(19581962) An unsuccessful attempt to establish a single government for the English-speaking West Indies. After the Federation failed, the countries of the English-speaking Caribbean slowly gained their independence.
Federation of the West Indies
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| National motto: | |||||
| Official language | English | ||||
| Political status | Overseas territory of the UK | ||||
| Capital | Chaguaramas | ||||
| Largest cities | Kingston and Port of Spain | ||||
| Monarch | Queen Elizabeth II | ||||
| Governor-General | Patrick George Thomas Buchan-Hepburn | ||||
| Prime Minister | Grantley Herbert Adams (West Indies Federal Labour Party) | ||||
| Creation | January 3, 1958 (union of most of British West Indies) | ||||
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Area - Total - % water |
Ranked 152nd 20,253 km² n/a |
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Population
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3,117,300 154/km² |
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| Currency | British West Indies dollar the "Beewee" dollar (BWI$) | ||||
| Currency code | XBWD | ||||
| Time zone | UTC –5 to -4, Summer: UTC –4 to -3 | ||||
| National anthem | God Save the Queen | ||||
| Internet TLD | n/a | ||||
| Calling Code | +1-809 (from 1958- ) | ||||
The Federation of the West Indies, also known as the West Indian Federation, was a short-lived Caribbean federation that existed from January 3, 1958 to May 31, 1962.
Population and geography
The total population of the West Indies Federation was between 3 and 4 million people, with the majority being of African descent.
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, located at the eastern extremity of the Federation.
The Federation spanned across all the island groupings in the Caribbean:
The Greater Antilles: Jamaica and the Cayman Islands The Bahama Islands (sometimes included in the Greater Antilles): the Turks and Caicos Islands The Lesser Antilles, both in the: Leeward Islands: Antigua and Barbuda, St. Kitts-Nevis-Anguilla, Montserrat and Dominica Windward Islands: St. Lucia, St. Vincent & the Grenadines, Grenada, Barbados Trinidad and TobagoAt its widest (west to east), from the Cayman Islands to Barbados it spanned some 2, 425 kilometres (and across approximately 22 degrees of longitude) and from the Turks and Caicos Islands in the north, to the Icacos Point, Trinidad in the south it extended 1,700 kilometres (and across 12 degrees of latitude). Even though the West Indies was spread across such a vast area , most of its provinces were mostly contiguous and clustered fairly close together in the Eastern Caribbean, with the obvious exceptions of Jamaica (and the Cayman Islands and Turks and Caicos Islands). The exceptions were Anguilla, Antigua, Barbuda, the Cayman Islands, the Turks and Caicos Islands (which were all fairly flat), and Trinidad ( which had a large mountain range in the north and a small central mountain range in the interior of the otherwise flat island).
The climate in all the islands was tropical, with hot and humid weather, although inland regions in the larger islands had more temperate climates.
The Federation was considered to be part of the North American continent as all of its islands are in the Caribbean, even though Trinidad is located just off-shore from South America and lies on the same continental shelf as South America. See Bicontinental countries.
Provinces
The provinces or unit territories of the West Indies Federation were:
Antigua and Barbuda Barbados Dominica Grenada Jamaica (to which were attached the Cayman Islands and Turks and Caicos Islands as dependencies) Montserrat Saint Christopher-Nevis-Anguilla (present day Saint Kitts and Nevis and Anguilla) Saint Lucia Saint Vincent and the Grenadines Trinidad and TobagoHistorically "West Indian" nations The Bahamas, Belize, Bermuda, the British Virgin Islands and Guyana opted not to join because they believed that their future lay with association with North America, Central America, North America, Puerto Rico and the United States Virgin Islands and South America respectively. However, the Bahamas did participate in the 1960 West Indies Federation Games, with the future prime minister of the Bahamas, Perry Christie, as an athlete.
Government and Legal status
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.
The legal basis for the federation was the British Caribbean Federation Act 1956, and the date of formation -- January 3, 1958 -- was set by an Order-in-Council proclaimed in 1957.
