What makes up the indies

The most easterly island of the Greater Antilles is the island of Puerto Rico. Three-fourths of the island consists of the mountains and hills of the Central Cordillera. This area is surrounded by coastal plains. The rivers of Puerto Rico are narrow and unnavigable by boat, but they have proven to be a good source of hydroelectric power. Beyond Puerto Rico, to the east, lie the Lesser Antilles. The Lesser Antilles stretch south, all the way to the northern shores of South America.

There are actually two groups of islands in the Lesser Antilles. The northern group is called the Leeward Islands, which stretch from the island of Anguilla in the north to the island of Montserrat in the south. These islands are in the shape of an arc and were formed by the meeting of the North American and Caribbean tectonic plates. The southern group of the Lesser Antilles is known as the Windward Islands, which are located at the foot of the Caribbean Sea.

These islands are generally mountainous and volcanic in origin. Some of the Windward Islands, such as Martinique , still have active volcanoes. The island of St. Lucia even has a volcano that you can drive through.

The island of Trinidad is the largest and southernmost island of the Windward Islands and the Lesser Antilles in general. At its nearest point, it is just 11 km from the coast of the South American country of Venezuela. Archeological evidence suggests that the West Indies were settled, at least partially, as long ago as BCE, with Cuba, Hispaniola and Trinidad bearing signs of having been inhabited as long ago as BCE.

While doing so, they enslaved much of the Indigenous population. Eventually, the Indigenous people of the West Indies were driven to the brink of extinction , not just by slavery and other acts of genocide perpetrated by the Spaniards, but also by diseases brought to the islands from Europe for which they had no immunity.

The issue of direct taxation was particularly controversial. The Federation was not permitted to levy impose income tax for at least the first five years of its life. Added to this, were the greatly differing positions among the Territories with respect to how other federal taxes should be levied. In addition, the Federation began quickly to seek to establish federal institutions and supporting structures.

Vincent, and the Grenadines, Dominica , and St. All of these island countries are popular tourist destinations because of their beautiful beaches, crystal blue water, tropical forests, and other natural features. You may have heard of the Bermuda Triangle — one of its three points is Bermuda. Suriname and Guyana are countries on the mainland of South America rather than islands; some people consider them also to be countries in the West Indies.

The distribution of seats was in relation to the size of the territories. In order that there would be continuous representation for Montserrat, the electors chose an alternate member who would be entitled to sit when the substantive member was absent through illness or with leave of the Federal Legislature.

Two Federation-wide parties were organised as confederations of local political parties. The platforms for the two major national parties were similar in many respects. Both advocated maintaining and strengthening ties with the United Kingdom, United States, and Canada countries with which the islands had strong cultural and economic links ; encouraging and expanding tourism; working to bring British Guiana and British Honduras into the Federation and to obtain loans, financial aid, and technical assistance.

Despite these similarities, there were differences. The WIFLP had advocated the encouragement of agriculture while the DLP had promised a climate favourable to both private industry and labour, development of human and economic resources. The WIFLP also campaigned to establish a central bank for the extension of credit resources and advocated a democratic socialist society and full internal self-government for all the unit territories, whilst avoiding the issues of freedom of movement and a customs union.

The DLP said nothing about full internal self-government, attacked socialism, wished to avoid high taxation via loans and technical aid and emphasized West Indian unity, freedom of worship and speech, and encouragement of trade unions. Federal elections were held on 25 March Preparation for the election began in Under these, the local legislation was adapted and modified to meet the needs of the Federal General Election.

The Senate was appointed in April , shortly before the opening of Parliament. There were two women Senators - Mrs. Bertha Higgins of Antigua and Barbuda and Mrs. Margurite Wyke of Trinidad and Tobago. The Federal Supreme Court. There was an executive Judicial Service Commission for the appointment of federal judges other than the Chief Justice and certain officers of the Supreme Court.

Three Member States were proposed for capital city of the Federation. These were: Jamaica, Barbados and Trinidad and Tobago; although earlier in the federal negotiations the general opinion had been that the capital should be one of the smaller islands so that the capital would be in a neutral position to the larger territories and it would be able to inject some buoyancy into one of the then poorer economies.

To this end, Grenada was originally "tentatively" selected as the member state to host the capital, but this was abandoned after protests from some of the parties involved and at the London Conference, the smaller islands were ruled out for consideration.

Within Trinidad and Tobago, the first proposed site was Chaguaramas, a few miles west of Port of Spain, Trinidad and Tobago, but the site was part of a United States naval base. In practice, Port of Spain served as the de facto federal capital for the duration of the Federation's existence. The federation held all the trappings of nationhood, with a federal flag and coat of arms, parliament, civil service and judiciary.

During its brief existence — , a number of fundamental issues were debated with a view to strengthening the Federation. The issue of direct taxation was particularly controversial. The Federation was not permitted to levy impose income tax for at least the first five years of its life.

Added to this, were the greatly differing positions among the Territories with respect to how other federal taxes should be levied. In addition, the Federation began quickly to seek to establish federal institutions and supporting structures.

It created a federal civil service; established the West Indies Shipping Service in to operate two multipurpose ships — the Federal Maple and the Federal Palm - donated to it by the Government of Canada.

Cooperation in tertiary education was consolidated and expanded during this period. The West Indian Meteorological Services was established. These new regional organizations joined others already in existence, such as the Caribbean Union of Teachers, established in ; the Associated Chambers of Commerce, organized in ; and the Caribbean Labour Congress, inaugurated in 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; unwillingness on the part of most Territorial Governments to give up power to the Federal Government; and the location of the Federal Capital.

The West Indies Federation had an unusually weak federal structure. For instance, its provinces were not contained in a single customs union. Thus, each province functioned as a separate economy, complete with tariffs, largely because the smaller provinces were afraid of being overwhelmed by the large islands' economies. In addition, 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, limiting the federal government's ability to use its financial largesse as a carrot. It was dependent upon grants from the United Kingdom and from its member states. The provincial budgets of Jamaica and Trinidad and Tobago were both larger than the federal budget.

This led to repeated requests for those states to provide greater financing to the federal government. These requests were not well received, as Jamaica and Trinidad and Tobago together already contributed 85 percent of the federal revenue, in roughly equal portions.

Furthermore, the office of the Prime Minister was a weak one. Many reasons have been proposed to explain the demise of the federation. These include the lack of local popular support; competing insular nationalism; the weakness of the Federal government; prohibitions on Federal taxation and freedom of movement; and inadequacies in the federal constitution.

In addition, there were fundamental changes made to the constitution very early in its existence; political feuds between the influential leaders; the decision of the three most influential politicians not to contest Federal elections; friction between these leaders and the Federal government; and the overwhelming concentration of population and resources in the two largest units.