Carenage
| Carenage | ||
|---|---|---|
|
Coordinates: 10 ° 41 ′ N , 61 ° 36 ′ W Carenage on the map of Trinidad and Tobago
|
||
| Basic data | ||
| Country | Trinidad and Tobago | |
| region | Diego Martin | |
| City foundation | Late 18th century | |
| Residents | 10,188 (2011) | |
| Detailed data | ||
| City structure | 4th | |
| Waters | Gulf of Pariah | |
| Time zone | UTC −4 | |
 |
||
Carenage is a city in Trinidad and Tobago .
location
Carenage is located in the northwest of the island of Trinidad in the Diego Martin region . The place is located directly on the Gulf of Paria . In the west it borders on Chaguaramas , in the east on Glencoe , and in the north the settlement area is bounded by the mountains of the Northern Range . Carenage lies in a narrow valley of this low mountain range, which opens to the Gulf of Paria. The distance to the eastern capital Port of Spain is about five kilometers.
history
The name of the place goes back to the French expression for keel fetch, "carénage". At the instigation of the Spanish colonial government, large numbers of planters of French origin were settled on Trinidad from 1783, which among other things led to French becoming a colloquial language in the colony and numerous settlements receiving French names. In what is now Williams Bay to the west of the town, ships from Port of Spain were laid down for maintenance. The bay was initially given the French name Le Carénage. In the valley, which today makes up the local area of Carenage, there were plantations on which sugar cane, coffee and cotton were grown. Almost all plantation owners were of French descent, many of them originally from Martinique . The infrastructure required for the plantations quickly gave rise to a village that was initially named St. Pierre after the capital of Martinique at the time.
After the island was conquered by the British in 1797, they carried out an inventory and recorded 802 inhabitants (64 whites, 131 free colored people and 607 slaves), 19 plantations, ten sugar mills and five rum distilleries for St. Pierre. Under the British, English names became commonplace for many places previously named Spanish or French, such as St. Joseph for San Jose de Oruna or Port of Spain for Puerto España. The English name for St. Pierre, St. Peter, was only associated with the Catholic Church, which was built around 1826, and the name of the adjacent bay, Carenage, gradually became established for the surrounding town. At the latest as part of an administrative reform in 1849, which gave the area the status of a ward , Carenage was the official name of the city. Because of its originally French character, Antilles Creole was a long-term colloquial language in the town.
Carenage owes its status as a flourishing city to the fertile soil in the valley and its strategically favorable position as the bottleneck between Port of Spain and the agriculturally important Chaguaramas. The city's decline began with the ban on slavery in 1838, which gradually diminished the importance of the agricultural sector to the Trinidadian economy. The consequences of the shortage of labor were initially mitigated by recruited Indenture workers from India, and in the 1850s Carenage witnessed events that illustrated its importance: in 1851 the first Trinidadian postal connection between Port of Spain and Carenage, and in the 1850s or 1860s, one of the first state primary schools in Trinidad was established in Carenage. After that, the place sank into insignificance until the Second World War.
During the Second World War, the destroyer-for-base agreement between the United States and Great Britain came into force in 1940 . As part of this agreement, the US received land in Trinidad, on which it established two bases: an air force base in Wallerfield in northeast central Trinidad and the Chaguaramas area adjacent to Carenage, where a naval base was established. Carenage became a supply location for the military base as well as a new home for the forcibly resettled Trinidadians from two villages that had to give way to the naval base, and suddenly swelled to over 2,000 residents. The bay adjacent to Carenage was anchorage for ships of the US Navy stationed in Chaguaramas, such as the USS Omaha . Numerous restaurants and entertainment establishments emerged, and female Trinidadians in particular sought to be close to the Americans, who were very financially strong compared to the locals. In his Calypso Rum and Coca-Cola , Lord Invader addressed the cultural break resulting from the US military presence, which was most strongly expressed in Carenage. Thanks to the US presence, the infrastructure in Carenage was significantly improved, so the city was connected to the capital's electricity and water networks.
