A Note on Political Sovereignty and Administration in the Caribbean

Abstract

T HE flags of fifteen nations fly over the mainlands and islands that encircle the Caribbean Sea. Under these flags are six independent republics, five republics nominally independent but at present to some extent under the protection or influence of the United States, three dependencies of the United States, and the colonies of three European nations. Here is fertile soil for the student of political and economic geography. Here are boundary disputes and territorial claims and counterclaims. Here is one of the two attempts of the negro to govern himself by a system developed by the peoples of Europe along with the evolution of their own peculiar mental and social make-up. Here are to be found all varieties of colonial government from the pure Crown Colony system to the French system of universal suffrage and parliamentary representation. Here are protectorates and zones of influence. Here, in place names, in the patois of the natives, in forms of government, and in legal codes, are still to be found traces of the struggle for trade supremacy among the maritime powers of western Europe which for two hundred years kept the political complexion of the Caribbean constantly changing and was finally ended only with the Treaties of Paris and London of 1814 and 1815. In preparing the synoptical index diagrams for the twelve Caribbean sheets of the American Geographical Society's Millionth Map of Hispanic America, it was desired to show the political sovereignty and the administrative groupings of the Caribbean islands. No map was found which showed the latter, and considerable research was necessary to compile one. The results were thought to be of general interest and have been compiled into the map presented in Figure I. The Panama Canal has made the Caribbean Sea one of the chief crossroads of international trade. The development of the fruitgrowing industry, the application of modern methods to the production of cane sugar, the discovery and exploitation of petroleum, the penetration of American sovereignty and influence with the consequent introduction of American capital and business methods, and the concerted effort of the British colonies to improve their trade relations with one another and with the other members of the British Empire promise to give to the islands and mainlands of the Caribbean an important place in commerce of their own right. 623