DR RITA PEMBERTON

One aspect of the history of TT which constantly attracts attention and has been subject to various interpretations is the creation of the unified colony of Trinidad and Tobago.

To some, the desperate economic situation caused Trinidad to save Tobago from penury, making it a ward of Trinidad. This posited the inaccurate notion of Trinidad benevolence which made Tobago a dependency of Trinidad.

For others it was simply a matter of administrative convenience based on geographical proximity and, more recently, the Belmanna War, which erupted in Roxborough in 1876.

While they may contain grains of truth, single-factor explanations normally cannot provide a full understanding of the web of causal factors.

Since 1833, Tobago had been part of the Windward Islands group with St Vincent, Grenada and St Lucia, with Barbados as the seat of government.

The union of Trinidad and Tobago must be seen against the matrix of political relationships from which it emerged, between the imperial and colonial administrations in the region, and that in Tobago, in which the economic state of the island was a critical factor; relations between the local colonial authorities and the imperial government; and between the colonial administration and the African population.

Tobago named a ward of Trinidad and Tobago

Unification, a two-stage process, ended with Tobago being named a ward in the united colony of Trinidad and Tobago, which was divided into eight administrative districts (wards), one of which was Tobago. It is therefore inaccurate to say Tobago was made a ward of Trinidad, which gives credence to the perception of the island's mendicant dependency at the end of the 19th century.

British imperial policy was guided by the profit motive. By the beginning of the 19th century it was clear Tobago's prosperity was short-lived. Planters struggled unsuccessfully to turn their fortunes around right to the end of the century. Imperial interest in the colony waned and policy was directed towards avoiding financial responsibility for it.

It is also true that the imperial government made the decision without consulting the parties involved, and there were opponents to union on both sides of the maritime fence. The relationship got off to a rocky start because there was no system to bring together the two entities, which, despite their proximity, had no history of relations beyond the trading relations of the First Peoples.

It was the tradition of the British imperial government to grant colonial plantation owners the rights of Englishmen to govern themselves. Hence they were allowed to have assemblies and island councils in which the large planters determined the administrative direction of the colony, under a governor representing the interests of the British crown.

The assembly is established

The first 28 land purchasers in Tobago requested the establishment of a council in 1767, shortly after the island was declared British and plans for settlement were made. This was granted by t