Tobago, officially the Ward of Tobago, is an island and ward in Trinidad and Tobago. It is northeast of the larger island of Trinidad and about off Venezuela's northeastern coast. It is southeast of Grenada and southwest of Barbados.
Etymology
Christopher Columbus named Tobago Belaforme "because from a distance it seemed beautiful". The Spanish friar Antonio Vázquez de Espinosa wrote that the Kalina (mainland Caribs) called the island Urupina because of its resemblance to a big snail, In the first century of the Common Era, Saladoid people settled in Tobago. They brought with them pottery-making and agricultural traditions, and are likely to have introduced crops which included cassava, sweet potatoes, Indian yam, tannia and corn. The Spanish settlers in Hispaniola were authorised to conduct slave raids against the island in a royal order issued in 1511.
thumb|left|French attack on the British island of Tobago in 1781 with text. French painting from 1784.
From about 1672, during the temporary English rule of 1672–1674, Tobago had a period of stability during which plantation culture began. Sugar, cotton and indigo factories sprang up and Africans were imported by the British to work as slaves. The economy flourished. France had abandoned the island to Britain in 1763, and by 1777 Tobago was exporting great quantities of cotton, indigo, rum and sugar.
In 1781, the French retook the island during the Invasion of Tobago. On 24 May 1781, the fleet of Comte de Grasse landed troops on the island under the command of General Marquis de Bouillé. By 2 June 1781, they had successfully gained control of the island.
British rule and independence
In 1814, when the island again came under British control, another phase of successful sugar-production began. But a severe hurricane in 1847, combined with the collapse of plantation underwriters, end of slavery in 1834 and the competition from sugar with other European countries, marked the end of the sugar trade. In 1889, the island became a ward of Trinidad. Without sugar, the islanders had to grow other crops, planting acres of limes, coconuts and cocoa and exporting their produce to Trinidad. In 1963, Hurricane Flora ravaged Tobago, destroying the villages and crops. A restructuring programme followed and attempts were made to diversify the economy. The development of a tourist industry began.
Trinidad and Tobago obtained independence from the British Empire in August 1962 and became a republic on 31 August 1976.
Geography
thumb|Castara Bay
thumb|Tobago from space|alt=Please orient this picture northwards so that the southwest portion of the island is in the bottom left of the frame.
Tobago has a land area of 300 km<sup>2</sup> Tobago is primarily hilly, mountainous and of volcanic origin. The southwest of the island is flat and consists largely of coralline limestone. The mountainous spine of the island is called the Main Ridge. The highest point in Tobago is the Pigeon Peak near Speyside.
Climate
The climate is tropical, and the island lies just south of the Atlantic Main Development Region, making it vulnerable to occasional low-latitude tropical cyclones. Average rainfall varies between on the Main Ridge to less than in the southwest. There are two seasons: a wet season between June and December, and a dry season between January and May.
Hurricanes
The island was struck by Hurricane Flora in 1963. The effects were so severe that they changed the face of Tobago's economy. The hurricane laid waste to the banana, coconut, and cacao plantations that largely sustained the economy, and it wreaked considerable damage on the largely pristine tropical rainforest that makes up a large proportion of the interior of the island's northern half. Many of the plantations were subsequently abandoned, and the economy changed direction away from cash crop agriculture and toward tourism. Hurricane Ivan, while less severe than Flora, also caused significant damage in 2004.
Government
Central and local government functions in Tobago are handled by the Tobago House of Assembly. The current Chief Secretary of Tobago is Farley Chavez Augustine from the Progressive Democratic Patriots, which controls 14 of the 15 seats in the Assembly, with the Tobago Council of the People's National Movement led by Ancil Dennis controlling one seat since the December 2021 Tobago House of Assembly election.
Tobago is represented by two seats in the Parliament of Trinidad and Tobago, Tobago East and Tobago West. The two seats are controlled by the Tobago Council of the People's National Movement, which won and retained them in the 2015 and 2020 Trinidad and Tobago general election.
In the 2025 general election, held on 28 April 2025, both seats were won by the Tobago People’s Party, ending decades of representation by the People’s National Movement on the island .
This marked the first occasion in which a Tobago-based political party secured both of the island’s parliamentary seats, reflecting a significant shift in the island’s political landscape and strengthening the TPP’s role in national affairs .
Districts
thumb|right|Historical parishes of Tobago
Historically, Tobago was divided into seven parishes (Saint Andrew, Saint David, Saint George, Saint John, Saint Mary, Saint Patrick and Saint Paul). In 1768 each parish of Tobago nominated representatives to the Tobago House of Assembly. On 20 October 1889 the British crown implemented a Royal Order in Council constituting Tobago as a ward of Trinidad, thus terminating local government on Tobago and forming a unified colony government.
In 1945 when the county council system was first introduced, Tobago was administered as a single county of Trinidad.
In 1980 provisions were made for the Tobago House of Assembly to be revived as an entity providing local government in Tobago. Under the revived system, Tobago is made up of 12 local electoral districts with each district electing one Assemblyman to the THA.
{| class="wikitable sortable"
! No.
