"I do not think there has been anything in human history quite like the meeting of Africa, Asia, and Europe in this American archipelago we call the Caribbean. But it is so recent since we assumed responsibility for our own destiny, that the antagonistic weight of the past is felt as an inhibiting menace. And that is the most urgent task and the greatest intellectual challenge: How to control the burden of this history and incorporate it into our collective sense of the future..."1
History in the Caribbean is a microcosm of modern world history. In the 530 years since Christopher Columbus left the first indelible mark of European Imperialism on the region virtually every nation and culture, every ruler and politician, every seaman and every entrepreneur has somehow come to influence, or be influenced by the Caribbean. Its just that kind of place. Like a hurricane, it pulls people in and then won't let them go. The Caribbean Sea area occupies just over 1/2 of 1% of the surface2 of the planet but what a 1/2% it is, strategically placed between the Old World and the new, between the European and the indigenous, between North and South America and Africa too. If there was a calculation for influence per square kilometre, the Caribbean would certainly be a top contender.
At one time, "Guadeloupe, a tiny island in the French Caribbean was deemed more valuable than this great country of Canada", as highlighted in a speech by the then Prime Minister of Barbados, Mr. John Adams to the Empire Club, in 1978.3 Even the planet's air masses and weather systems will pass through - with undeniable force - carrying sand from Africa, catastrophic wind and rain to the United States or warm water and air to Europe. So, while it might be possible to change one's point of view, this does not alter the importance of the Caribbean both geographically and in recent history and why we are still drawn to know and understand this cauldron, this melting pot, this meeting place of human endeavour.
There has not likely been a more forceful suppression of human rights at any other time in human history than what took place during the European theft of human beings over a period of some 300 years. To put that in perspective in a Canadian way, if slavery had begun with Confederation, it would still be going on for another 150 years. Slave owners and sellers viewed slaves as livestock. Morality was not a variable in the profit calculation. And to think, the European man was not remorseful about committing these heinous crimes, only possibly so for having been taken to task for this unworthy behaviour. At the end of it, the European slave-owner passed laws to grant himself compensation for the 'loss of property'.
No slave was ever compensated for having been stolen and, in fact, many were beaten, imprisoned or murdered for their lack of respect for 'authority'. And yet, the Caribbean people have mostly overcome these daunting pretexts and are now capable of acting and operating in league with any people.
It should not be overlooked that it was only the toughest and the most resolute who survived to make homes and break ground on these shores. Both the coloniser and the colonised endured extreme hardship in the journey and in the years after arrival. Disease, conflict, hurricanes and other perils took a massive toll on human life. Those who carried on were hardy indeed. The fact that there was any economic output from these places is testimony to the people who sweated and toiled to make it happen.
Especially for the indigenous peoples who were overtaken by the European invaders and almost completely wiped out. But there are still enclaves where people descended from the original tribes may be found. While many will attest to the extinction of indigenous races, it is simply not the case but the divergence of myth v reality still persists in 'popular' culture.
This was a period of hyper-expansion and growth for European powers, among the fastest and the largest of all time. The Caribbean islands — although small in land area — yielded huge profits for their British, French, Spanish and Dutch occupiers, most of the remaining European powers either showing little interest or were too late.
And to those left behind, the colonized, to inherit the remains of the spoils, has been a region, not possessing a solid resource base but instead a rich, diverse cultural and human place that profits from the warmth of it's air, water and especially, people. And so do we all once we've been drawn in.
So, why does all this matter? What is the relevance to people in Canada, or America or Europe? The only answer to these questions is that any exploration of Caribbean history will reveal a complex web of impacts that inevitably touches everyone — every single one of us.
To understand human history, one is drawn to understand the Caribbean as well as the inverse too. To understand the Caribbean is the challenge of knowing what forces have brought the region to what it is today and to set foot in the place knowing what it means to be there. To understand current ways of thinking and to see what the Caribbean people see.
This is the cauldron of human history — ambition and endeavour, trial and error, conquest and domination as well as triumph and failure amid the breathtaking splendour of this place. Most days, this means a panoramic and comforting serenity that belies the violence and drudgery that form its recent past. Once it is part of you —it will never let you go.
Why Caribbean History Matters by Lillian Guerra, U Florida, 2014 (historians.org)
Notes:
The defining feature of the boiling house was the sequence of four or five cauldrons-called coppers for their preferred material-used to reduce and refine the sugar juice and to eliminate impurities. (Louis Nelson: Architecture and Empire in Jamaica, Yale University Press, 2016, pg 118 (Google Books))
[1] George Lamming, Coming, Coming, Coming Home: Conversations II, St Martin: House of Nehesi Publishers, 1995. Quoted in 'Caribbean integration: can cultural production succeed where politics and economics have failed? (Confessions of a Wayward Economist)' by Norman Girvan, 2012.
[2] The Caribbean Sea is 2,754,000 km2 out of the total 510,072,000 km2 of the Earth's surface. Even more striking is that the total land mass of islands in the Caribbean Sea is 236,675 km2 out of the total land mass on Earth of 148,939,063 km2 (less than 2/10ths of 1% or 0.00159%).
[3] http://speeches.empireclub.org/61659/data