The lesser islands of the nation of Trinidad & Tobago, were created by forceful contact between the South American and Caribbean geological plates assisted by a volcanic eruption. Coral deposits 300 feet (90 meters) thick have been laid on what is now Barbados. The islands were first inhabited by successive waves of Amerindian tribes – the Saladoid-Barrancoids, the Arawaks and the Caribs - beginning at least 7,000 years ago according to archaeological evidence. The warlike Caribs ousted their farming and fishing oriented predecessors in Barbados, but they in their turn were removed by enslavement and European diseases after the arrival of Spaniards in the Caribbean at the end of the 15th century. Some indigenous people remain in Trinidad & Tobago.
