Trinidad and Tobago Trinidad and Tobago Trinidad and Tobago (, ), officially the Republic of Trinidad and Tobago, is a twin island country that is the southernmost nation of the West Indies in the Caribbean. It is situated south of Grenada off the northern edge of the South American mainland, off the coast of northeastern Venezuela. It shares maritime boundaries with Barbados to the northeast, Grenada to the northwest, Guyana to the southeast, and Venezuela to the south and west. The island of Trinidad was a Spanish colony from the arrival of Christopher Columbus in 1498 until Spanish governor Don José María Chacón
Principality of Trinidad Principality of Trinidad The Principality of Trinidad was a short-lived unrecognized state declared in 1893 when the American James Harden-Hickey claimed the uninhabited Trindade Island in the South Atlantic. He declared himself James I, Prince of Trinidad, and intended for the islands to become a military dictatorship under his leadership. Britain and Brazil later argued over the territory, and it is now a part of the state of Espírito Santo in southeastern Brazil. The original name of the island, "Trindade", is Portuguese for "trinity"; "Trinidad" is the Spanish cognate. It is unclear why Harden-Hickley chose to translate the name from