republic · Mesoamerica and the Caribbean
Trinidad and Tobago
Origins
After the West Indies Federation collapsed, the Colony of Trinidad and Tobago became independent on 31 August 1962 under Prime Minister Eric Williams of the People's National Movement, with the British monarch as head of state.
Rule and society
Williams governed until his death in 1981. The Black Power protests of 1970 and an army mutiny shook his government, but the oil boom of the 1970s brought wealth and nationalisation of the energy sector. A new constitution made the country a republic on 1 August 1976, with a president as head of state. Politics has tended to divide along African and Indian lines, and natural gas and petrochemicals became the backbone of the economy.
To the present
The Jamaat al Muslimeen held the prime minister and parliament hostage in a failed coup attempt in 1990. Basdeo Panday became the first prime minister of Indian descent in 1995 and Kamla Persad-Bissessar the first woman in 2010. The country remains a parliamentary republic.
Lineage
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Cite this page
- APA
- The Epoch Institute. (2026). Trinidad and Tobago. In The Epoch Institute States Register. https://the-epoch-institute.org/state/trinidad-and-tobago
- MLA
- “Trinidad and Tobago.” The Epoch Institute States Register, The Epoch Institute, 2026, https://the-epoch-institute.org/state/trinidad-and-tobago. Accessed .
- Chicago
- The Epoch Institute. “Trinidad and Tobago.” The Epoch Institute States Register. 2026. https://the-epoch-institute.org/state/trinidad-and-tobago.
- Harvard
- The Epoch Institute (2026) ‘Trinidad and Tobago’, The Epoch Institute States Register. Available at: https://the-epoch-institute.org/state/trinidad-and-tobago (Accessed: ).
Last reviewed October 2026Random state ↻