In 1687 the Spanish sent numerous missionaries into Trinidad & Tobago. While some of these missionaries were quite successful, others failed and only created distrust and hostility between the Spanish and the local people. In 1699 the local people murdered a number of these missionaries.
The Spanish settlement in Trinidad & Tobago were slow to grow and by the late 1700s population numbers were still significantly low, encouraging the Spanish government to give potential settlers motivation for arriving on the islands. They granted any Roman Catholic land there, along with additional land for bringing in slaves. This offer was extended to Spaniards as well as former slaves of all ethnicities. This led to numerous settlers arriving, including a large number of freed slaves.
In 1797 the islands were surrendered to the British, whose major changes came just years later as the empire outlawed the slave trade in 1807 and illegalized slavery entirely in 1834. This led to an attempt to extend the term of slavery so instead of ending in 1834, it would end in 1840, however this was fought by the local slaves and supported by the British government, freeing the slaves in 1838.
These changes led to large labor shortages and soon the British were giving away free land. After numerous former American slaves settled, Chinese, Africans, Portuguese, and Indians settled on the islands. However, these new labor sources were more expensive than slaves so the production of sugarcane slowly declined as the growth of cocoa increased throughout the 1800s. Also, in the 1860s oil was discovered on the islands, providing another potential revenue stream.