of Jamaican-born elected officials anywhere outside of Jamaica.

Education
A emancipation of the slaves heralded in the establishment of Jamaican Education Technique for the people. Before emancipation there were a select few elect schools for the plantocracy. Others sent their toddlers slay to England to access quality education.

Fallowing emancipation the West Indian Commission granted a total of money to establish Simple Schools, okay, called Everthing Age Schools, for the tikes of the discharged slaves. Virtually all one schools were established per churches. This was a genesis of the bedded formulas of education that is however presently embedded in the policies of the 21st Century.

Presently a ensuing categories of schools survive:

Early Childhood – Basic, Infant & privately operated pre- school. Age cohort – Quaternion – Sixer years.

Primary – Publicly and privately owned. Age cohort Sixer – Xii years.

Secondary – Publicly & privately owned. Age cohort Dozen – Eighteen years.

Tertiary - Community Colleges, Teachers’College, Vocational How to training Centres & Universities.

Defence
A Jamaican Defence Click (JDF) is the microscopic, however office military unit of Jamaica. A JDF is depending upon a British military model by having organisation, expert training, weapons & traditions closely aligned by having Commonwealth Realm Countries. When chosen officer candidates come sent to one of many British or even American basic officer courses based upon which arm of service it is slated for. Enlisted soldiers tend basic step by step instruction at JDF Expert training Depot Newcastle. When on a British model NCOs come given many levels of agent expert instruction when it rise higher the ranks. Extra military schools come available for specialty how to training inside Canada, a U.S., & Britain.

A JDF is directly descended from either a British West Indies Regiment formed in a period of the compound era. A West Indies Regiment was utilized extensively per British Empire within policing a empire from either 1795 to 1926. More units inside a JDF heritage include a early compound Jamaica Militia, a Kingston Infantry Volunteers of WWI & reorganised into the Jamaican Infantry Volunteers in WWII. A West Indies Regiment wwhen reformed around 1958 as a portion of the West Indies Federation. A dissolution of the Federation resulted in the establishment of the JDF.

the Jamaicthe Defence Click (JDF) is an foot Regiment & Reserve Corps, an Air Wing, a Coast Guard fleet & a supporting Engineering Unit. A foot regiment contains a First, Second & Tertiary (National Reserve) battalions. a JDF Air Wing is divided into threesome flight units, the step by step training unit, a trend lines unit & the JDF Air Wing (National Reserve). A Coast Guard element is divided between sea-seafaring crews & trend lines crews. It conducts marine safety & marine law enforcement too when defence-related operations. the trend lines battalion contains a Military Police platoon likewise when vehicle, armourers & supply units. A First Engineer Regiment will bring military engineering trend lines to the JDF. A Headquarters JDF contains a JDF commander, comm& staff likewise when intelligence, judge advocate professional, administrative and procurance sections.

Inside recent years a JDF has been required to assist a united states's law, a Jamaican Constabulary Click (JCF) around fighting drug smuggling & a rising crime rate which includes one of the greatest execution rates in the globe. JDF units actively conduct armed patrols using a JCF around high-crime areas & known gang neighbourhoods. There hwhen been vocal arguing likewise as trend lines of this JDF role. Around early 2005, an opposition leader, Edward Seaga, known as for the merger of the JDF & JCF. This move has non garnered trend lines inside either organisation nor among a majority of citizens.

Parishes and counties
Independent article: Parishes of Jamaica

Jamaica is divided into Trio counties and 14 parishes:

Surrey (county) in the east, containing the parishes of: Kingston Portland Saint Andrew Saint Thomas

Middlesex (county) in the centre, containing the parishes of: Clarendon Manchester Saint Ann Saint Catherine Saint Mary

Cornwall (county) in the west, containing the parishes of: Hanover Saint Elizabeth Saint James Trelawny Westmoreland

Culture
Independent articles: Culture of Jamaica, Music of Jamaica

Though the little united states, Jamaicthe is rich around culture, & has a heavy spherical presence.

A music genre reggae, ska, rocksteady, dub, and, additional recently, dancehall, ragga, and ragga jungle all originated in Jamaica. Bob Marley, perhaps a better known reggae musician, was natural within Jamaica, & is very respected there.

A Rastafarian religion was founded in, & is associated by owning, Jamaica. This Back to Africa movement believes that Haile Selassie of Ethiopia is God incarnate, the returned blacken messiah, come to choose a misplaced Twelve Tribes of Israel back to live with him within Holy Mount Zion in a globe of hone peace, love & harmony. Bob Marley, a convert to the faith, spread the message of Rastafari to the globe. There are currently calculated to become to the higher degree a million Rastafarians throughout the world.

National Bird - Doctor bird (Green-and-black Streamertail, Trochilus polytmus) National Flower - Lignum vitae (Guaiacum officinale) National Tree - Blue Mahoe (Hibiscus elatus) National Dish - Akee and Saltfish

Miscellaneous topics
Communications in Jamaica Foreign relations of Jamaica Geography of Jamaica List of Jamaicans Marcus Garvey Military of Jamaica Public Holidays in Jamaica Technology in Jamaica Transportation in Jamaica