Part 2/10:
Historical Context: Colonization and Control
Before the Cold War arrived on the Caribbean shores, the region had been subjected to centuries of foreign control. By the 19th century, European powers including Britain, France, Spain, and the Netherlands had laid claim to various islands, extracting sugar, tobacco, and coffee from the land. The labor force that fueled this economy primarily consisted of enslaved Africans, and later, indentured workers from India. Although the abolition of slavery in the 1840s marked a pivotal point, the economic exploitation continued under colonial rulers, leading to long-standing socio-economic disparities.