| dc.description.abstract | In 1947 Great Britain together its Caribbean colonies to discuss the idea of a closer association among them. The British wanted the colonies to Wlite in a federation to which Britain would give independence and entry into the Commonwealth. After World War II it was an accepted view among the larger countries that small nations could not compete economically and survive politically in the modem world. Britain's belief in this theory led them to their offer of 1947. However, in their efforts to rid themselves of their economically poor colonies in the Caribbean, the British failed to take into consideration the insularity they had fostered for years in the area. Although Barbados, Jamaica, Trinidad and Tobago, the Leeward Islands of Antigua, Montserrat, and St. Kitts-Nevis-Anguilla, and the Windward Islands of Dominica, Grenada, St. Lucia, and St. Vincent shared much in common, including their agriculture-based economy and their British heritage, they had lived independently of each other for centuries. Although they agreed to explore the possibility of federation, and even embarked on the venture for four short years, their reluctance to give up their new-found political freedom brought about the collapse of their federation. The West Indies Federation is important to the field of British colonial history because it offers a different perspective on British decolonization. These islands were not attempting to divorce themselves from Britain, as so many of their other colonies were. The people of the British Caribbean admired the British and their institutions. The British West Indies islanders simply wanted the freedom to control their own destinies without the help of colonial masters. They wanted political and economic freedom, but within the British Commonwealth of Nations. | |
