Read complete books and articles on: West Indies History

West Indies - archipelago, between North and South America, curving c.2,500 mi (4,020 km) from Florida to the coast of Venezuela and separating the Caribbean Sea and the Gulf of Mexico from the Atlantic Ocean. The archipelago, sometimes called the Antilles, is divided into three groups: the Bahamas; the Greater Antilles ( Cuba, Jamaica, Haiti, the Dominican Republic, and Puerto Rico); and

The British dependent territories are the Cayman Islands, the Turks and Caicos Islands, Anguilla, Montserrat, and the British Virgin Islands. The Dutch possessions are Aruba and the Netherlands Antilles ( Curaçao, Bonaire, Saint Eustatius, Saba, and part of Saint Martin). The French overseas departments and administrative regions are Guadeloupe and its dependencies and Martinique. Puerto Rico is a self-governing commonwealth associated with the United States, and the Virgin Islands of the United States is a U.S. territory. Margarita belongs to Venezuela.

Many of the islands are mountainous, and some have partly active volcanoes. Hurricanes occur frequently, but the warm climate (tempered by northeast trade winds) and the clear tropical seas have made the West Indies a very popular resort area. Some 34 million people live on the islands, and the majority of inhabitants are of black African descent.

History

Before European settlement on the islands of the West Indies, they were inhabited by three different peoples: the Arawaks, the Caribs, and the Ciboney. These indigenous tribes were effectively wiped out by European colonists. Christopher Columbus was the first European to visit several of the islands (in 1492). In 1496 the first permanent European settlement was made by the Spanish on Hispaniola. By the middle 1600s the English, French, and Dutch had established settlements in the area, and in the following century there was constant warfare among the European colonial powers for control of the islands. Some islands flourished as trade centers and became targets for pirates. Large numbers of Africans were imported to provide slave labor for the sugarcane plantations that developed there in the 1600s.

Until the early 20th cent., the islands remained pawns of the imperialistic powers of Europe, mainly Spain, Great Britain, France, and the Netherlands. The United States entered the scene in the late 19th cent. and is the region's dominate economic influence. Spain lost its last possession in the West Indies after the Spanish-American War (1898), and most of the former British possessions gained independence in the 1960s and 70s (see West Indies Federation).

Bibliography

See E. E. Williams, From Columbus to Castro: The History of the Caribbean, 1492–1969 (1970); M. M. Horowitz, comp., Peoples and Cultures of the Caribbean: An Anthropological Reader (1971); J. H. Parry and P. M. Sherlock, A Short History of the West Indies (3d ed. 1971); R. C. West and J. P. Augelli, Middle America (2d ed. 1976); D. Watts, The West Indies: Patterns of Development, Culture, and Environmental Change since 1492 (1987).

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16 of the Best Books and Articles on: West Indies History

as selected by Questia librarians

1.

A Short History of the West Indies » Read Now
by A. P. Maingot, J. H. Parry, P. M. Sherlock. 338 pgs.

Collections: History, Entire Library
2.

French Pioneers in the West Indies, 1624-1664 » Read Now
by Nellis M. Crouse. 296 pgs.

Collections: History, Entire Library

...island in the West Indies. Circumstances...hero is known to history, therefore took...should rank in the history of American colonization...empire in the West Indies. Once...
3.

The Chinese in the West Indies, 1806-1995: A Documentary History » Read Now
by Walton Look Lai. 338 pgs.

Collections: History, Entire Library

...CHINESE IN THE WEST INDIES 1806-1995 A DOCUMENTARY HISTORY WALTON LOOK...Chinese in the West Indies: a documentary history, 1806-1995...Brereton Professor of History...
4.

The Shaping of the West Indian Church, 1492-1962 » Read Now
by Arthur Charles Dayfoot. 366 pgs.

Collections: Religious Studies, Entire Library

Dayfoot describes the development of Christian churches in the English-speaking Caribbean during the entire colonial era, from 1492 to the time of West Indian independence from Great Britain in 1962. He focuses especially on the leading church personalities and ordinary Christians who shaped the...
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Dayfoot describes the development of Christian churches in the English-speaking Caribbean during the entire colonial era, from 1492 to the time of West Indian independence from Great Britain in 1962. He focuses especially on the leading church personalities and ordinary Christians who shaped the history and explores all aspects of religious life from the disestablishment of the Church of England to the varieties of missions to the islands, to issues of tolerance and social justice - especially the clash between religion and the values of a slave society.
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5.

Puerto Rico and the Non Hispanic Caribbean: A Study in the Decline of Spanish Exclusivism » Read Now
by Arturo Morales-Carrion. 160 pgs.

Collections: History, Entire Library

...development of the West Indies. The choice...research on the history of Puerto...in the West Indies, 1493-1688...experimentation in early West Indian history, see:...
6.

The Lesser Antilles in the Age of European Expansion » Read Now
by Robert L. Paquette, Stanley L. Engerman. 390 pgs.

Collections: History, Entire Library

...History. 2. Indians of the West Indies-- Antilles, Lesser--History. 3. Slavery--Antilles...P. Maingot, A Short History of the West Indies , 4th ed. New York...writings...
7.

British Slavery and Its Abolition, 1823-1838 » Read Now
by William Law Mathieson. 322 pgs.

