Branding was a characteristic feature of the imperial enterprise from Africa to the Caribbean. Once African captives were acquired they were branded with a symbol of the owner or purchaser, and once on the ships, they were again branded with the mark of the ship owner. These marks were considered essential in the identification of possessions given the prevalence of stealing of captives that occurred during the journey across Africa and the Atlantic.

A standard feature of European colonising efforts in the Caribbean was the desire of each country to show ownership of newly-acquired territories by imposing its specific brand of markers on them.

In the heyday of European rivalry for colonial possessions in the region, the acquisition of territories was intensified as Europeans engaged in imperial expansion. This was an index of imperial strength and an important determinant of their position on the power scale in Europe. In addition, the economic benefits expected from colonies served to make the Europeans more aggressive in their search for possessions in the Caribbean.

It was as important to the European countries to brand their colonial possessions as it was for the plantation owners to brand their enslaved possessions. While the primary intent of plantation owners was to identify runaways, the purpose of the European branding exercise was to assert its particular ownership of the territory and to signal to rivals, its intent to defend its possessions. Branding was a continuous exercise in which Europeans engaged in what is best referred to as 'rituals of possession.'

The first stamp of the European possessor was the name given to the colony and the raising of its flag at a prominent part of the territory where it would be visible to all who approached. This announced ownership by a particular European country and obliterated the First Peoples' claims to ownership, as the Europeans never recognised the First Peoples as owners of the territories.

It was also an announcement to their European rivals that the territory, hitherto regarded as 'unoccupied,' was now European-owned.

In the case of territories like Tobago, which was hotly contested by several European countries, the rituals involved several naming and re-naming exercises. This occurred with each change of European owner.

The brand of ownership was further stamped onto Caribbean territories through maps and charts created by the Europeans. The colonisers stamped the name it gave to the colony and place names within it, as well as all documents and written records about the island.

Tobago endured several of these rituals. Columbus is said to have sighted the island on his third voyage and it was claimed by Spain. Some of the earliest Spanish charts and maps record the names Asunción and Concepción, but it is not clear that these referred to Tobago. Belaforma appears as the name of the island once on an early map, and it remains debatable whether that name was an official designation of t