The island was not discovered by Europeans until Christopher Columbus first landed in the New World
1500
The pirates who operated in the Islands included Blackbeard, Anne Bonny, Henry Morgan, Sir John Hawkins and Sir Francis Drake
1509
The Spanish claim the Island Many of the indigenous Arawak community dies off from exposure to European diseases African slaves shipped from Africa to work on the sugar plantations
Jamaica is attacked by the British.
Treaty of Madrid: Jamaica formally cedes to the British Jamaica became the world's largest sugar exporting nation with the massive use of imported African slave labor. The sugar plantations, worked by African slaves.
Jamaica becomes a member of the Federation of the West Indies.