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Caribbean Islands Historical Background
Colonial Rivalry
Until the end of the nineteenth century, the United States had
to compete at various times with Spanish, British, French, and
Dutch power in the Caribbean. The region assumed strategic
significance as early as the seventeenth century when Spain's
rivals began colonization attempts. During this period, France and
England took advantage of numerous opportunities in the Eastern
Caribbean. Spain had established garrison outposts on many of the
Caribbean islands in order to guard its trade route to Mexico and
Panama. As Spain's military power declined beginning in the midseventeenth century, however, its Caribbean sea-lanes became more
vulnerable. The Dutch seized Curaçao to use as a base for harassing
Spain's shipping, and England captured Jamaica from Spain. In
addition, the eighteenth-century power struggle in Europe was
projected into the Caribbean, where the Netherlands was the first
to be forced out. With the onset of the American Revolution, the
Americans began building a navy to secure the "back door" of the
new nation, thereby dashing French dreams of Caribbean domination.
The fierce colonial rivalry in the region required the
permanent stationing of British naval and military forces on the
commercially important Caribbean islands of Barbados, St. Lucia,
and Jamaica, as well as Bermuda in the Atlantic. In 1798 the
British established a volunteer defense force known as the West
India Regiment. Although primarily responsible for defending and
maintaining order in Britain's West Indian colonies, the Britishtrained and British-commanded regiment also fought for Britain in
the American Revolution, the War of 1812, and various campaigns in
West Africa.
The Treaty of Vienna in 1815 ensured British command of the
Caribbean for most of the nineteenth century. Britain never missed
an opportunity to use its naval strength in the Caribbean until the
signing in 1850 of the Clayton-Bulwer Treaty, in which Britain and
the United States declared that they would not unilaterally seek to
exercise dominion over any part of Central America, excluding
British Honduras (present-day Belize).
Data as of November 1987
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