Tobago | |||
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Autonomous Island | |||
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Motto: "Pulchrior Evenit" (Latin) "She becomes more beautiful" |
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Anthem: Forged From The Love of Liberty | |||
Map of Tobago (large island), Little Tobago (far right) Goat Island (between Tobago and Little Tobago) & St. Giles Island (top right). |
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Coordinates: 11°15′00″N 60°40′01″W / 11.250°N 60.667°WCoordinates: 11°15′00″N 60°40′01″W / 11.250°N 60.667°W | |||
Country | Trinidad and Tobago | ||
Capital and largest city | Scarborough | ||
Government | |||
• President of Trinidad and Tobago |
Anthony Carmona | ||
• Prime Minister of Trinidad and Tobago |
Keith Rowley | ||
• Chief Secretary of Tobago | Kelvin Charles | ||
• Legislature | Tobago House of Assembly (Unicameral) | ||
Area | |||
• Total | 300 km2 (116 sq mi) | ||
Population (January 2011) | |||
• Total | 60,874 | ||
• Density | 200/km2 (520/sq mi) | ||
Calling code | 1 868 | ||
Official language(s) | English | ||
Currency | Trinidad and Tobago dollar (TTD) | ||
TLD | .tt |
Tobago /təˈbeɪɡoʊ/ is an autonomous island within the Republic of Trinidad and Tobago. It is located northeast of the mainland of Trinidad and southeast of Grenada. The island lies outside the hurricane belt. According to the earliest English-language source cited in the Oxford English Dictionary, Tobago bore a name that has become the English word tobacco. The national bird of Tobago is the cocrico.
The population was 60,874 at the 2011 census. The capital, Scarborough, has a population of about 25,550. While Trinidad is multiethnic, Tobago's population is primarily of African descent, although with a growing proportion of Trinidadians of East Indian descent and Europeans. Between 2000 and 2011, the population of Tobago grew by 12.55 percent, making it one of the fastest-growing areas of Trinidad and Tobago.
Christopher Columbus first sighted Tobago in 1498. Subsequently, several powers fought over possession of the island.
The original Island Carib population had to defend the island against other Amerindian tribes. Then, during the late 1500s and early 1600s, the natives defended it from European colonists, including 1654, including an attempt by the Courlanders, who colonised the island intermittently between 1637-1690. Over the ensuing years, the Curonians (Duchy of Courland), Dutch, English, French, Spanish and Swedish had caused Tobago to become a focal point in repeated attempts, of colonisation, which led to the island having changed hands 33 times, the most in Caribbean history, before the Treaty of Paris ceded it to the British in 1814.