SUMMARY
Trinidad and Tobago declared independence from the United Kingdom on 31 August 1961 and became a parliamentary republic with the 1976 constitution. In 1987, Tobago gained autonomy for the self-government of internal issues that would not conflict with the united Trinidad and Tobago state constitution such as social services, industry and agriculture.
Elective politics has frequently run along racial lines and during elections, racial tensions have tended to increase. The People’s National Movement (PNM) has been the dominant political party in Trinidad and Tobago; it was founded in 1956 as a moderate nationalist party and consisted of mainly urban and Afro-Trinidadians with some backing from Muslim and Christian Indians. An early opponent to the PNM was the Democratic Labour Party (DPL), which was based in the Hindu section of the Indian-origin community.
In 1970, the Black Power movement emerged with large, frequent and violent demonstrations influenced by African-American radicalism. A 10-day attempted coup against the government was led by junior army officers from the Trinidad and Tobago Defence Force, to which the Government of Trinidad and Tobago responded by enforcing a state of emergency on 21 April 1970. In 1990, there was yet another unsuccessful coup attempt against the government, carried out by Jamaat al-Muslimeen, which formed in the early 1980s when tensions between Afro-Trinidadians and Indo-Trinidadians were high and slumping oil prices led to a downturn in the economy (see Government of Trinidad and Tobago - Jamaat al-Muslimeen).
Since independence, the Government of Trinidad and Tobago has been led by several PNM Prime Ministers (Eric Williams, 1962 – 1981; George Chambers, 1981 – 1986; Patrick Manning, 1991 – 1995 and 2002 – 2010; Keith Rowley, 2015 – incumbent as of 2017). For periods in between, the government was led by: Arthur Robinson (1986 – 1991), of the Tobago-based political party, National Alliance for Reconstruction (NAR); Baseo Panday (1995 – 2002), party leader of the United National Congress (UNC) who oversaw a UNC – NAR coalition government; and Kamla Persad-Bissessar (2010 – 2015), the consecutive leader of the UNC, who oversaw a four-party coalition government known as the People’s Partnership.
The Government of Trinidad and Tobago had its largest number of troops between 1995 and 2000, ranging from 6900 to 7500, whilst the lowest number it has had since 1985 was 2000 troops. In 2017, the Government of Trinidad and Tobago had an armed force of 4000 active troops.
During the 1990 coup attempt, the Government of Jamaica deployed troops to Barbados, ready to assist the Government of Trinidad and Tobago if required.
