Diversity of the Caribbean and their cuisine
Creole culture & cuisine
African: Former slaves mixed their African flavours with local Caribbean products and were influenced by the native inhabitans and Spanish and Portuguese colonists.
Indian culture & cuisine
Indian: After end of slavery around 1863 plantation contract workers from India were brought to work on the fields. They took their spices, curries, vegetarian dishes and wraps called 'roti' to Surinam, Tinidad, Tobago and the Guyana's .
Indonesian culture from Java
Indonesian: After end of slavery in 1863, plantation contract workers from the island Java in Indonesia, a former Dutch colony, were brought to work on the fields. They took their curry pastes made with fresh herbs like ginger, lemon grass and galangal, mixed with coconut to the Dutch-Caribbean.
The history of Caribbean diversity
History
When the Caribbean were discovered there was high demand on products like sugar, coffee, tea and chocolate in Europe. Colonial powers like Spain, Portugal, England and the Netherlands started plantations in their colonies to produce these goods. But they soon found out that the native population refused to work for them. So the European traders went to Africa to get slaves instead. A dark period in the history of the Caribbean started, which led to the forced introduction of the people to the region that we now know as Creoles.
After end of slavery in the end of the 19th century, the colonial powers were forced to find new sources of cheap labors. These were often found in other parts of their empires like India and Indonesia. In Suriname, former Dutch Guyana, we find the unique situation that they also came from Java, one of the islands of Indonesia which at the time was a Dutch colony.
s. West Indies
The name "Caribbean" is named after the Caribs, one of the dominant Amerindian groups in the region at the time of European contact during the late fifteenth century. The term "West Indies" comes from Christopher Columbus's idea that he had landed in the Indies (all of southeast Asia, particularly India) instead of the Americas.