Will There Ever be a Meaningful Integration of Caribbean Communities

Establishment of the West Indies Federation As part of its decision to push modified self-government, the British authorities encouraged the experiment in confederation. The idea had been  discussed in the Colonial Office since the later nineteenth century, but it was  brought to new life with a regional conference held at Montego Bay, Jamaica, in  1947. The British were interested in administrative efficiency and  centralization.

Established in 1958, the West Indies Federation comprised the ten territories  of: Antigua and Barbuda, Barbados, Dominica, Grenada, Jamaica, Montserrat, the  then St Kitts-Nevis-Anguilla, Saint Lucia, St Vincent and Trinidad and Tobago.  The Federation was established by the British Caribbean Federation Act of 1956  with the aim of establishing a political union among its members.

West Indian" nations The Bahamas, Bermuda, Belize, the British Virgin Islands, and Guyana opted not to join because they believed that their future lay with association with North America (for both the Bahamas and Bermuda), Central America, and the United States Virgin Islands. Guyana opted not to join at that time due to its ongoing political and internal struggles for independence from the UK, started in the 1950s.

The Federation however faced several problems. These included: the governance and administrative structures imposed by the British; disagreements  among the territories over policies, particularly with respect to taxation and  central planning; an unwillingness on the part of most Territorial Governments  to give up power to the Federal Government; and the location of the Federal  Capital.

mapoui is a dreamer

federation is completely dead.