Editing Tobago (section)

===European colonization===
[[File:Plan of Nieuw Vlissingen.jpg|thumb|left|Seventeenth-century map showing the fort of Nieuw Vlissingen.]]
In 1628, Dutch settlers established the first European settlement in Tobago, a colony they called Nieuw Walcheren at Great Courland Bay. They also built a fort, Nieuw Vlissingen, near the modern town of [[Plymouth, Tobago|Plymouth]]. The settlement was abandoned in 1630 after indigenous attacks, but was re-established in 1633. The new colony was destroyed by the Spanish in Trinidad after the Dutch supported a Nepoyo-led revolt in Trinidad. Attempts by the English to colonize Tobago in the 1630s and 1640s also failed due to indigenous resistance.<ref name="Boomert" />{{Rp|115–119}}

The indigenous population also prevented European colonization in the 1650s, including an attempt by the [[Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth]], but the Polish or Lithuanian explorers did not colonize the Island of Tobago, who colonized the island intermittently between 1637 and 1690.{{Clarify|reason=The didn't colonize it but they colonized it?|date=June 2023}} Over the ensuing years, the [[Curonian colonization of the Americas|Curonians]] ([[Duchy of Courland]]), Dutch, English, French, Spanish and Swedish had caused Tobago to become a focal point in repeated attempts of colonization, which led to the island having changed hands 33 times, the most in [[Caribbean]] history, before the [[Treaty of Paris (1814)|Treaty of Paris]] ceded it to the British in 1814. In 1662, the Dutch brothers [[Adrian Lampsins|Adrian]] and [[Cornelius Lampsins]] were granted the title of ''Barons of Tobago,'' and ruled until the English captured the island in 1666. Adrian briefly recaptured Tobago in 1673, but was killed in battle when the English, under Sir [[Tobias Bridge]], yet again took control of the island.<ref>Riddell (Author), Henri de Bourbon (comte de Chambord.), John. "The Patent of Baron to C Van Lampsins." The Pedigree of the Duchess of Mantua, Montferrat and Ferrara, Oxford University, 1885, pp. 8–10.</ref>

[[File:Prise de Tobago 1781 par les Francais.jpg|thumb|left|French attack on the British island of Tobago in 1781 with text. French painting from 1784.]]

From about 1672, during the temporary English rule of 1672–1674,<ref>
{{cite book
|last1= Nimblett
|first1= Lennie M.
|title= Tobago: The Union with Trinidad 1889-1899
|url= https://books.google.com/books?id=KpSleX0cBAEC
|publisher= AuthorHouse
|date= 2012
|pages= 11–12
|isbn= 9781477234501
|access-date= 2015-02-05
|quote= 1672: England declared war against the Netherlands and captured Tobago.<br /> 1673: The Dutch defeated the English in the third Anglo/Dutch war and occupied Tobago in May 1674 after the Peace of Westminster.
}}
</ref> Tobago had a period of stability during which [[plantation]] culture began.{{citation needed|date=February 2015}} Sugar, cotton and indigo factories sprang up and Africans were imported by the British to work as slaves. The economy flourished. France had abandoned the island to Britain in 1763,<ref>
{{cite book
|last1= Nimblett
|first1= Lennie M.
|title= Tobago: The Union with Trinidad 1889-1899
|url= https://books.google.com/books?id=KpSleX0cBAEC
|publisher= AuthorHouse
|date= 2012
|page= 12
|isbn= 9781477234501
|access-date= 2015-02-05
|quote= The island remained in dispute between Britain and France and was essentially a neutral island between 1679 and 1763. [...] Tobago [was] formally ceded by France to Britain at the Treaty of Paris 1763 after the Seven Years War.
}}
</ref> and by 1777 Tobago was exporting great quantities of cotton, indigo, rum and sugar. 

In 1781, the French retook the island during the [[Invasion of Tobago]].<ref name="atm">{{cite book |last1=Mahan |first1=A.T. |title=The Major Operations of the Navies in the War of American Independence |date=1969 |publisher=Greenwood Press |location=New York |pages=167–168}}</ref> On 24 May 1781, the fleet of [[Comte de Grasse]] landed troops on the island under the command of General Marquis de Bouillé. By 2 June 1781, they had successfully gained control of the island.