Discovered and named by Christopher Columbus in 1498, Trinidad was a Spanish colony until ceded to Britain in 1802. After the sugar-producing island of Tobago was taken from France in 1814, Britain combined the two islands in 1889 into a single British colony.
In 1962, Trinidad and Tobago left the British-dominated West Indies Federation and declared independence. The nation's political maturity lent itself into the form of a full-fledged republic within the British Commonwealth in 1976.
Though the wealthiest country in the Caribbean (third-highest GDP per capita in the Americas) due to the discovery of large reserves of oil and gas, Trinidad and Tobago remains hostage to civil unrest, corruption (a 'hidden economy' estimated to be 30% of GDP) and high unemployment.
It has become a major trans-shipment point for cocaine and suffers through the proliferation of gangs and gang-related violence.
