ABSTRACT
This chapter begins with an historical overview of US-Caribbean relations in the twentieth century as well as of previous regional development policies initiated both by the United States and by Caribbean governments. The Spanish American War of 1898 heralded a new era in the Caribbean Basin, with the United States emerging from the war as unquestionably a major power in the region. The standard of living in the region remained notoriously low, with the per capita consumption of Cuba, for example—the pearl of the Caribbean—less than one-fifth of the level of the United States. In the British Caribbean, the struggles of the 1930s became the basis for a change in British policy, which came to support moves toward greater self-government in the region, leading to independence in subsequent decades. Caribbean migration to the United States became significant in the decade of the 1940s, accelerating in the late 1960s.
