West Indies Federation

The West Indies Federation, also known as the West Indies, the Federation of the West Indies or the West Indian Federation, was a short-lived political union that existed from 3 January 1958 to 31 May 1962. Various islands in the Caribbean that were part of the British Empire, including Trinidad and Tobago, Barbados, Jamaica, and those on the Leeward and Windward Islands, came together to form the Federation, with its capital in Port of Spain, Trinidad and Tobago. The expressed intention of the Federation was to create a political unit that would become independent from Britain as a single state – possibly similar to Australia, Canada, or Rhodesia and Nyasaland. Before that could happen, the Federation collapsed due to internal political conflicts over how it would be governed or function viably. The formation of a West Indian Federation was encouraged by the United Kingdom, but also requested by pan-Caribbean nationalists.

The territories that would have become part of the Federation eventually became the nine contemporary sovereign states of Antigua and Barbuda, Barbados, Dominica, Grenada, Jamaica, Saint Kitts and Nevis, Saint Lucia, Saint Vincent and the Grenadines, and Trinidad and Tobago; with Anguilla, Montserrat, the Cayman Islands, and the Turks and Caicos Islands becoming British overseas territories. British Guiana and British Honduras held observer status within the West Indies Federation.

History

Several historically "West Indian" British colonies opted not to join the Federation for various reasons. The Bahamas and Bermuda believed that their future lay with association with North America. The British Virgin Islands decided against joining due to their close ties with the United States Virgin Islands and their fear that a federal West Indies government would be more stingy than the United Kingdom with subsidies to subjects that ran deficits. British Honduras considered itself too far from the rest of the federation (over 600 miles from Jamaica), and also thought that federation should be postponed until its territorial dispute with Guatemala was settled.

thumb|A 1958 St. Vincent stamp marking the establishment of the West Indies Federation

The Federation was an internally self-governing, federal state made up of ten provinces, all British colonial possessions. The federation was created by the United Kingdom in 1958 from most of the British West Indies. Britain intended that the Federation would shortly become a fully independent state, thus simultaneously satisfying the demands for independence from all the colonies in the region. However, significant political divisions among the former colonies persisted, and the Federation never achieved full sovereignty.

The legal basis for the federation was the (4 & 5 Eliz. 2. c. 63),

However, the immediate catalyst for the dissolution of the Federation was Jamaican discontent. By 1961, there were a number of reasons for Jamaica's dissatisfaction with the state of affairs:

As a result, the Bustamante-led Jamaica Labour Party (the local component of the West Indian DLP) successfully forced Manley to hold a referendum in September 1961 on political secession from the Federation. The result was 54% in favour of leaving the Federation, See Transcontinental countries.

Provinces

{| class="wikitable" style="width:420px; margin:auto; font-size:100%;"

|+ Map of the provinces of the West Indies Federation

|align=left|

{| class="wikitable sortable" style="font-size:90%; width:650px; margin:auto;"

|+ Provinces and Territories of the West Indies

!Flag

!Province

!Capital

!Population

!Area (km2)

|- align=center

| border|30px ||align=left| Antigua|| align="left" | St. John's ||align=right| 57,000||align=right| 440

|- align=center

| border|30px ||align=left| Barbados ||align=left| Bridgetown ||align=right| 234,000 ||align=right| 431

|- align=center

| border|30px ||align=left| Cayman Islands (attached to Jamaica) ||align=left| George Town ||align=right| 9,000||align=right| 264

|- align=center

| border|30px ||align=left| Dominica ||align=left| Roseau ||align=right| 61,000||align=right| 750

|- align=center

| border|30px ||align=left| Grenada ||align=left| St. George's ||align=right|91,000 ||align=right| 344

|- align=center

| border|30px ||align=left| Jamaica ||align=left| Kingston||align=right|1,660,000||align=right| 10,991

|- align=center

| border|30px ||align=left| Montserrat ||align=left| Plymouth ||align=right| 13,000||align=right| 102

|- align=center

| border|30px ||align=left| Saint Christopher-Nevis-Anguilla ||align=left| Basseterre ||align=right| 55,600||align=right| 351

|- align=center

| border|30px ||align=left| Saint Lucia ||align=left| Castries ||align=right| 95,000||align=right| 616

|- align=center

| border|30px ||align=left| Saint Vincent and the Grenadines ||align=left| Kingstown ||align=right| 83,000||align=right| 389

|- align=center

| border|30px ||align=left| Trinidad and Tobago ||align=left| Port of Spain ||align=right| 900,000||align=right| 5,131

|- align=center

| border|30px ||align=left| Turks and Caicos Islands (attached to Jamaica) ||align=left| Cockburn Town ||align=right| 6,000||align=right| 430

