Retro Raunch Revisit

MAY 31, 1962: The short-lived West Indies Federation dissolves. First formed in Jan 1958 to be a self-governing collective state which was also encouraged by the UK (as all the embodying nations were British Empire colonies), the geographically dispersed Caribbean political union included Trinidad & Tobago, Jamaica, Barbados, Dominica, the British Windward Islands (Grenada, St. Lucia, St. Vincent & the Grenadines), the British Leeward Islands (Antigua & Barbuda, Anguilla, Montserrat, St.Kitts-Nevis, the Virgin Islands), the Cayman Islands, and the Turks and Caicos Islands. Although not a part of the coalition, both British Honduras & British Guiana did engage as observers. From its then-dominion status basing itself on similarity to Canada's provinces and Australia's territories, the WIF collapsed after only 4yrs due to a lack of popular support and many internal & operational conflicts such as administrative feuds over governance, power-sharing divisions between bickering leaders, competitive nationalism from inter-island rivalry, restrictions on travel, taxation disputes, disagreements about the concentration/control of resources, and friction regarding constitutional challenges. While an attempt to propose a new Federation in Nov 1971 proved ineffective, most of the commonwealth countries by then had since gained full independence and were disinterested in a revival.