Legacy of British colonialism in the Caribbean - Essay Example

The British Colonial Legacy Scholars and historians alike often argue on whether a colonizer is detrimental to a colony’s progress or, worse, a negative development in a country’s history and culture. In this essay, we take the case of British colonial legacy in its Caribbean colonies and address how the old empire has influenced the timeline and the development of most of the Caribbean states. Our argument is based on the evidences that social, political and economic structure of the Caribbean colonial past is reflected on its modern affairs. The British West Indies The British colonization of the Caribbean began in the sixteenth century and has endured in some of the territories herein up to this day. Britain’s imperial possessions in the Caribbean were collectively called the British West Indies. These were comprised by Anguilla, Bermuda, British Virgin Islands, Cayman Islands, Montserrat and the Turks and Caicos Islands. The West Indies also included the sub-grouping called the Caribbean Anglophones composed of the now independent states such as Antigua and Barbuda, The Bahamas, Barbados, Dominica, Grenada, Jamaica, Saint Kitts and Nevis, Saint Lucia, Saint Vincent and the Grenadines, and Trinidad and Tobago. Prior to the British and European occupation, the Caribbean is home to some ancient agricultural civilizations. The oldest settlement, which was considered to be those of archaic age, dates back to around 7000 years. At the time of the European colonization, settlers are comprised of three Amerindian ethnic groups, namely: the Tainos, Carib and the Ciboney. The importance of the Caribbean among its European rulers is mainly due to the sugar industry, which has prospered in the islands. "Sugar was the foundation of the Golden Age of West Indian prosperity during the eighteenth century" (Tomich 14) Hence, the British colonization was marked with clashes for Caribbean control with other European powers such as Spain, France, Portugal and Holland with sugar and its by products, such as rum, at stake. Aside from this, the sugar plantation system introduced by the British led to further diversification of the Caribbean societies as labor force from as far as India, China and the East Indies came pouring in, contributing their own respective cultural stamp. One of the most notable political developments that came off the British occupation from the sixteenth to eighteenth century is the result of the shared historical and cultural experiences of the colonies. This made the British West Indies a group on its own, distinct in character, in the expanse of the Caribbean islands. Today, for instance, the region is a single team in international cricket competitions while schools such as the University of West Indies. Language and Literature Perhaps, the most potent expression of the British influence that could be seen in the Caribbean today is the English language. There is the Caribbean English, which is considered to be a dialect of the British English and is alternately called as Creole. Although, there is a great deal of variation, with some scholars arguing that Creole and English is like French to Latin1, the dialect was an offshoot of the British rule while English remains as the official language. The difference in some vocabularies of Creole from the Standard English, which are mostly African in origin, have acquired distinction for its literature as seen in the work of one of Caribbean’s foremost writers, Kamau Brathwaite. The significance of English is largely symbolic. For instance, Creole is usually viewed as something inferior to the Standard English. The reason is Standard English remains the official language and often viewed to be the language of the educated as well as the language of power. Some historians explain that the inferiority issue in this fact points to the history of the region in the infamous slave trade. This would be discussed later on. Cultural Heritage The long-standing occupation of the British also left a lot of unmistakable influence over the Caribbean’s culture. Besides language and literature, for instance, the British dent on the Caribbean architecture is highly evident. When one has the opportunity to roam around the older city quarters, say, in Barbados, one could discover a plethora of old establishments, buildings and houses in Georgian, Victorian, or Jacobean styles. The tradition of “great houses” in once wealthy sugar plantations also features conventional old English designs from quaint country houses to grand manors. Some of these buildings have survived violent earthquakes and are documented in the book, Architectural Heritage of the Caribbean by Andrew Gravette. We take special mention on how the length of the British occupation in the Caribbean has resulted to a population that is dominated largely by Protestant denominations, more specifically Anglican. It was said that if there two things that would set the Anglophone Caribbean apart from the rest of its neighbors it would be: one, the English language, while the other is the religious belief of its people. In the British Virgin Islands alone, around 86% of the population are Protestants. Anglicans, which dominate the populace in the Caribbean, strictly follow the doctrines of the Church of England. Political System Before we go on explaining the evolution of the political system and its impact on the Caribbean’s modern affairs, I would like to cite an interesting fact: Despite the tropical heat, it did not at all prevent the consecutive heads of the Trinidad and Tobago parliament from wearing their ceremonial wigs and gown from the old days up to this very moment.2 This seemingly trivial detail illustrates how the Caribbean political institutions and political systems were cast strictly in the British parliamentary mold. As with all the other British colonies throughout the world, the British policy towards the Caribbean is guided by the long-standing political culture committed to the “continuity theory” of constitutional law.3 Here, the British liberal thought made all the difference from among its peers. In this policy, the British objective in establishing