The British colonial Governments used these geographical groupings for their administrative purposes. From 1871 to 1956, Antigua and Barbuda, Montserrat, St. Kitts– Nevis–Anguilla, the British Virgin Islands were placed in a Leeward Islands Federation under one Governor. During the same period, Grenada, Saint Lucia, St. Vincent and the Grenadines with Barbados (until 1885), Tobago (until 1889) and Dominica (from 1940) were in the Federal Colony of the Windward Islands with another Governor. The islands in each group are geographically close, most within eyesight of each other and the flying time between some islands is between 15 to 20 minutes. While their geography and political history aid in regional cooperation, the islands possess other characteristics that are even more supportive of regional integration.
PHYSICAL & FINANCIAL LIMITATIONS
First, they are all very small islands with limited physical and financial resources – mini states in the context of global affairs. In 1981, the smallest Member State of the OECS was Montserrat at 39 square miles/102 sq. km and the largest Dominica with 751 sq. km/305 sq. miles. Their combined land area was 2,892 square kilometres or 1,075 square miles which would still have made them (as one state) one of the smallest countries in the world, just slightly larger than Luxembourg (2,590 sq. km) and Samoa (2,830 sq. km). All the islands have very small populations, so small that together the estimated total population in 2018 of the seven founding Member States was 628,898. The addition of the Associate Members of Anguilla, the British Virgin Islands, Guadeloupe and Martinique just about doubles the population of the OECS, taking it to an estimated 2018 total of 1,448,952, (about the population of Trinidad and Page 18
Tobago) with a combined landmass of 5,882 sq. km/2,230 sq. miles. That would still make the OECS region comparable to the world’s smallest states. The combination of these tiny populations into one larger economic space of between 600,000 and 1.4 million through regional integration would be logical, particularly as their economies are similar – the majority are tourism-based while others are a mixture of tourism, agriculture and light manufacturing. The limitations of size and physical and financial resources are an incentive for the governments of these small islands to come together for the joint administration of important social and economic services for their citizens. In this way, each Government will reduce the high cost of providing these services on its own and each will ensure higher quality services for its people.
GEOGRAPHIC SIMILARITY
The second natural factor facilitating regional integration of the Eastern Caribbean States is that the islands are generally similar in terms of topography and not only in size – although there are differences between the Windward and the Leeward islands. The majority of the islands are volcanic in origin with active and dormant volcanoes in St. Vincent and the Grenadines, Martinique, Guadeloupe, Dominica, Saint Lucia, St. Kitts and Nevis and Montserrat. On 8 May 1902, the Mount Pelée volcano in Martinique erupted and killed approximately 30,000 people, and in July 1995 Montserrat lost its capital, Plymouth, to an eruption of the Soufriere Hills volcano.
