A Nation Divided: The Quest for Caribbean Integration

Abstract

Recognizing that the traditional five-state subregion of Central America departed from European colonialism as a federated entity, Ralph Lee Woodward subtitled his seminal history of Central America 'A Nation Divided.“ In his view, ”the social and economic history of the isthmus suggests that its peoples share considerably in their problems and circumstances, even though their political experience has been diverse. But it is also clear that their social and economic unity has been limited by their political disunity“ (Woodward 1985, vii). Following a period of colonial tutelage equal to that of Hispanic Central America, the Commonwealth Caribbean or English-speaking Caribbean also began to edge away from colonization as a federation of ten nations: Jamaica, Trinidad and Tobago, Barbados, Antigua, Dominica, Grenada, St. Kitts–Nevis–Anguilla, St. Lucia, St. Vincent, and Montserrat. Applying Woodward's criteria, these former British colonies in the West Indies appear to have an even stronger claim than Hispanic Central America to substantial past and future national integration. According to Jamaican-American historian Franklin Knight and theorist Gordon Lewis, this subregion demonstrates more cultural and physical commonalities than differences (Knight 1978, x–xi; G. Lewis 1983). Despite the frictions induced by negotiations for independence, substantial regional integration of the nation-states of the English-speaking Caribbean was achieved during the late 1960s and early 1970s. These efforts atrophied in the years prior to 1987, however, because of internal divisions and external pressures.