colony · Mesoamerica and the Caribbean

Spanish Trinidad

1592 CE – 1797 CE · capital San José de Oruña

Spain's long-neglected colony on Trinidad, transformed in its last years by French Catholic planters before British conquest in 1797.

Origins

Columbus sighted Trinidad in 1498, but Spain made no lasting settlement until 1592, when Antonio de Berrío founded San José de Oruña as a base for searching for El Dorado on the Orinoco. Walter Raleigh burnt it in 1595.

Rule and society

For nearly two centuries Trinidad was a poor, underpopulated outpost with a few Spanish settlers, missions and indigenous communities. The capital moved to Port of Spain in 1757. In 1783 the Cedula of Population offered land to Catholic settlers, drawing French planters and enslaved Africans from the French Caribbean and creating a sugar and cocoa economy.

Decline and legacy

In 1797 a British force under Ralph Abercromby captured the island, and Governor José María Chacón surrendered. Spain ceded Trinidad at the Treaty of Amiens in 1802, and it became the Colony of Trinidad.

Lineage

Spanish TrinidadColony of Trinidad 1797 CE – 1889 CE

Connections (2)

Spanish Trinidad was a colony of Spanish Empire1592 CE – 1797 CE
Spanish Trinidad was conquered by British Empire1797 CE

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Cite this page

APA: The Epoch Institute. (2026). Spanish Trinidad. In The Epoch Institute States Register. https://the-epoch-institute.org/state/spanish-trinidad
MLA: “Spanish Trinidad.” The Epoch Institute States Register, The Epoch Institute, 2026, https://the-epoch-institute.org/state/spanish-trinidad. Accessed .
Chicago: The Epoch Institute. “Spanish Trinidad.” The Epoch Institute States Register. 2026. https://the-epoch-institute.org/state/spanish-trinidad.
Harvard: The Epoch Institute (2026) ‘Spanish Trinidad’, The Epoch Institute States Register. Available at: https://the-epoch-institute.org/state/spanish-trinidad (Accessed: ).

Last reviewed October 2026Random state ↻