Online article ‘The NWIG@100’ in the New West Indian Guide / Nieuwe West-Indische Gids, by Rosemarijn Hoefte.

A century ago the political future of the Caribbean was uncertain. Autonomy or independence was not yet on the horizon for the remaining colonies, but a shift of colonial power relations seemed possible. After all, in 1917 Denmark had sold St. Croix, St. Thomas, and St. Jan/John to the new world power, the United States.1 This transaction had reverberations throughout the region. In an editorial in The Independent, a New York weekly magazine, Edwin E. Slosson put possible changes in sovereignty in the region squarely in a global perspective. In the aftermath of World War I, the maps of the world were being rearranged and in his view the Caribbean was part of this reshuffling. “The war has shown plainly what was beginning to be realized before, that the tropical American colonies of the European powers are in an unfortunate and untenable position and the question of what is to become of them has been much discussed”.

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