|- align=center

|- class="sortbottom" bgcolor= #BFD7FF" style="text-align:center;"

| style="background:#bfd7ff;"|border|30px

| style="background:#bfd7ff; text-align:left;"| Federation of the West Indies

| style="background:#bfd7ff;"| Chaguaramas (de jure)

| style="background:#bfd7ff;"| 3,264,600

| style="background:#bfd7ff;"| 20,239 km2

Demographics

The total population of the West Indies Federation was between 3 and 4 million people, with the majority being of black West African descent. Minorities included Indians from the Indian subcontinent (called East Indians), Europeans, Chinese, Arabs, and Caribs. There was also a large population of mixed descent (mainly mulattos, but also Afro-Indian, Euro-Indian and mixed-Chinese). In terms of religion, most of the population was Protestant, with significant numbers of Catholics and some Hindus and Muslims (both almost exclusively from the East Indian population).

The West Indies Federation (or just West Indies) consisted of around 24 main inhabited islands and approximately 220–230 minor offshore islands, islets and cays (some inhabited, some uninhabited). The largest island was Jamaica, located in the far northwest of the Federation. To the southeast lay the second largest island, Trinidad, followed by Barbados (in terms of population), located at the eastern extremity of the Federation.

Politics

As with all British colonies of the period, Queen Elizabeth II was the head of state, and The Crown was vested with the legislative authority for matters concerning executive affairs, defence and the financing of the Federation. Her representative, The 1st Baron Hailes, was given the title of Governor-General, synonymous with a self-governing colony, rather than that of Governor more typical for a British Crown colony system of government. The title may have reflected the federal nature of the state, or indicated the expectations that the Federation would soon become self-governing or independent. The Governor-General also had the full authority of the British Government to veto any laws passed by the Federation.

The Federal Parliament of the West Indies Federation was bicameral, consisting of a nominated Senate and a popularly elected House of Representatives. The Senate consisted of nineteen members. These members were appointed by the Governor-General, after consulting the respective territorial governments. Two members represented each unit (with only one from Montserrat). The House of Representatives had 45 total elected members – Jamaica had seventeen seats, Trinidad and Tobago ten seats, Barbados five seats, Montserrat one seat, and the remaining islands two seats each.

However, the government (executive) would be a Council of State, not a Cabinet. It would be presided over by the Governor-General and consist of the Prime Minister and ten other officials.

The West Indies Federation did not have independent sources of revenue (relying instead on a mandatory levy on the islands), and did not establish any agreements on a customs union, free trade, or free movement.

Adom Getachew writes that relations between minority groups, such as the descendants of East Indians (which were a large share of the populations of Trinidad and Tobago and British Guiana), and the majority population of Afro-West Indians were a source of tension in the West Indies Federation. For example, British Guiana rejected the West Indies Federation in part because it lacked sufficient protections for ethnic minorities.

There were tensions between those who wanted a strong federal state (capable of undertaking major economic development projects and redistribution) and those who wanted a federal structure that gave each member substantial autonomy. and Trinidad and Tobago. Earlier in the federal negotiations the general opinion had been that the capital should be one of the smaller islands so that the capital would be in a neutral position to the larger territories and it would be able to inject some buoyancy into one of the (then) poorer economies. To this end, Grenada was tentatively selected as the member state to host the capital but this was abandoned after protests from some of the parties involved, and at the London Conference the smaller islands were ruled out for consideration. Within Trinidad and Tobago the first proposed site was Chaguaramas, a few miles west of Port of Spain, but the site was part of a United States naval base. In practice, Port of Spain served as the de facto federal capital for the duration of the federation's existence.

Governance

The Federation also had a number of units deemed to be common services for the entire federation, these were:

The Federal Shipping Service
The Federal Supreme Court
The University College of the West Indies
The West Indies Meteorological Service
West India Regiment

Elections

thumb|Map of the results of the 1958 Federal election. The WIFLP won the most seats in islands/island groups coloured orange, whilst the DLP won the most seats in islands/island groups coloured blue. The [[Cayman Islands & Turks and Caicos Islands were included as part of Jamaica.]]

In preparation for the first federal elections, two Federation-wide parties were organised as confederations of local political parties. Both were organised by Jamaican politicians: the West Indies Federal Labour Party by Norman Manley, and the Democratic Labour Party by Alexander Bustamante. In broad terms, the WIFLP consisted of the urban-based parties throughout the Federation, while the DLP consisted of the rural-based parties. A small third party, the Federal Democratic Party, was founded in November 1957 by a group of Trinidadians, although it did not win any seats.

