Though Spanish-run, the island's culture became increasingly French: it was during this period that Carnival was introduced. Things heated up politically when the British , led by Sir Ralph Abercromby, invaded in 1797. The Spanish surrendered with hardly a shot fired and Thomas Picton became governor, ruling with a reign of terror . By 1802, Picton's activities had become an embarrassment even to the British government and he was demoted.

The island became a British experiment, a Crown colony ruled directly from London but governed by French and Spanish law. Planters, forced to look for alternative sources of labour after the Act of Emancipation , introduced indentured Indian labourers to the island in 1845. By 1917, when the system finally ended, some 145,000 Indians, mainly from Calcutta, had arrived. Though better regulated than slavery, the working and living conditions of the labourers were indistinguishable from those of slaves. Many never returned to India, accepting land in lieu of their passage home. Known still as "East Indians", they have contributed greatly to island's culture, especially with their food. Further adding to the ethnic mix in T&T were immigrants from other parts of the world, among them Africans, Portuguese labourers, C hinese , a handful of Jews, and Syrians .

Several components - including the oil industry, an anti-indentureship movement, and the establishment of the Beacon (1931-34), a stridently anti-colonial, anti-government magazine - meant Britain faced an increasingly unruly population. World War II brought economic improvements as large areas, such as the Chaguaramas peninsula, were leased to the US military to establish their Caribbean base. In return, the Americans improved Trinidad's infrastructure and brought oil drums to the island, inspiring the invention of the steel drum .

Though universal suffrage was granted in 1945, Britain did not hand over control until 1956, when the People's National Movement (PNM), under the leadership of the Oxford-educated historian Dr Eric Williams , took power. Independence was granted in 1962 but the colonial structure of society remained. Disillusionment led to the Black Power movement in the late Sixties, resulting in jobs being given to locals rather than expatriates. By 1970, Trinidad was bankrupt but vast oil reserves, discovered just as the world was sliding into the 1974 oil crisis, meant the country found itself swimming in money overnight. When oil prices fell in the 1980s, the economy went into recession. As the population became increasingly dissatisfied, the political opposition unified, and in 1986 PNM was ousted for the first time in favour of the National Alliance for Reconstruction (NAR), led by the Tobagonian A.N.R. Robinson . Within a year the government was breaking up under the pressure of harsh economic measures imposed by the IMF. In 1990, the Jamaat-al-Muslimeen - a revolutionary Muslim organization - attempted to overthrow the government and though the coup was crushed, the government's authority was undermined, and the following year the PNM returned to power.

Over the next five years, the PNM stabilized the economy and paid off the IMF. The 1995 election, and every election since, has split the country down the middle along race lines, with the PNM and the Indo-Trinidadian United National Congress both winning an equal number of seats. The first Indo-Trinidadian prime minister, Basdeo Panday , took power in 1995 but despite winning the most votes in both the 2000 and 2001 elections, the president controversially appointed Patrick Manning (PNM) prime minister. Currently the country is being run without a parliament while the impasse continues, neither party willing to share power despite a hung parliament. Another election is planned for 2003.

Trinidad and Tobago can boast the most stable economy in the Caribbean, thanks mainly to oil's continuing source of revenue. In recent years, rising crime rates, drug trafficking, high rates of domestic violence and HIV infection, not to mention political corruption, have ensured that locals have more to worry about than what to wear to next year's Carnival.