This vintage souvenir travel shield charm is for Jamaica, an island nation of the Greater Antilles in the Caribbean Sea. It features a version of the Jamaican Coat of Arms. Jamaica was claimed for Spain after Christopher Columbus first landed there in 1494. Columbus used it as his family's private estate. The British seized the island in 1655. During its first 200 years of British rule, Jamaica became the world's largest sugar exporting nation, a feat largely achieved by the massive importing of African slaves. By the beginning of the 19th century, the United Kingdom's heavy reliance on slavery resulted in blacks outnumbering whites by a ratio of almost 20 to one, leading to constant threat of revolt. Following a series of rebellions, slavery was formally abolished in 1834, with full emancipation from chattel slavery declared in 1838.