colony · Mesoamerica and the Caribbean

Cayman Islands

1670 CE – present · capital George Town

Three low islands south of Cuba, long a sleepy dependency of Jamaica, now a British Overseas Territory and one of the world's largest offshore financial centres.

Origins

Columbus sighted the islands in 1503, and they were visited by turtle hunters and pirates for over a century. Spain ceded them, with Jamaica, to England in the Treaty of Madrid in 1670. Permanent settlement on Grand Cayman began only around the 1730s, with settlers from Jamaica and the enslaved people they brought.

Rule and society

For most of their history the islands were a dependency of Jamaica, managed locally by a justice of the peace and, from 1831, an elected assembly of vestrymen. Islanders lived by turtling, shipbuilding, rope making and seafaring, and many men worked abroad as sailors. The Wreck of the Ten Sail in 1794 is a celebrated local tradition. Presbyterian missions shaped religious life.

To the present

When Jamaica became independent in 1962, the Caymans chose to remain British and became a separate crown colony. Tax-neutral finance laws from the 1960s, tourism and diving transformed the economy, and the islands are today a prosperous British Overseas Territory governed from George Town.

Connections (2)

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Cite this page
APA
The Epoch Institute. (2026). Cayman Islands. In The Epoch Institute States Register. https://the-epoch-institute.org/state/cayman-islands
MLA
“Cayman Islands.” The Epoch Institute States Register, The Epoch Institute, 2026, https://the-epoch-institute.org/state/cayman-islands. Accessed .
Chicago
The Epoch Institute. “Cayman Islands.” The Epoch Institute States Register. 2026. https://the-epoch-institute.org/state/cayman-islands.
Harvard
The Epoch Institute (2026) ‘Cayman Islands’, The Epoch Institute States Register. Available at: https://the-epoch-institute.org/state/cayman-islands (Accessed: ).

Last reviewed October 2026Random state ↻