Order and Disorder between Dependence and Independence 1962–1969

Abstract

As the imperial tide ebbed, the remnants of empire acquired greater prominence in British politics simply because the territories in the Anglophone Caribbean were one of the handful of items left on the colonial agenda. After Trinidad and Jamaica became independent events in the region began to receive more attention at the highest levels of the British government. The introduction of proportional representation in British Guiana, the establishment of an Eastern Caribbean federation, the financial scandals on Grenada and the existence of a separatist movement on the tiny island of Anguilla were all subjects of discussion, and of varying degrees of controversy, amongst Cabinet ministers during the 1960s. Although many of the preconceptions regarding the region, including assumptions about West Indian profligacy and captiousness, were held in common by British elites, divisions did emerge between activists and fatalists. The latter group were conscious of the constant misfiring which had accompanied British policymaking in the region and contended that its leaders ought to be allowed to make their own mistakes rather than have miscalculations forced on them by Whitehall. The activists believed that the moment before decolonisation was completed should be the period of maximum metropolitan vigilance and that the process ought to be directed by the colonial power up to its completion.