Problem acid soils have a pH* of less than 5.6 and usually below pH 5.0. The low soil pH is associated with a number of soil chemical and biological characteristics that manifest themselves as the components of the problem acid soil syndrome.
History of Jamaica. The island of Jamaica was colonized by the Taino tribes prior to the arrival of Columbus in 1494. The Spanish enslaved the Tainos, who were so ravaged by their conflict with the Europeans and by foreign diseases that nearly the entire native population was extinct by 1600.
History and Ethnic Relations. Emergence of the Nation. Jamaica was a Spanish colony from 1494 to 1655 and a British colony from 1655 to 1962. The colonial period was marked by conflict between white absentee owners and local managers and merchants and African slave laborers.