The platforms for the two major national parties were similar in many respects. Both advocated maintaining and strengthening ties with the United Kingdom, United States, and Canada (countries with which the islands had strong cultural and economic links); encouraging and expanding tourism; working to bring British Guiana and British Honduras into the Federation and to obtain loans, financial aid, and technical assistance. Despite these similarities, there were differences. The WIFLP had advocated the encouragement of agriculture while the DLP had promised a climate favourable to both private industry and labour, development of human and economic resources. The WIFLP promised to encourage the Bahamas (in addition to British Guiana and British Honduras) to join the Federation, whereas the DLP did not. The WIFLP also campaigned to establish a central bank for the extension of credit resources and advocated a democratic socialist society and full internal self-government for all the unit territories, whilst avoiding the issues of freedom of movement and a customs union. The DLP said nothing about full internal self-government, attacked socialism, wished to avoid high taxation (via loans and technical aid) and emphasized West Indian unity, freedom of worship and speech, and encouragement of trade unions.

Federal elections were held on 25 March 1958. The WIFLP won the election, winning 26 seats while the DLP carried 19 seats. The bulk of the WIFLP seats came from the smaller islands while the DLP carried the majority in Jamaica and Trinidad & Tobago. The DLP won 11 of the Jamaican seats and 6 of the Trinidadian seats. In appointing the Senate, Governor-General Lord Hailes realized that only the St Vincent island government was DLP controlled and as a result the Senate was going to be disproportionately pro WIFLP. In a controversial decision, he contacted the opposition DLP groups in Jamaica and Trinidad, and appointed one DLP senator from each of those islands. Thus the Senate consisted of a total of 15 WIFLP members and 4 DLP members.

The WIFLP leader, Sir Grantley Adams of Barbados, became Prime Minister. The selection of Adams as the Prime Minister was indicative of the problems the Federation would face. The expected leader of the WIFLP was Norman Manley, Premier of Jamaica, and the next logical choice was Dr Eric Williams, Premier of Trinidad and Tobago. However, neither had contested the Federal elections, preferring to remain in control of their respective island power bases. This suggested that the leaders of the two most important provinces did not see the Federation as viable. Similarly, Alexander Bustamante, the Jamaican founder of the DLP, also declined to contest the Federal election, leaving the party leadership to the Trinidadian Ashford Sinanan. The absence of the leading Jamaican politicians from any role at the federal level was to undermine the Federation's unity.

Other members of the Council of State included:

Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Trade and Industry: Carl La Corbiniere (St Lucia)
Minister of Finance: Robert Llewellyn Bradshaw (St Kitts)
Minister of Communications and Works: Wilfred Andrew Rose (Trinidad and Tobago)
Minister of Natural Resources and Agriculture: Frank Ricketts (Jamaica)
Minister of Labour and Social Affairs: Phyllis Byam Shand Allfrey (Dominica)
Ministers without Portfolio: Novelle Richards (Antigua), Victor Vaughn (Barbados), Allan Byfield (Jamaica), James Liburd (St Kitts), and James Luc Charles (St Lucia)

Judiciary

Federal Supreme Court

There was also a Federal Supreme Court consisting of a Chief Justice and three (later five) other Justices. The Federal Supreme Court itself was the successor to the West Indian Court of Appeal (established in 1919) and had jurisdiction over the same territories (Barbados, British Guiana, the Leeward Islands (including the British Virgin Islands), Trinidad & Tobago and the Windward Islands) except for British Honduras, as the British Caribbean Federation Act 1956, which empowered the Privy Council to establish it, also repealed the enactment which allowed for appeals from the British Honduras Supreme Court to the Privy Council or the Supreme Court of Jamaica, namely the British Honduras (Court of Appeal) Act 1881. (The arrangement for appeals to the Supreme Court of Jamaica had generally ceased in 1911 anyway.)

Sir Stanley Eugene Gomes, Chief Justice of Trinidad and Tobago, was appointed Chief Justice of the Federation in August 1961.

Relationship with Canada

The Federation maintained a particularly close relationship with Canada, which had a similar past as a federation of several former separate British colonies. In the early years, several Caribbean leaders suggested that the West Indies Federation should investigate the possibility of becoming a Canadian province.

Despite the breakdown in talks, in May 1961, the Canadian Government presented the West Indies Federation with two of the region's most important gifts: two merchant ships, named The Federal Palm and The Federal Maple. These two vessels visited every island in the federation twice monthly, providing a crucial sea-link between the islands.

Symbols

Music

During that period, many calypsos made reference to the Federation of the West Indies, first expressing hope, then frustration as the process collapsed.