a colonial system is hoped to produce legal and political that could survive even after the conquest. Windschuttle provided us with an interesting perspective: This reasoning made the British colonists virtuous in their own eyes. Their arguments were not merely abstract salves for their consciences; they had profound practical implications, especially in determining their attitude toward indigenous peoples. In America, it meant that they initially chose to settle on vacant land with the consent and, usually, the cooperation, of the local native population. When William Penn organized his colony of Pennsylvania in 1681, for example, he drew up a charter of concessions and conditions aimed primarily at securing the good relations he already had with the local Indians. Hence, the British regarded their settlements as peaceful exercises, mutually beneficial to both colonist and native. It has been said that productive governments rely on stable and functioning institutions. Politically, the British rule have successfully established efficient institutions which assured the modern Caribbean territories stable political systems which are historically more desirable than most in the Latin America. The stability provided a conducive atmosphere for an unimpeded economic progress during the British rule and on the succeeding timeline, albeit not as successfully further on. Indeed, the existing Caribbean political institutions and systems today are deeply British in nature - from the wig, as mentioned beforehand, to the intricate rituals similarly followed in the Westminster Hall and the political leanings of its politicians. Such devotion to these aspects of colonial influence is a proof that the system inherited is preferred and generally is seen as the better. Economic Impact The Spanish occupation of the Caribbean has often been compared to the British rule of its own territories. In assessing whether their conquests were successful or a failure in terms of development, particularly the economy and trade, historians and scholars do not hesitate, to tag the Spanish occupation of the Caribbean as ”misrule” whilst the British rule is painted in a somewhat rosy picture. Of course, this is not without any foundations. While in the outset, all colonial powers’ objective is all about imperial expansion, there was some deviation on the part of the British policy towards its colonies at the turn of the 17th century. Where Spain, for instance, never wavered in pursuing with the original rationale of imperial expropriation, Britain followed a more liberal approach. According to Windschuttle, the British attitude, taking from its political policy, enabled its colonies in the Caribbean to be sites of development. Where Spanish policy is geared towards exploiting the natural resources of its territories such as the extraction of precious metals, Britain invigorated trade, investment and economic enterprise. To cite a specific case: The grants made by the crown to settlers in Spanish America were known as encomiendas, or feudal titles to labor. This attitude was in marked contrast to the British concern with commercial rights to property, especially land. British culture legitimated the ownership of things, not people. (Windschuttle) The main concern of Britain in the Caribbean is unarguably to protect its business interests not the depletion of its natural resources to be funneled in the coffers of the London treasury. British capitals were poured to finance the establishment of an economic system that has become beneficial to both the colonizer and the colonies. Thus, the West Indies became “a booming set of islands where vast fortunes were made… By the late 1790s, the West Indies attracted four-fifths of British overseas capital investments and provided over one-eighth of the government’s £31.5 million total net revenue to the Treasury through various direct taxes and duties… These figures explain the tremendous numbers of naval and military forces deployed to protect these valuable Caribbean territories.” (Chartrand p. 3) The Caribbean and the Industrial Revolution Considering the amount of the British investments in the Caribbean, the territories naturally received an ample amount of capital investments and the export of modern advances that Industrial Britain has to offer. These included those of finance, transportation and manufacturing that Britain had developed at home. The British was able to inject many institutions and modernizations into the territories it controlled. “It provided the infrastructure of ports, roads, railways, and communications that allowed these regions access to the modern world, plus a legal system to ensure that the commerce thereby generated was orderly.” (Windschuttle) The Sugar Industry As mentioned beforehand, the sugar industry in the Caribbean was the most important commodity that made the islands an attractive territory for the Europeans. Due to its importance, the sugar industry influenced several aspects of the British and Caribbean relationship; the Caribbean economy; and, the socio-political landscape during that period and beyond. Firstly, as discussed earlier, the sugar industry was a productive enterprise. The end-result of this is that agriculture became the foundation of the English Caribbean economy while the plantation system was, in turn, institutionalized. Boxill et al. explained that “most attempts at conceptualization of the region give a central place to this institutional form in the understanding of the region’s character.” But while during the sixteenth to eighteenth century the agricultural economy and the plantation system of the British West Indies was a boon, in the later years, as international trade expanded and leaned closer and closer to globalization, underdevelopment became inevitable. The sugar industry and plantations proved to be no match to competitions like the newly developed farmlands in the North America. Also, according to Galenson’s account, one of the consequences that emerged out of the sugar cultivation was the monoculture, which have given birth to fundamental changes in the economy and the society of the early English West Indies. He cited that this