Items18The creator’s order
  1. 1Alexander BustamanteAlexander BustamanteBorn 24 Feb 1884Bustamante rose through the 1938 labour rebellion in Jamaica, founded the Bustamante Industrial Trade Union and its party, the JLP, and won the first universal-suffrage election in 1944. His union-party model, mirrored by his cousin Norman Manley's PNP, shaped Jamaica's two-party system and its…0i
  2. 2Norman ManleyNorman ManleyBorn 4 Jul 1893A barrister who founded the People's National Party in 1938, Manley pressed for self-government and backed the West Indies Federation. He called the 1961 referendum on staying in it and lost, a choice that ended the federation and shows how hard regional union was for small electorates.0i
  3. 3Grantley Herbert AdamsGrantley Herbert AdamsAdams built the Barbados Labour Party and Barbados Workers' Union, won adult suffrage for the island in 1951 and became the only prime minister of the West Indies Federation from 1958 to 1962. The federation's collapse made him a study in the limits of a union without its own revenue.0i
  4. 4Luis Muñoz MarínLuis Muñoz MarínBorn 18 Feb 1898Puerto Rico's first elected governor, from 1949, designed the 1952 Commonwealth status, a self-governing arrangement inside the United States, and ran Operation Bootstrap industrialisation. Supporters credit large gains in schooling and health; critics say the status left sovereignty unresolved and…0i
  5. 5Aimé CésaireAimé CésaireBorn 26 Jun 1913A different route out of colonial rule: the poet of Négritude, as mayor of Fort-de-France and deputy, sponsored the 1946 law that made Martinique and Guadeloupe French departments with French public services. He later regretted how little autonomy it brought and campaigned for more self-government.0i
  6. 6Eric WilliamsEric WilliamsBorn 25 Sept 1911The historian of Capitalism and Slavery led Trinidad and Tobago from 1956 to 1981, opening free secondary education, nationalising oil assets and coining "one from ten leaves nought" when Jamaica left the federation. His 1970 Black Power crisis and long one-party dominance are the counterweight.0i
  7. 7Fidel CastroFidel CastroBorn 13 Aug 1926Castro's Cuba is unavoidable in any account of Caribbean sovereignty: the 1961 literacy campaign and a universal health system with doctors later sent across the region, set against a one-party state, political prisoners and no competitive elections. His career is the sharpest test of the…0i
  8. 8Juan Bosch (politician)Juan Bosch (politician)Born 30 Jun 1909The writer won the Dominican Republic's first free election after Trujillo, in December 1962, and gave it a liberal 1963 constitution with land and labour rights. He was overthrown within seven months, and the 1965 uprising to restore constitutional rule ended in US military intervention.0i
  9. 9Errol BarrowErrol BarrowBorn 21 Jan 1920Barbados's first prime minister introduced free secondary and university education and national insurance, led the island to independence in 1966 and was a founder of CARIFTA, forerunner of CARICOM. His "friends of all, satellites of none" line still guides Barbadian diplomacy.0i
  10. 10Cheddi JaganCheddi JaganBorn 22 Mar 1918Jagan's elected government in British Guiana was removed by Britain within months in 1953, and US and British pressure helped change the electoral system before independence to keep him out. Returned in Guyana's first free election in decades, in 1992, he shows how Cold War outside interference…0i