Who are the Kalinago?
A lot of the history in this website happens in the West Indies!
It is important that we learn about the West Indies before its colonisation by Europeans. So... let's dive in!
The West Indies
Public Domain

Who are the Kalinago?
The Kalinago are an indigenous people who lived in the West Indies before colonisation by Europeans.
There were many different cultures in the islands from around 5000 years before colonisation.
The different cultures within the West Indies had a huge range of diversity in terms of social structures, economies and cultures. These groups were given the collective term, Kalinago. (This changed to Caribs under colonisation.)
Two other distinct groups also migrated; the Taino and Chiboney who had arrived by 300BC
What happened to the Kalinago?
Spanish, French and English colonisation destroyed the way of life for the Kalinago people, killing thousands of them, taking their land to convert into plantations.
The Kalinago and other West Indies indigenous peoples resisted colonisation. There were efforts to subdue the various invaders that lasted over hundreds of years.
Where did the Kalinago come from?
The Kalinago came from Mainland South America. They migrated in waves to the islands.
When did the Kalinago first come to the West Indies?
They had come to the West Indies, along with other groups from north South America from around 1000CE. More people were still coming to the West Indies by the time of colonisation. This was a long enough period for the Kalinago to treat the West Indian Islands as their ancestral homes.
Why did the Kalinago resist?
The Kalinago and other indigenous peoples of the West Indies all rebelled against the newcomers. Able to wage war and to resist, they fought against colonisation as it brought murder, enslavement, diseases, cultural destruction.
Why is this important?
We will study how the West Indies was changed by colonisation and by enslavement. It is important to know that these places were not empty. They had lots of people there already, who had their own cultures and beliefs and communities. They and their cultures were drastically affected by colonisation after 1492.
Notes
(The clever people who wrote great works that we got this information from.)
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Dr Hilary Beckles - Kalinago (Carib) Resistance to European Colonisation of the Caribbean.” http://www.jstor.org/stable/40654700.