Collections: History, Entire Library
8.

Spirits, Blood, and Drums: The Orisha Religion in Trinidad » Read Now
by James T. Houk. 240 pgs.

Collections: Religious Studies, Entire Library

...formerly known as the British West Indies , it has an area of only about...kilometers 31 miles from east to west across the narrow "waist...next major stage of Trinidadian...
9.

Sugar and Slavery: An Economic History of the British West Indies, 1623-1775 » Read Now
by Hilary Beckles, Richard B. Sheridan. 529 pgs.

Collections: History, Entire Library

Sugar and Slaves presents a vivid portrait of English life in the Caribbean more than three centuries ago. Dunn examines sugar production techniques, the vicious character of the slave trade, the problems of adapting English ways to the tropics, and the appalling mortality rates for both blacks and...
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Sugar and Slaves presents a vivid portrait of English life in the Caribbean more than three centuries ago. Dunn examines sugar production techniques, the vicious character of the slave trade, the problems of adapting English ways to the tropics, and the appalling mortality rates for both blacks and whites that made these colonies the richest, but in human terms the least successful, in English America.
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10.

West Indies Accounts: Essays on the History of the British Caribbean and the Atlantic Economy » Read Now
by Roderick A. McDonald. 388 pgs.

Collections: History, Entire Library

This collection examines the history of the British Caribbean and the Atlantic economy from the seventeenth to the nineteenth century. The articles include analyses of British West Indian trade within the context of the Atlantic economy, the social consequences of the sugar plantation system under...
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This collection examines the history of the British Caribbean and the Atlantic economy from the seventeenth to the nineteenth century. The articles include analyses of British West Indian trade within the context of the Atlantic economy, the social consequences of the sugar plantation system under slavery, the domestic economy of the British Caribbean, and the transition from slavery to freedom in the British West Indies.
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11.

The Political Economy of Fertility in the British West Indies 1891-1921 » Read Now
by D. A. V. Brown. 133 pgs.

Collections: Entire Library
12.

Ambivalent Anti-Colonialism: The United States and the Genesis of West Indian Independence, 1940-1964 » Read Now
by Cary Fraser. 240 pgs.

Collections: History, Entire Library

Until recently, historians have defined the Commonwealth Caribbean territories by their relationship with Britian and have attributed little importance to American relations with these territories. Fraser provides a reinterpretation of U.S. policy toward the West Indies since 1940. He establishes...
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Until recently, historians have defined the Commonwealth Caribbean territories by their relationship with Britian and have attributed little importance to American relations with these territories. Fraser provides a reinterpretation of U.S. policy toward the West Indies since 1940. He establishes links between Afro-West Indian groups and African Americans who successfully influenced both American and British policy in the West Indies. Thus, he explores a little-understood and little-studied aspect of American policy toward Britain's disengagement from empire after 1945 and the way decolonization in the Caribbean helped to shape the pattern and strategy of the Anglo-American relationship from Roosevelt to Kennedy. The book will force a rethinking of American policy toward the West Indies since 1940, the impact of race on American foreign policy, and the historiography of inter-American relations.
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13.

The British West Indies » Read Now
by W. L. Burn. 196 pgs.

Collections: History, Entire Library
14.

V. S. Naipaul and the West Indies » Read Now
by Dolly Zulakha Hassan. 378 pgs.

Collections: Literature, Entire Library
15.

Political Parties of the Americas, 1980s to 1990s: Canada, Latin America, and the West Indies » Read Now
by Charles D. Ameringer. 700 pgs.

Collections: Entire Library

This major new reference surveys political parties of importance in the Americas since 1980, with the exclusion of the United States. This one-volume work has been fashioned both to update Robert J. Alexander's prize-winning two-volume set published in 1982, Political Parties of the Americas, and to...
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This major new reference surveys political parties of importance in the Americas since 1980, with the exclusion of the United States. This one-volume work has been fashioned both to update Robert J. Alexander's prize-winning two-volume set published in 1982, Political Parties of the Americas, and to serve as a new analysis of political development and political parties in 49 countries in the Western Hemisphere during the last decade. Ameringer, with contributions by a score of well-known scholars, covers parties of importance and current political trends. Includes chronology, cross-references, and a full index.
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16.

Bitter Rehearsal: British and American Planning for a Post-War West Indies » Read Now
by Charlie Whitham. 229 pgs.

Collections: History, Entire Library

Promoted as a means for rectifying the problems of a region of extreme need, the Anglo-American Caribbean Commission (AACC) only exposed and exacerbated the underlying antagonisms between Britain and the United States over the economic and political structure of the post-war world. This study places...
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Promoted as a means for rectifying the problems of a region of extreme need, the Anglo-American Caribbean Commission (AACC) only exposed and exacerbated the underlying antagonisms between Britain and the United States over the economic and political structure of the post-war world. This study places the AACC, formed in 1942, within the context of the Anglo-American wartime "special" relationship, and examines the political, economic, and security motives at the heart of this unique and little-known collaboration. It exposes the determination of the United States to use exigencies of war to impose its post-war plans upon Britain, and the tenacity of the British to defend even the smallest and least regarded of its possessions regardless of local and international opposition.
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