Europe in the Caribbean, Part II: The Monarch of the West Indies
Harold Kurtz traces colonial influence from the days of Cromwell, to those of Napoleon.
The king of France pursues his interests in the Indies very high,’ stated the Governor of Barbados, Lord Willoughby of Parham, in 1664, ‘and backs it with power of shipping and men. In fine, the dispute will be whether the King of England or of France shall be the Monarch of the West Indies, for the King of Spain cannot hold it long.’ Spanish predominance in the Caribbean based, as we saw in the first article, on an elaborate system of fortified and garrisoned harbour towns as assembly and refreshing points for the flotas of his Catholic Majesty, indeed showed signs of cracking as successive generations of Spanish governors and Admirals in armour unbendingly applied the rules first laid down by the energetic and visionary Ménendéz de Avilés in the 1560s and’70s.
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