! Electoral districts
|-
| 1
| Bagotelle / Bacolet
|-
| 2
| Belle Garden / Glamorgan
|-
| 3
| Bethel / New Grange
|-
| 4
| Bethesda / Les Coteaux
|-
| 5
| Bon Accord / Crown Point
|-
| 6
| Buccoo / Mt. Pleasant
|-
| 7
| Darryl Spring / Whim
|-
| 8
| Lambeau / Lowlands
|-
| 9
| Mason Hall / Moriah
|-
| 10
| Mt. St. George / Goodwood
|-
| 11
| Parlatuvier/L’Anse Fourmi/Speyside
|-
| 12
| Plymouth/Black Rock
|-
| 13
| Roxborough/Argyle
|-
| 14
| Scarborough/Mt. Grace
|-
| 15
| Signal Hill/Patience Hill
|}
Demographics
The population was 60,874 at the 2011 census.
|-
| Afro–Trinidadians and Tobagonians ||85.2%
|-
| Dougla (Indian and Black) || 4.2%
|-
| Multiracial || 4.2%
|-
| Indo-Trinidadians and Tobagonians || 2.5%
|-
| White Trinidadian/Tobagonian || 0.7%
|-
| Native American (Amerindian) || 0.1%
|-
| Chinese || 0.08%
|-
| Arab (Syrian/Lebanese) || 0.02%
|-
| Other || 0.1%
|-
| Not stated || 2.6%
|}
Religion
{| class="wikitable sortable collapsible" style="font-size: 90%;"
|+ Tobago religious breakdown
|-
! Religious composition !! 2011
Golf
Tobago is home to two golf courses, both of which are open to visitors. The older of the two is Mount Irvine Hotel Golf Course, built in 1968. It was seen throughout the world after hosting the popular golf show "Shell's Wonderful World of Golf". The course is built among coconut palms and has a view of the Caribbean Sea from almost every hole. Formerly known as Tobago Plantations Golf Course, the recently renamed Magdalena Grand Hotel & Golf Club was opened in 2001 and has hosted the European Seniors Tour on three occasions.
In art
Robinson Crusoe
Tobago roughly matches the size and location of the island in Robinson Crusoe, described as being located close to Trinidad and the mouth of Orinoco. However, the book is generally thought to be based on the experiences of Alexander Selkirk, who was marooned in the Pacific's Juan Fernández Islands, on the island later named after Robinson Crusoe. On Tobago, there is Crusoe Cave.
Swiss Family Robinson
In 1958, Tobago was chosen by the Walt Disney Company as the setting for a film based upon the Johann Wyss novel Swiss Family Robinson. When producers saw the island for the first time, they "fell instantly in love". The script required animals, which were brought from all around the world, including eight dogs, two giant tortoises, forty monkeys, two elephants, six ostriches, four zebras, one hundred flamingos, six hyenas, two anacondas, and one tiger. The tree still remains, however, and is located on the property of the Roberts Auto Service and Tyre Shop, located in Goldsborough, just off of Windward Road. A local Tobago resident says, "The tree has fallen into obscurity; only a few of the older people knew of its significance. As a matter of fact, not many people know of the film Swiss Family Robinson, much less that it was filmed here in Tobago."
Ecology
thumb|250px|right|[[Red-billed tropicbird on Little Tobago.]]
The Tobago Forest Reserve (Main Ridge Reserve) is the oldest protected rain forest in the Western hemisphere and is biodiverse. It was designated a protected Crown reserve on 17 April 1776 after representations by Soame Jenyns, a member of parliament in Britain responsible for Tobago's development. It has remained a protected area since.
This forested area has great biodiversity, including many species of birds (such as the dancing blue-backed manakin), mammals, frogs, (non-venomous) snakes, butterflies and other invertebrates. The Buccoo Reef, the Culloden Reef and Speyside Reef are the three largest coral reef marine ecosystems in Tobago. These coral reef systems protect the shores of Tobago from eroding.
Little Tobago, the small neighbouring island, supports some of the best dry forest remaining in Tobago. Little Tobago and St Giles Island are important seabird nesting colonies, with red-billed tropicbirds, magnificent frigatebirds and Sargasso shearwaters, among others.
Environmental problems
Coral reefs have been damaged recently by silt and mud runoff during construction of a road along the northeast coast. There has also been damage to the reef in Charlotteville village caused by sealing the road at Flagstaff Hill and diverting more silty water down the stream from Flagstaff down to Charlotteville.
Tobagonians
- The Mighty Shadow (Winston McGarland Bailey), singer
- Kelly-Ann Baptiste, Olympic sprinter
- Edwin Carrington, politician
- Winston Duke, actor
- Lalonde Gordon, Olympic sprinter
- Makan Hislop, footballer
- Dominique Jackson, model and actress
- A. P. T. James, politician
- Buzz Johnson, publisher
- Renny Quow, Olympic sprinter
- Keith Rowley, politician
- A. N. R. Robinson, politician
- Calypso Rose (Linda Sandy-Lewis), singer
- Dwight Yorke, footballer
References
External links
- Tobago House of Assembly
- Tobago at worldstatesmen.org.