occurred first in Barbados, which, in the early part of the British rule, dominated the sugar production in the Caribbean. As quoted by McDonald (p. 13), Richard Sheridan offered an explanation on the social costs of plantation production and its role in the Caribbean’s future underdevelopment: The plantation was at the vortex of dynamic forces – some creative and others destructive – which culminated in slave revolts, anti-slavery movements, and political and industrial revolutions in North America and Northern Europe. More than any other factor, the extension of plantations depended on slave or indentured labour which was tied to the land. So destructive to life and well being was this labour system in most part of the tropical world that insuperable political obstacles have been erected to bringing men and land together on plantation units. Plantation history thus goes far to explain the revolutionary impact of Western civilization and the revolt of non-Western peoples against Western ascendancy. Following the movements in international trade and the changes in market prices, the Caribbean finally was forced to introduce slave trading in order to maximize profit. “Among the elements that together constituted the sugar revolution, no other had as great an impact on virtually all the conditions of life in the region at the time or implications as far-reaching for its future as the growth of slavery.” (Galenson p. 7) The sugar industry finally bred the slave trade in the New World. Slave Trade Being one of the first European colonies in the New Hemisphere, the Caribbean was naturally one of the pioneers in the English American slave trade. The dramatic expansion of the transatlantic trade caused labor shortage and labor related problems such as workers strikes in the plantations. These forced the traders and businessmen to resort to slave trading which has become a major international trade in itself by late seventeenth century until nineteenth century. The records from the Royal African Company’s sales, for example, showed more than “74,000 slaves [sold] in the West Indies between its first deliveries in 1673 and the effective cessation of its transatlantic trading in 1725.” (Galenson xii) The slave trade, next to the sugar industry would then go on to influence the chain of events - economically and politically - that have occurred in the British West Indies. Likewise, it was a profitable industry operated by sophisticated traders. The slave trading was able to introduce its own auction system and it was even cited that an extensive network of credit financing was developed while institutional arrangements allowing risk sharing were allowed. 4 Foremost among the criticisms and questions of ethics, the slave trade was cited as one of those which tipped the scale on the whether Britain was the better colonizer for, indeed, it was documented as one of the most inhumane acts in the course of the Caribbean conquest. From its introduction to the time of emancipation, slavery has long since haunted the history of the British West Indies. The Caribbean people had to endure a long and hard struggle to remove the slavery stigma in their collective psyche. I would like to underscore the class system that was created and have influenced the modern Caribbean societies. “Politically considered, the population… maybe divided into three classes – the aristocracy, who are the planters; the middle class, composed alike of white and colored mechanics, and the lower orders, which are the black laborers.” (Sewel 37) A specific illustration of this system could be gleaned from modern-day politics, with the elite being elected to Legislature, to the class distinction made by the proper English language usage. Probably, the success of the British colonialism is due to the fact that in contrast to other colonial powers, its rule is relatively benign. Its political power did not mainly rely on military force. Its hegemony and supremacy on its territories and over its rival powers are achieved via cultural and economic means. When military strength was stretched too thin due to the span of the economic area to be covered, culture made up for it. In its territories, particularly the Caribbean, the British system of government, education and the English language was properly indentured. The British colonialism in the Caribbean has its share of atrocities. The slave trade, seizing territories, which are already occupied, military interventions - acts, which required moral contortions- were not absent. Those were the facts. However benign or beneficial a colonizer is, the damage is there. According to Albert Memmi “the colonial relationship. . . chained the colonizer and the colonized into an implacable dependence, molded their respective characters, and dictated their conduct.”  He illustrated this in what he called a “pyramid of petty tyrants” where participant on the hierarchy responds to social oppression from above by turning around and participating in the oppression of those below. Bibliography Boxill, Ian & Brown, Dennis. Political Economy of Fertility in the British West Indies 1891-1921. University Press of West Indies. Aug. 2000 Chartrand, Rene. British Forces in the West Indies 1792-1815. Osprey Publishing.1996. Coelho, Elizabeth. Adding English. Pippin Publishing Corp. 2003. Galenson, David. Traders, Planters and Slaves: Market Behavior in Early English America. Cambridge University Press. 2002 Gravette, Andrew. Architectural Heritage of the Caribbean: An A-Z of Historic Buildings. Signal Books. 2000 McDonald, R. West Indies Accounts. University of West Indies Press. 2000 Memmi, Albert. The Colonizer and the Colonized. Beacon Press. 1991. Mills, Therese, “Letter: Tea and race in the Caribbean,” 2004, BBC 31 Jul 2006 < http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/americas/4026749.stm> Sewel, William. The Ordeal of Free Labor in the British West Indies. Harper and Brothers. 1861 Tomich, Dale W. Slavery in the circuit of sugar: Martinique and the world economy 1830-1848. Baltimore: Johns Hopkins University Press. 1990. Windschuttle, Keith. “Rewriting the history of the British Empire.” 2003 The Sydney Line, 30 July 2006 Read More