Why west indies federation fail

The Federation however faced several problems. These included: the governance and administrative structures imposed by the British; disagreements among the territories over policies, particularly with respect to taxation and central planning; an unwillingness on the part of most Territorial Governments to give up power to the Federal Government; and the location of the Federal Capital.

The decisive development, which led to the demise of the Federation was the withdrawal of Jamaica — the largest member — after conducting a national referendum in on its continued participation in the arrangement. The results of the referendum showed majority support in favour of withdrawing from the Federation.

These members were appointed by the Governor General, after consulting the respective territorial governments. Two members represented each unit with only one from Montserrat. The House of Representatives had 45 total elected members — Jamaica had seventeen seats, Trinidad and Tobago ten seats, Barbados five seats, Montserrat one seat, and the remaining islands two seats each. However the government executive would be a Council of State, not a Cabinet.

It would be presided over by the Governor-General and consist of the Prime Minister and ten other officials.

The West Indies Federation had an unusually weak federal structure. For instance, its provinces were not contained in a single customs union. Also, complete freedom of movement within the Federation was not implemented, as the larger provinces were worried about mass migration from the smaller islands.

Nor could the federal government take its component states to task. The initial federal budget was quite small, making it dependent upon grants from the United Kingdom and from its member states. Most strikingly, Jamaica was geographically separated from the nearest other member of the Federation, Antigua and Barbuda, by a range of other islands. The more pronounced propinquity of some units in the eastern and southern Caribbean, if anything, emphasised the Jamaican position as an outlier, but also, the distance from Trinidad to Antigua and Barbuda did not facilitate easy administrative arrangements.

The result was that the union contemplated for the British colonies could not realistically have been a unitary State: distance recommended the federal structure. Some supporters of the West Indian Federation were also influenced by the desire to use federalism as a vehicle for national independence. More specifically, the period following World War II witnessed growing nationalism in Jamaica and in some of the other territories constituting the British West Indies.

As Norman Manley put the matter from as early as "I cannot imagine what we should be federating about if it is not to achieve the beginning of nationhood. In negotiations on the establishment of the Federation, this trend of thought persisted.

In this regard, it did not escape the attention of some Caribbean leaders that the British model of decolonisation had sometimes included relinquishing power not to unitary states, but rather to federal entities such as Australia and Canada. The federation was perceived as instrumental in other respects. Thus, it was argued that the federal arrangement would assist the individual territories to overcome the challenges of their small size. In some respects, this overlapped with the pro-independence perspective, for, arguably, Britain would be more inclined to grant independence to a larger, more viable, collective unit, than to smaller entities of limited national strength.

This perspective is reinforced by stated British positions which invariably presumed that federation would promote "economy and efficiency". Similarly, bearing in mind the economic challenges faced by the territorial units, there was scope for the view that federation, by prompting regional economic and social collaboration, could assist in raising living standards throughout the British Caribbean colonies.

Added to this, it was occasionally posited that closer union would strengthen labour unity in the region and create stronger bargaining power for the Caribbean entities as a whole in international negotiations. In a address at Woodford Square, Eric Williams put the matter of small size in its context:. No small number of factors have been put forward to explain the failure of the short-lived federal experiment. At the level of the political, there was room for the view that the Federation was part of a plan by the British Government to pass on responsibility for its smaller colonies to Jamaica and Trinidad and Tobago.

Whether or not this was the case, it remains true that Jamaica and Trinidad and Tobago had particular concerns about the nature and impact of the Federation. Barbados, on the other hand, anticipated that the federal union would naturally include free movement of labour across the various units. Given that all the territories within the Federation were underdeveloped, the impact of possible redistribution of wealth from some political units to others was a matter of continuing political concern.

Another set of political considerations related to the limited sense of West Indian nationality that prevailed within the Federation.

The distance between some of the Caribbean territories, as well as limits on the availability of efficient inter-island transportation, meant that there was little contact between individuals from Jamaica in the north and counterparts from other Caribbean territories.

As a result of historical factors as well, many Caribbean citizens tended, when travelling away from home, to gravitate towards Europe and North America, so that inter-island contact was quite restricted. This factor, it is true, was not as pronounced in the southern Caribbean where links between, for example, Grenada and Trinidad and Tobago have traditionally been strong.

Manley himself lost the subsequent island elections in April , and Bustamante became the first Prime Minister of an independent Jamaica on 6 August After Jamaica left, there was an attempt to salvage a new federation from the wreckage of the old. Much depended on Premier Williams of Trinidad and Tobago, who had stated previously that he wanted a "strong federation. The federation was dissolved on 31 May Negotiations on this new federation began in September ; however, they indicated that Trinidad would have to provide 75 to 80 percent of the new Federation's revenue.

Also, even though Trinidad would now represent 60 percent of the new Federation's population, the proposals under consideration would give it less than half of the seats in parliament. By November, Williams indicated that he was now in favour of the idea of a unitary state.

Failing that, he resolved to take Trinidad and Tobago into independence. In this, he was buoyed by his re-election as Trinidadian leader on 4 December Williams himself stated "one from ten leaves nought" — in other words, without Jamaica, no Federation was possible. Trinidad and Tobago became independent on 31 August However, these negotiations ultimately proved fruitless.

Without its two largest states, the Federation was doomed to financial insolvency. Barbados now refused to shoulder the financial burden, and Antigua and Grenada began toying with the idea of merging with Jamaica and Trinidad, respectively. The remaining "Little Eight" provinces once again became separate colonies supervised directly from London, most of which became independent later on, as follows:.

Montserrat remained an overseas territory of the United Kingdom. All three remained UK territories as well. The federation's currency was the West Indies dollar though Jamaica continued to use the pound , which was later succeeded by the East Caribbean dollar, the Barbadian dollar, and the Trinidad and Tobago dollar.

More recently a Caribbean Court of Justice has been established which would also fulfil the role of the original Supreme Court if all members accede to the court's appellate jurisdiction. Some see the West Indies cricket team as a legacy of the Federation, although the side was actually organised thirty years prior to the birth of the federation.

Another lasting regional fixture, officially created before the Federation, is the University of the West Indies.

During the Federation, the University pursued a policy of regional expansion beyond the main Jamaica campus. Two other campuses were established: one in Trinidad and Tobago established in , and one in Barbados, established a short time after the Federation dissolved in The Federation of the West Indies was not the first attempt at a British Caribbean federation nor would it be the last.

The history of the previous attempts at federations and unions, in part, explains the failure of the Federation. The initial federal attempts never went so far as to try to encompass all of the British West Indies BWI , but were more regional in scope.

However, the island2 did not actually federate until The association broke down in Repeatedly in the nineteenth century, Britain considered the advantages of a West Indian Federation, but for a variety of reasons, nothing constructive was done. In , a loose administrative federation was imposed on the Leeward Islands, which merged into the larger experiment in A similar attempt was made among the Windward Islands of Grenada; St. Lucia and St. Vincent after , but it was short-lived.

Site Map. Snapshot of the West Indies Federation. Established 3 January ; Disestablished 31 May Map of the territories of the West Indies Federation. Office Holder. The Hon. Minister of Natural Resources and Agriculture. Senator the Hon. Parliamentary Secretary in the Ministry of Finance.

Number of Seats. House of Representatives. Jamaica incl. Frederick R. Ernest W. Sydney B. Clement T.