ABSTRACT
This chapter presents the history and contemporary features of Caribbean development and industrialisation. The account is divided into eight sections. First, we review the broad patterns of social and economic development that characterise the region. Second, we offer a brief tour of the first four centuries of Caribbean development, aiming to show how the Caribbean was from the outset of colonialism a globalised region, dependent on and shaped by outside interests and agendas. Third, we note the Caribbean’s principal natural resource endowments. Fourth, we present the region’s two main industrial development models from the mid-twentieth century (industrialisation by invitation and Operation Bootstrap) and suggest how both perpetuated the region’s historical reliance on outside powers. Fifth, we briefly review radical Caribbean versions of development theory and note how adherents attempted to influence state policy. Sixth, we describe the connections between foreign debt, neo-liberal reforms and export-oriented manufacturing within development policies since the 1980s. Seventh, we review the results of Caribbean experiments with socialist development. Finally, we conclude the chapter with a discussion of the region’s ongoing trade dependence, particularly in relation to the United States.