Philatelic collections / postal stamps

During the Federation's existence, each member continued to issue its own postage stamps as before; but on 22 April 1958, each of the members (except for the Cayman Islands) issued a set of three commemorative stamps. All of these stamps used a common design depicting a map of the Caribbean and a portrait of Queen Elizabeth II, with an inscription reading "THE WEST INDIES / FEDERATION 1958" at the top and the name of the member state at the bottom. These stamps are quite common in both mint and used condition.

Legacy

The federation's currency was the West Indies dollar (though Jamaica continued to use the pound), which was later succeeded by the East Caribbean dollar, the Barbadian dollar, and the Trinidad and Tobago dollar. Successor organisations included the West Indies Associated States and CARICOM.

The Federal Supreme Court would also be succeed by a British Caribbean Court of Appeal (1962–1966) and then a West Indies Associated States Supreme Court (Court of Appeal and High Court) (1967–1980) and ultimately by an Eastern Caribbean Court of Appeal and Eastern Caribbean Supreme Court in 1981 for the OECS. More recently a Caribbean Court of Justice has been established which would also fulfil the role of the original Supreme Court if all CSME members accede to the court's appellate jurisdiction (currently Barbados, Belize and Guyana do so).

Some see the West Indies cricket team as a legacy of the Federation, although the side was actually organised thirty years prior to the birth of the federation.

Another lasting regional fixture, officially created before the Federation, is the University of the West Indies. During the Federation, the university pursued a policy of regional expansion beyond the main Jamaica campus. Two other campuses were established: one in Trinidad and Tobago, established in 1960, and one in Barbados, established a short time after the Federation dissolved in 1963. Since 2004, the West Indies Federal Archives Centre has been located on the university's Cave Hill campus in Barbados.

UK/West Indies Associated States (WIAS)

The West Indies Federation was legally dissolved with the Parliament of the United Kingdom's (10 & 11 Eliz. 2. c. 19). The remaining "Little Eight" provinces once again became separate colonies supervised directly from London, most of which became independent later on, as follows:

Barbados – 1966
Grenada – 1974
Dominica – 1978
Saint Lucia – 1979
St Vincent and the Grenadines – 1979
Antigua and Barbuda – 1981
Saint Kitts and Nevis – 1983

The Cayman Islands and Turks and Caicos Islands had been separated from Jamaica upon the latter's independence in 1962; Anguilla was separated from Saint Kitts and Nevis in 1980. Along with Montserrat, all three remain British Overseas Territories.

Footnotes

References

Fraser, Cary. 1994. Ambivalent anti-colonialism : the United States and the genesis of West Indian independence, 1940–1964. Greenwood Press
Ghany, Dr Hamid 1996. Kamal: a Lifetime of Politics Religion and Culture Multimedia Production Centre, University of the West Indies.
Gonsalves, Ralph E. 1994. History and the Future: A Caribbean Perspective. Quik-Print, Kingstown, St. Vincent.
Hoyes, F. A. 1963. The Rise of West Indian Democracy: The Life and Times of Sir Grantley Adams. Advocate Press.
Hurwitz, Samuel J. "The Federation of the West Indies: A Study in Nationalisms." Journal of British Studies, 6#1 1966, pp. 139–168.
Mahabir, Dr Winston 1978 In and Out of Politics Inprint Caribbean.
Mordecai, John, Sir. 1968. Federation of the West Indies. Northwestern University Press
Wickham, P. W. 1997 "Factors in the Integration and Disintegration of the Caribbean" published as part of Issues in the Government and Politics of the West Indies, edited by J. G. LaGuerre, Multimedia Production Centre, University of the West Indies.
Williams, Eric. 1964. British Historians and the West Indies. P.N.M. Publishing Company, Port of Spain.
Nelson, Renee A. (4 July 2020). "The West Indian Press and Public: Concepts of Regionalism and Federation, 1944–1946". Journal of Caribbean History. 54 (1): 82–105.
The West Indies: Birth of a Nation
Will, W. Marvin (1991). "A Nation Divided: The Quest for Caribbean Integration". Latin American Research Review. 26 (2): 3–37.

External links

The British Monarch's website – On the Caribbean region
West Indies Federal Archives Centre, at the University of the West Indies (Cave Hill Campus)
Caribbean Community (CARICOM) Secretariat, The West Indies Federation
The British Hansard Digitisation Project, British Parliament – The Caribbean Federation Act 1956
The British Government's Office of Public Sector Information (OPSI) – West Indies Act 1962 (c. 19) – UK Statute Law Database (SLD)
Why 'Federation' really fell apart – Sunday, 22 October 2006: Trinidad and Tobago Express

History

Provinces

Demographics

Politics

Governance

Elections

Judiciary

Federal Supreme Court

Relationship with Canada

Symbols

Music

Philatelic collections / postal stamps

Legacy

UK/West Indies Associated States (WIAS)

See also

Footnotes

References

External links