Britain's influence in the Caribbean, followed hot on the heels of Columbus' discovery and the Spain's growing interest in the area. From the early sixteenth century, British adventurers were risking life and limb for riches and glories in the area. Diseases, Piracy, wars and a hostile terrain made life uncomfortable for most Europeans in this area. However, this area did manage to provide some of the first successful businessmen of the Empire; although, in today's terms, in less than acceptable business activities.
Sugar provided the cash crop and economic rationale for the first serious colonising to take place. The corresponding demand for labour that this activity necessitated meant that the Caribbean would play a pivotal role in the notorious slave triangle from Britain to West Africa to the Americas. The legacy of this forced human migration is still overwhelmingly apparent to this day. The social structure that slavery demanded helped to make this region a particularly barbaric and violent section of the Empire and kept the colonisers in a supremely isolated and precarious social position.
Despite this negative backdrop, is the fact that the region consistently supplied some of the most loyal, colourful and illustrious of the Empire's peoples. The Caribbean is something of an enigma; but quite fascinating for it!