After the end of the Second World War, Carenage lost its importance again dramatically. Since it continues to be a traffic bottleneck on the way to Chaguaramas due to the Northern Range running to the north, which is now a popular entertainment and excursion destination for the residents of Port of Spains, Carenage has been able to maintain a certain economic power through restaurants and retail outlets and in the twentieth century it had an increasing population in line with the general population growth of Trinidad.
structure
The smallest administrative unit in Trinidad is the community , comparable to a German town . Carenage is divided into the communities Big Yard, Carenage, L'Anse Mitan Road and Point Cumana.
| Community | Residents |
|---|---|
| Big yard | 929 |
| Carenage | 5625 |
| L'Anse Mitan Road | 1812 |
| Point Cumana | 1822 |
| total | 10,188 |
At the state level, the city belongs to the constituency of Diego Martin West, and Keith Rowley (PNM), who is also Prime Minister of the country, has been a member of the electoral district in the House of Representatives since the 2015 elections . At the municipal level, Carenage belongs to the Chaguaramas / Point Cumana constituency, and here too won the PNM in the 2016 municipal elections.
Economy and Transport
Carenage is primarily a residential city with a corresponding distribution of commercial and service companies. Large numbers of commercial and small business enterprises have settled along the Western Maind Road on the coast. On the southwestern outskirts of the city, the US aluminum manufacturer Alcoa operates a transshipment point for bauxite from Suriname , from which over 500,000 tons of bauxite were shipped annually to North America and Europe until 2009. Since the mines in Suriname were exhausted, the plant has been idle, but is being maintained.
Carenage is connected to Port of Spain, five kilometers away, via the Western Main Road, which runs along the coast. There are no other transport connections; the ferry service from the immediately adjacent Williams Bay in Chaguaramas to Güiria in Venezuela was discontinued in 2014 due to the confusing situation in Venezuela on the part of Trinidad. The Piarco International Airport is about 35 kilometers southeast of Carenage.
Facilities
With the Carenage Recreation Grounds, the place only has a communal green area. In the immediate vicinity, however, there are other recreational opportunities in the amusement park-like Williams Bay in Chaguaramas, and Carenage is surrounded by wooded slopes and has a small, unsupervised beach. There are two gender-separated primary schools at educational institutions. Carenage is Christian. Religious institutions are the Saint Peters Catholic Church, a Kingdom Hall of Jehovah's Witnesses , a Church of Seventh-day Adventist Church and a meeting room of the Pentecostal movement . There are no Hindu temples or mosques in Carenage.
Personalities
- Angus Eve (* 1972, soccer player)
- Machel Montano (* 1974, Soca musician)
- Maximus Dan (* 1979, Soca musician)
- Joevin Jones (* 1991, soccer player)
- Michelle-Lee Ahye (* 1992, athlete)
Individual evidence
- ^ A b Michael Anthony: Towns and Villages of Trinidad and Tobago . 2nd Edition. Printmaster, Marabella 2001, ISBN 978-0-00-976806-4 , p. 30 .
- ↑ TriniView.com: Chapter 2, 1941-1998 The Americans. Retrieved June 1, 2018 .
- ↑ Michael Anthony: Historical Dictionary of Trinidad and Tobago . Scarecrow Press, London 1997, ISBN 0-8108-3173-2 , pp. 99 .
- ↑ Census 2011
- ↑ Official Results for Local Government Elections Held on November 28th, 2016. Retrieved May 19, 2018 . (PDF, 198 KB)
- ↑ Peter Balroop: ALCOA 'downsizing' Tembladora Station . In: Trinidad Guardian . September 13, 2009. Retrieved March 17, 2019.
- ↑ Ferry service to Venezuela will end on June 1 . In: Trinidad Guardian . May 23, 2014.