The Caribbean: Regional Unity in a Context of Diversity

Abstract

The diverse processes of colonization of the Caribbean territories have produced a cultural, ethnic and political heterogeneity and the development of multiple Caribbean subregional traditions: the English-speaking Caribbean, the Hispanic Caribbean, the Dutch Caribbean and the ‘continental Caribbean’. As a result, most Caribbean Basin countries have not developed political and economic relations beyond those subregional spaces to which they claim to belong. Some political circles in many countries of the region have even rejected the concept of a Caribbean Basin. The English-speaking islands, in particular, subscribed to quite a narrow conception of what should be considered ‘Caribbean’, comprising those countries with an important African heritage, historical experience linked to slavery and plantation, and a heritage of British parliamentary democracy. These countries are described as the ‘Commonwealth Caribbean’ or ‘West Indies’.