The Historical Evolution of the Caribbean Basin

The countries of Central America and the insular Caribbean are extraordinarily diverse: in their political traditions, their external relations, in their cultures and in their social structures and ethnic compositions. The dichotomy in Central American history identified by James Dunkerley — that of unity and diversity — obtains all the more within the Caribbean Basin as a whole (Dunkerley 1988). The aim of this chapter is to identify the historical roots of the differences and similarities which we can perceive today, between Central America and the insular Caribbean on the one hand, that is between the different cultural universes which make up the countries of the Caribbean Basin which we are studying — Hispanic, Francophile and British — and, on the other, between the states themselves. History imposed a rigid separation for centuries within the region through the very different experiences of colonialism and the different forms of insertion into the international system. For this reason, in this chapter we deal for the most part with the colonial heritage and independence in the insular Caribbean and Central America separately. In time-scale, the chapter deals with the legacy of the past from the sixteenth century until the establishment of the framework of contemporary societies.