British Guiana opted not to join when the Federation was formed due to its own ongoing political and internal struggles for independence from the UK, which had started in the 1950s.

Nearly three years after the formation of the Federation, this had not occurred; meanwhile, smaller British colonies, like Cyprus and Sierra Leone, had gained independence.

Provincial leaders, such as Norman Manley of Jamaica and Eric Williams, pushed for handing over of Chaguaramas to the Federation from the US.

However the US and the UK disagreed and the Federation's Prime Minister Grantley Adams stopped the provincial leaders from obtaining Chaguaramas.

[citation needed] As a result, the Bustamante-led Jamaica Labour Party (the local component of the West Indian DLP) successfully forced Manley to hold a referendum in September 1961 on political secession from the Federation.

Manley himself lost the subsequent island elections in April 1962, and Bustamante became the first Prime Minister of an independent Jamaica on 6 August 1962.

Later that December, Premier Errol Barrow of Barbados met with Williams, but failed to persuade him to keep Trinidad in the Federation.

[citation needed] On January 14, 1962, the People's National Movement (the Williams-led Trinidad component of the WIFLP) passed a resolution rejecting any further involvement with the Federation.

[citation needed] Without Trinidad and Jamaica, the remaining "Little Eight" attempted to salvage some form of a West Indian Federation, this time centred on Barbados.

Barbados now refused to shoulder the financial burden, and Antigua and Grenada began toying with the idea of merging with Jamaica and Trinidad, respectively.

The narrow coastal plains as well as historical trade is the main reason why almost all of the major settlements (cities and towns) of the Federation were located on the coast.

Many of the islands fall within the Main Development Region for tropical cyclone activity, with the exception of Trinidad (although it occasionally experiences low latitude hurricanes) and thus are at risk from potential wind and flood damage.

Britain classified the Federation as being part of its "Caribbean and North Atlantic Territories" region which was shared alongside other possessions such as Bermuda.

The Federation today is geographically considered to be part of the North American continent as all of its islands are in and around the Caribbean, even though Trinidad is located just offshore from South America and lies on the same continental shelf.

To the southeast lay the second largest island, Trinidad, followed by Barbados (in terms of population), located at the eastern extremity of the Federation.

As with all British colonies of the period, Queen Elizabeth II was the head of state, and The Crown was vested with the legislative authority for matters concerning executive affairs, defence and the financing of the Federation.

Also, complete freedom of movement within the Federation was not implemented, as the larger provinces were worried about mass migration from the smaller islands.

For example, Guyana rejected the West Indies Federation in part because it lacked sufficient protections for ethnic minorities.

These requests were not well received, as Jamaica and Trinidad and Tobago together already contributed 85 percent of the federal revenue, in roughly equal portions.

Unlike other Westminster systems with Prime Ministers, the West Indian Federation's PM could not dissolve Parliament.

To this end, Grenada was tentatively selected as the member state to host the capital but this was abandoned after protests from some of the parties involved, and at the London Conference the smaller islands were ruled out for consideration.

Both advocated maintaining and strengthening ties with the United Kingdom, United States, and Canada (countries with which the islands had strong cultural and economic links); encouraging and expanding tourism; working to bring British Guiana and British Honduras into the Federation and to obtain loans, financial aid, and technical assistance.

The WIFLP had advocated the encouragement of agriculture while the DLP had promised a climate favourable to both private industry and labour, development of human and economic resources.

The WIFLP also campaigned to establish a central bank for the extension of credit resources and advocated a democratic socialist society and full internal self-government for all the unit territories, whilst avoiding the issues of freedom of movement and a customs union.

The DLP said nothing about full internal self-government, attacked socialism, wished to avoid high taxation (via loans and technical aid) and emphasized West Indian unity, freedom of worship and speech, and encouragement of trade unions.

Similarly, Alexander Bustamante, the Jamaican founder of the DLP, also declined to contest the Federal election, leaving the party leadership to the Trinidadian Ashford Sinanan.

In the early years, several Caribbean leaders suggested that the West Indies Federation should investigate the possibility of becoming a Canadian province.

[31] During that period, many calypsos made reference to the Federation of the West Indies, first expressing hope, then frustration as the process collapsed.

All of these stamps used a common design depicting a map of the Caribbean and a portrait of Queen Elizabeth II, with an inscription reading "THE WEST INDIES / FEDERATION 1958" at the top and the name of the member state at the bottom.

Since 2004, the West Indies Federal Archives Centre has been located on the university's Cave Hill campus in Barbados.