KINGSTON The chapter starts off by telling us about how Christopher Columbus arrived in the island of Jamaica in 1494. The population then of was a handful and the population was cleansed and was dominated by English colonial officials and plantation owners as well as enslaved Africans and indentured Indians. v The main economic resource of the island was from sugar cane and this was done through captive labour. ( the labour from slaves) v Rebellions came over time and this generated a strong revulsion for colonial rule and because of this, it took centuries for independence to finally come to Jamaica. It finally came in 1962 v With the introduction of independence, slavery became abolished and moved the history of Jamaica forward. With the introduction of independence, there was a new regime led by Nelson Manley. The political party he belonged to crafted a social development agenda to respond to the bondage of post colonial life. v In the course of pursing the new policy of independence, the government was permitted to channel industrial investment into those areas of the economy that needs social development. The government relied on direct foreign investment. This involvement with foreign actors earned Jamaica with most of its foreign exchange earnings. With this, Jamaica became the largest exporter of mineral to North America and Canada. Even as they were exporters, Jamaicans didn’t benefit from their natural resources. The only way they benefitted from this was the little tax paid to the government and the wages to the working class and maybe some tips to the workers on the plantation. v This made the value of what they exported to be low hence be described as cheap labour. This was nothing compared to the amount of things they exported v The Manley Lewis approach to development was followed by most of the commonly colonized