Talk:Trinidad and Tobago
I have to say, the idea that England has integral counties over in the Caribbean always seemed, to me, counter to the ideas of the IB Commonwealth. France is a centralizing country, with its overseas departements, but the British nations... their colonies seem to have a great deal of self-governance, and many of them are grouped into local federations that transcend mother-country lines (the NAL, Australasia, the Indo-British Union, South Africa before it broke up, the West Caribbean Province). How can an integral county of England also be part of a Province that is a federation of English, Kemrese, Scottish, and Irish islands? Benkarnell 20:36, 20 March 2009 (UTC)
- The Caribbean counties are an unusual situation indeed. I guess it largely falls to what people want as far as government is concerned. Some seek independence, some prefer colonyhood; I don't find it entirely strange that some would seek the perhaps radical solution of integrating with the motherland.
- Perhaps with the influx of both FK and NAL immigrants, the former felt some trepidation that the latter would eventually "take over" and seek admission to the NAL? I'm sure relations between the NAL and the FK were pretty sweet during this period, but that doesn't mean they didn't get along like a normal family of squabbling brothers. Perhaps the push towards countification was a reaction to or a preemptive strike against another push, that of seeking provincehood in the NAL?
- The idea of T&T being "part of" another Caribbean province will probably have to be scrubbed. As you say, it doesn't make a whole lot of sense to be both a county and part of a federation of semi-autonomous quasi-colonial statelike entities. Perhaps their membership is one of "geographical / cultural observership" as opposed to regular membership.
- The East Caribbean Province seems to be composed of a number of Scottish crown colonies, an Irish colony one English crown colony and two English counties (T&T and Barbadoes). The description doesn't really stipulate what the functions or raison d' etre of the "province" are. So that issue is at present open for speculation and identification. Perhaps in the early 20th century, the FK's own "Caribbean Plan" was to integrate those islands? Why the Scots lagged behind, we don't know, though Florid-Caribbea itself could have been part of the picture. It also strikes me as a possibility that the FK might have integrated the former colonies in an attempt to stave off the F-C's advances -- thinking sure they might move in on a colony, but surely not an integral territory? Of course, both England and the NAL learned better on that one! Elemtilas 12:22, 21 March 2009 (UTC)
Flags
Just sugestioning how the colonial flags of Trinidad island and Trinidad and Tobago colony could look like. I also made a flag for Tobago island, see on discussion in Tobago article.
Trinidad
Trinidad and Tobago
--Pedromoderno 10:33, 17 May 2012 (PDT)
