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Caribbean Islands Postwar Federation Efforts
Britain's experiments in federation in its West Indian colonies
had long been frustrated by regional insularity and parochialism.
Regional cooperation increased during World War II, however, owing
to the threat of a common outside enemy. The Anglo-American
Caribbean Commission, established in 1942, played an important role
in further regional integration efforts. The Second West India
Conference in 1946 also was considered a landmark in international
and regional cooperation because it provided the dependent
territories their first opportunity to participate in a
multilateral meeting aimed at forging joint policies with Britain
and the United States.
Because of decolonization plans, Britain placed renewed
emphasis on political and economic federation in the postwar era
(see Political Independence, ch.1). Its resources drained by the
war, Britain began promoting self-government within the
Commonwealth in general, a long process that involved gradually
granting the West Indian islands autonomy and then independence.
The formulas of federation and associated statehood (see Glossary)
were ways of solving the British problem of establishing a system
that maintained regional order after independence. Nevertheless,
the small size of the British West Indian islands and their
populations, their lack of resources, and their dependence on
outside markets made the decolonization process especially
difficult.
Although the leading West Indians, particularly Jamaica's
Norman W. Manley and Trinidad and Tobago's Eric Williams, favored
federation as the best means to implement decolonization, the
efforts at federation in the late 1950s and early 1960s failed (see
The West Indies Federation, 1958-62, ch.1). The West Indies
Federation, the first major change toward greater self-rule in the
region, lasted only from 1958 to 1962. With its headquarters
located in Port-of-Spain, Trinidad and Tobago, the federation
united Jamaica, Barbados, Trinidad and Tobago, and the British
colonies in the Leeward and Windward islands. The New West India
Regiment, a British-trained and British-armed unit, was
reconstituted to serve as the defense force for the short-lived
federation. The latter collapsed, however, within months after
Jamaica, concerned that the costs of membership outweighed the
benefits, withdrew following a national referendum on the issue in
September 1961. Jamaica and Trinidad and Tobago instead decided to
become independent in 1962; the former acquired two battalions of
the dissolved regiment, and the latter, one battalion.
Because of the failure of federation, a concept that the United
States had favored, American policy toward the region lost what
little direction it had. The fact that Jamaica and Trinidad and
Tobago assumed independence without problem may have constrained
further movement toward regional federation. In the mid-1960s,
another attempt was made to join the remaining so-called Little
Eight islands (Antigua and Barbuda, Barbados, Dominica, Grenada,
Montserrat, St. Kitts-Nevis-Anguilla, St. Lucia, and St. Vincent
and the Grenadines) into the Federation of the Eastern Caribbean,
with Barbados playing the leading role in the organization's
Regional Council. Financial requirements of federation quickly
frightened off Barbados and Antigua and Barbuda, however. When
Barbados became independent in 1966, the federation disintegrated.
Nevertheless, a general framework for regional security
collaboration was established. The formation of economic
associations during the 1960s, including the Caribbean Free Trade
Association (Carifta) in 1965, also helped to reinforce West Indian
identity as a subregion.
During their emergence as independent states, the islands of
the Eastern Caribbean largely ignored security-related issues,
according to Gary P. Lewis. In 1966 the former Regional Council was
superseded by the West Indies States Association (WISA), a stop-gap
administrative arrangement that gave the Windward and Leeward
islands limited autonomy. Six of the seven WISA members--Antigua
and Barbuda, Dominica, Grenada, St. Kitts-Nevis-Anguilla, St.
Lucia, and St. Vincent and the Grenadines--assumed full
responsibility for their own internal self-government and security,
while the seventh, Montserrat, remained a crown colony (see Glossary). Britain retained responsibility for defense and foreign
affairs for its associated states.
In 1967, after Britain informed WISA members that defense and
security assistance to the region would be provided only in
response to an "external threat," efforts to establish a regional
security force in the Eastern Caribbean were given new impetus.
Nevertheless, Britain continued to provide some police training and
advice. With the WISA Council of Ministers serving as a means for
coordinating joint action, regional leaders agreed on the need for
military or paramilitary forces to control outbreaks of violence or
other subversive activities.
In the ensuing debate, some regional leaders decided on the
need for security forces, while others argued that the individual
islands were incapable of supporting either security forces or
standing armies. Some questioned the need for military forces in
view of the British defense guarantee and the likelihood that local
forces could do little to prevent aggression by an extraregional
power. Jamaica and Trinidad and Tobago recognized, however, the
need for security forces to patrol their territorial waters and
carry out search-and-rescue operations and other security-related
duties. Therefore, both countries established national forces in
the mid-1960s by incorporating former members of the New West India
Regiment (see The Public Security Forces, ch. 2; National Security,
ch. 3).
The small islands of the Eastern Caribbean, being more
vulnerable than Jamaica and Trinidad and Tobago, favored the
creation of a regional military force. An early indication of the
difficulty of such an undertaking was the islands' failure in 1967
to coordinate a regional force to prevent the unilateral secession
from St. Kitts-Nevis-Anguilla of the tiny island of Anguilla, which
sought to reestablish its colonial ties to Britain. British
paratroopers were landed on the coral island to restore order and
British control in 1969 (see British Dependencies: British Virgin
Islands, Anguilla, and Montserrat, ch. 5).
The formation of WISA led to greater economic and international
coordination among the Eastern Caribbean states. In 1968 Carifta's
membership was widened to include WISA members. That year, four of
the smaller Eastern Caribbean territories--Dominica, Grenada,
Montserrat, and St. Lucia--formed the Eastern Caribbean Common
Market, which was later joined by Antigua and Barbuda (1981), St.
Kitts and Nevis (1980), and St. Vincent and the Grenadines (1979).
Little progress was made, however, toward creating a regionally
integrated unit, so in 1973 the Carifta members agreed to replace
their ineffective organization with the Caribbean Community and
Common Market (Caricom--see Appendix C). (The Bahamas joined
Caricom in 1983). In addition to furthering economic cooperation,
Caricom was intended to coordinate foreign policy among its member
states.
Data as of November 1987
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