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Jamaica


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Jamaica

Land Area 10831km²
Land Area + Seaarea
Population 2804332
Population density 258.9 / km²

Informations

Jamaica ( (listen)) is an island nation located in the Caribbean Sea. Spanning 10,990 square kilometres (4,240 sq mi) in area, it's the third-largest island of the Greater Antilles and the Caribbean (after Cuba and Hispaniola). Jamaica lies about 145 kilometres (90 mi) south of Cuba, and 191 kilometres (119 mi) west of Hispaniola (the island containing the countries of Haiti and the Dominican Republic); the British Overseas Territory of the Cayman Islands lies some 215 kilometres (134 mi) to the north-west. Originally inhabited by the native Arawak and TaĆ­no peoples, the island came under Spanish rule after the arrival of Christopher Columbus in 1494. Many of the indigenous people were either killed or died of diseases to which they had no resistance, and the Spanish thus forcibly transplanted large numbers of African slaves to Jamaica as labourers. The island remained a possession of Spain until 1655, when England (later Great Britain) conquered it, renaming it Jamaica. Under British colonial rule Jamaica became a major sugar exporter, with a plantation economy dependent on the African slaves and later their descendants. The British fully emancipated all slaves in 1838, and lots of freedmen chose to possess subsistence farms rather than to work on plantations. Starting in the 1840s, the British began utilising Chinese and Indian indentured labor to work on plantations. The island achieved independence from the United Kingdom on 6 August 1962. With 2.9 million individuals, Jamaica is the third-most populous Anglophone country in the Americas (after the United States and Canada), and the fourth-most populous nation in the Caribbean. Kingston is the country's capital and largest city. The majority of Jamaicans are of Sub-Saharan African ancestry, with significant European, East Asian (primarily Chinese), Indian, Lebanese, and mixed-race minorities. Because of high rate of emigration for work since the 1960s, there's a large Jamaican diaspora, especially in Canada, the United Kingdom, and the USA. The country has a global influence that belies its small size; it was the birthplace of the Rastafari religion, reggae music (and related genres such as dub, ska and dancehall), and it's internationally prominent in sports, most notably cricket, sprinting and athletics.Jamaica is an upper-middle income nation with an economy heavily dependent on tourism; it has a mean of 4.3 million tourists per year. Politically it's a Commonwealth realm, with Elizabeth II as its queen. Her appointed representative in the nation is the Governor-General of Jamaica, an office held by Patrick Allen since 2009. Andrew Holness has served as Prime Minister of Jamaica since March 2016. Jamaica is a parliamentary constitutional monarchy with legislative power vested in the bicameral Parliament of Jamaica, consisting of an appointed Senate and a directly elected House of Representatives.

Source: Wikipedia