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. The title may have reflected the federal nature of the state, or indicated the expectations that the Federation would soon become independent. The House of Representatives had 45 elected members - Jamaica had 17 seats, Trinidad and Tobago 10 seats, Barbados 5 seats, Montserrat 1 seat and the other Islands 2 seats each .
The proposed site for the capital city was Chaguaramas, a few miles west of Port of Spain, Trinidad and Tobago, but the site was part of a United States naval base.
The first elections
In preparation for the first federal elections, two Federation-wide parties were organised as confederations of local political parties. Charles
Federal problems
The politics of the embryonic Federation were wracked by struggles between the Federal government and the provincial governments, and between the two largest provinces (Jamaica and Trinidad and Tobago) and the smaller provinces.
The West Indies Federation had an unusually weak federal structure. Also, complete freedom of movement within the Federation was not implemented, as the larger provinces were worried about mass migration from the smaller islands.
Relationship with Canada
The Federation maintained a particularly close relationship with the nation of Canada, which had a similar past in that it was a confederation of several former British colonies. In the early years, several Caribbean leaders suggested that the West Indies Federation should investigate the possibility of becoming a Canadian province, though this was never more than a fleeting interest.
Despite the break down in talks, in May, 1961 Canada 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 and were a crucial sea-link between the islands.
Dissolution
Many reasons have been put forward to explain the demise of the federation, some of them detailed in "Problems" above. These include the utter lack of local popular support, competing island nationalisms, the weakness of the federal government, prohibitions on federal taxation and freedom of movement, inadequacies in the Federal constitution, fundamental changes made to the constitution very early in its existence, political feuds between the influential leaders, the decision of the three most influential politicians not to contest Federal elections, friction between these leaders and the Federal government, the overwhelming concentration of population and resources in the two largest units, geographic and cultural distance between the units, the lack of a history of common administration, and the impact of the period of self-government that followed the promotion from Crown Colony system.
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:
Jamaica was fairly remote from most of the other islands in the Federation, lying several hundred miles to the west. Jamaica's share of the seats in the federal parliament was smaller than its share of the total population of the Federation.The most important reason for Jamaican dissatisfaction was the Federation's continuing colonial status. Jamaica had joined the Federation because its leaders had believed that the West Indies would quickly be granted independence.
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.
After Jamaica left, there was an attempt to salvage a new federation from the wreckage of the old. Much depended on Premier Williams of Trinidad and Tobago, who had stated previously that he wanted a "strong federation." Premier Vere Bird of Antigua responded that his province would only be in a federation with Trinidad as an equal partner, not as "a little Tobago."
Negotiations on this new federation began in September 1961; Also, even though Trinidad would now represent 60 percent of the new Federation's population, the proposals under consideration would give it less than half of the seats in parliament.
On January 14, 1962, the People's National Movement (the Williams-led Trinidad component of the WIFLP) passed a resolution rejecting any further involvement with the Federation.
Without Trinidad and Jamaica, the remaining "Little Eight" attempted to salvage some form of a West Indian Federation, this time centred on Barbados.
The West Indies Federation was legally wound up with the Parliament of the United Kingdom's West Indies Act 1962. 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 - 1983Montserrat remains an overseas territory of the United Kingdom.
Legacy
The federation's currency was the West Indies dollar, which was later succeeded by the East Caribbean dollar, the Jamaican dollar, the Barbados dollar, and the Trinidad and Tobago dollar.
Some see the West Indian cricket team as a legacy of the Federation, although the side was actually organised many years prior to 1958.
Another lasting regional fixture, officially created before the Federation, is the University of the West Indies. 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.
Stamps
During the Federation's existence, each member continued to issue its own postage stamps as before; All of these stamps used a common design depicting a map of the Caribbean and a portrait of Queen Elizabeth, with an inscription at the top reading "THE WEST INDIES / FEDERATION 1958" at the top and the name of the member at the bottom.
Prior attempts at Federation: Regional Groupings
The Federation of the West Indies was not the first attempt at a British Caribbean federation (nor would it be the last).
The initial federal attempts never went so far as to try to encompass all of the British West Indies (BWI), but were more regional in scope.
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