The federation, also known as the British Caribbean Federation, consisted of Antigua (with Barbuda), Barbados, Cayman Islands, Dominica, Grenada, Jamaica, Montserrat, St. Christopher-Nevis-Anguilla, St. Lucia, St. Vincent, Trinidad and Tobago, and Turks & Caicos Islands.

The federation was formed on 3 January 1958, and was formally dissolved on 31 May 1962.

The governor-general was constitutionally required to take advice from the prime minister of the West Indies Federation, but was by far the more powerful and prestigious of the two positions, containing almost all executive authority within the government and containing powers far beyond that of governors-general in the Dominions.

[1] ^These three form the SSS islands that with the ABC islands comprise the Dutch Caribbean, of which *the BES islands are not direct Kingdom constituents but subsumed with the country of the Netherlands.

†Physiographically, these continental islands are not part of the volcanic Windward Islands arc, although sometimes grouped with them culturally and politically.