St. Kitts and Nevis (Federation of St. Kitts and Nevis)
The islands of St. Kitts (168 km2) and Nevis (93 km2) are located in the Lesser Antilles chain of islands in the eastern Caribbean. They are separated by a channel of just over three kilometres. The islands were inhabited first by the Sibonay who arrived
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St. Kitts and Nevis (Federation of St. Kitts and Nevis) A Federation with Rules for Secession Ann Griffiths
1 History and Development of Federalism The islands of St. Kitts (168 km2) and Nevis (93 km2) are located in the Lesser Antilles chain of islands in the eastern Caribbean. They are separated by a channel of just over three kilometres. The islands were inhabited first by the Sibonay who arrived approximately 2000 years ago from Central America. They were followed by the Arawak and then the Caribs who both came north from South America. The first European to record the presence of the islands was Christopher Columbus in November 1493. He named the islands San Cristobel (St. Christopher), after his patron saint, and Santa Maria de las Nieves (Nevis) because the island’s fog-covered mountains reminded him of the snowcapped peaks in Europe, although there are different accounts of this. The
A. Griffiths (*) Centre for the Study of Security and Development, Dalhousie University, Halifax, NS, Canada e-mail: [email protected] © Forum of Federations 2020 A. Griffiths et al. (eds.), The Forum of Federations Handbook of Federal Countries 2020, https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-42088-8_22
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Spanish claimed the islands, but they never settled on them, and in 1623, St. Christopher became the first British territory in the West Indies. Nevis was colonized by the British in 1628, and French settlers arrived around the same time. The two settler colonies made the native Caribs their common enemy, ensuring that the natives either were killed or fled the island. Until the 1713 Treaty of Utrecht when France gave up claims to Saint Christophe, there was intermittent fighting between the British and French settlers on the islands. After the French left, the colony officially became St. Christopher (shortened to St. Kitts). The Treaty of Versailles (1783) made the islands wholly British. Recognizing the importance of regional cooperation and unity, the British favoured governing their island colonies jointly so there is a history of federal or cooperative arrangements in the region. Beginning in 1671, St. Kitts and Nevis were joined with Antigua and Montserrat in the Leeward Caribbee Islands government which lasted until 1806 when they were split into two governmental units. In an attempt at federation, the Leeward Islands (consisting of Antigua, Montserrat and St. Kitts-Nevis- Anguilla) were made a single administrative unit in 1871. Under this arrangement the colonies shared a Governor and a Supreme Court (shared also with the Windward Islands) but had their own legislatures. This arrangement lasted until 1956 after which St. Kitts-Nevis-Anguilla became a separate colony. Britain continued to push for a larger federation of its colonies in the West Indies. In January 1958 the Federation of the West Indies came into existence after more than ten years of talks. The federation consisted of ten British colonies in the Caribbean—Barbados, Jamaica, the Leeward Islands (Antigua, Montserrat, St. Kitts-Ne
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