Trinidad is the home of Carnival in the Caribbean. While Carnival is found elsewhere--St. Lucia, Grenada, Antigua, Nevis, the Virgin Islands, and Haiti--Trinidad's fete is considered the Caribbean's greatest, its most spectacular, its trendsetter. The Carnival in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, plays this preeminent role in Latin America.

The modern Trinidadian Carnival is a product of the conflict between two great cultures European and African. After 1498 they met, one as master, the other as slave; one sought dominance, the other liberation.

Discovered by Columbus in 1498, Trinidad was part of the Spanish Empire until 1797, when it was captured by the British, in whose hands it remained until its political independence in 1962. From 1498-1783 the island remained undeveloped and underpopulated. Spain then opened her colonies to migrants from other Roman Catholic countries, leading to an influx of French planters from neighboring West Indian territories into Trinidad.