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Federation in the Caribbean: An Attempt That Failed

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  22 May 2009

Hugh W. Springer
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Extract

Ever since World War II the United Kingdom has been engaged in the process of withdrawal from the Caribbean—indeed the beginnings were made before the war ended. The clearest and most recent evidence has been the advance of Jamaica and Trinidad from colonial status to independent membership in the British Commonwealth and the United Nations. But this was not quite what had been intended. The aim originally had been to make one federal union of all the British colonies in the region. The attempt, however, failed. British Guiana and British Honduras withdrew from the scheme at an early stage, and the federation of the islands foundered after a four-year period of trial.

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Articles
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International Organization , Volume 16 , Issue 4 , Autumn 1962, pp. 758 - 775
Copyright
Copyright © The IO Foundation 1962

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References

1 Proctor, Jesse Harris Jr, “The Functional Approach to Political Union: Lessons from the Effort to Federate the British Caribbean Territories,” International Organization, 02 1956 (Vol. 10, No. 1), pp. 35–48CrossRefGoogle Scholar.

2 Conference on the Closer Association of the British West Indian Colonies, Part II, Proceedings (London: H.M.S.O., 1948; Colonial 218), pp. 57–62Google Scholar.

3 Williams, Eric, lecture delivered at Woodford Square on 01 5, 1956, in Federation, Two Public Lectures (Trinidad: People's National Movement, 1956), pp. 11–12Google Scholar.

4 Economics of Nationhood, p. 3.

5 Gleaner, October 26, 1959.

6 Precedings of the House of Representatives, 1959, p. 95 ff.

7 Gleaner, June I, 1960.

8 Proceedings of the House of Representatives, 1959, p. 102.

9 Wheare, Kenneth C., Federal Government (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1946), p. 37Google Scholar.

10 Friedrich, Carl J. in Federalism Mature and Emergent, edited by Macmahon, A. W. (Garden City: Doubleday, 1955), pp. 513–514Google Scholar.

11 Resolution on Independence passed by People's National Movement Special Convention in Port of Spain, Trinidad, January 27–28, 1962. See also Williams, Eric, Speech on Independence (Trinidad, 1962), p. 22Google Scholar.