ABSTRACT
Caribbean history is rife with graft and corruption. Graft and corruption permeated the political and economic institutions of the sixteenth through early twentieth century colonial Caribbean. Early twentieth century U.S. interventions in several of the Caribbean's former Spanish and French colonies fared poorly in arresting this legacy of Caribbean corruption, despite U.S. attempts to bring good governance to these politically and financially unstable independent states. Reviewing the record of Caribbean colonialism and U.S. interventions is important because contemporary Caribbean political and economic institutions took root during this first 450 plus years of modern Caribbean history. This chapter reviews the role of political corruption in the development of Caribbean political and economic institutions from 1492 to 1950. It is a first step in understanding how colonialism and U.S. interventions may affect modern day levels of Caribbean political corruption. This chapter focuses closely on the evolution of the concept of political corruption in the Caribbean and how governing elite did little to separate their public office duties from their private interests.
