Due to a high rate of emigration for work since the 1960s, there is a large Jamaican diaspora, particularly in Canada, the United Kingdom, and the United States. The majority of Jamaicans are of Sub-Saharan African ancestry, with significant European, East Asian (primarily Chinese), Indian, Lebanese, and mixed-race minorities. Kingston is the country's capital and largest city. With 2.8 million people, Jamaica is the third-most populous Anglophone country in the Americas (after the United States and Canada), and the fourth-most populous country in the Caribbean. The island achieved independence from the United Kingdom on 6 August 1962. Beginning in the 1840s, the British began using Chinese and Indian indentured labour to work on plantations. The British fully emancipated all slaves in 1838, and many freedmen chose to have subsistence farms rather than to work on plantations. Under British colonial rule Jamaica became a leading sugar exporter, with a plantation economy dependent on the African slaves and later their descendants. The island remained a possession of Spain until 1655, when England (later Great Britain) conquered it, renaming it Jamaica. Many of the indigenous people either were killed or died of diseases, after which the Spanish brought large numbers of African slaves to Jamaica as labourers. Originally inhabited by the indigenous Taíno peoples, the island came under Spanish rule following the arrival of Christopher Columbus in 1494. Jamaica lies about 145 km (90 mi) south of Cuba, and 191 km (119 mi) west of Hispaniola (the island containing the countries of Haiti and the Dominican Republic) the British Overseas Territory of the Cayman Islands lies some 215 km (134 mi) to the north-west. Spanning 10,990 square kilometres (4,240 sq mi) in area, it is the third largest island - after Cuba and Hispaniola - of the Greater Antilles and the Caribbean. Jamaica ( / dʒ ə ˈ m eɪ k ə/ ( listen) Jamaican Patois: Jumieka, ) is an island country situated in the Caribbean Sea.
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