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Brought to you from the forthcoming book by renowned historian
Dr. Lennox Honychurch.
Windward Islands (E)
The group of mountainous islands from Dominica to Grenada that forms the southern half of the Lesser Antilles. The Windward Islands were so described because they were thought to arch a bit further east out into the Atlantic Ocean facing the Trade Winds. North of Dominica the arc of islands curves more to the west and these have been designated as the Leeward Islands. The Windward Islands only refers to the English speaking islands as the French ones are excluded. Rather confusingly Dominica has been tossed from one group to the other at different times. From 1763 to 1770 the British governed it as one of the "Caribee Islands" made up of Tobago, Grenada, St.Vincent and Dominica (St. Lucia was French at the time) with its headquarters in St.Georges, Grenada. From 1770 to 1871 Dominica had its own separate colonial government, but then in 1871 it was declared a "Leeward Island" with its headquarters in St. John's, Antigua. In 1940 Dominica was placed back as a Windward Island with a Governor based in Grenada, until it got self governing Associated Statehood in 1967. However in such cases as the banana industry, cricket teams or radio, as in the Windward Islands Broadcasting Service (WIBS) and in tourism literature, Dominica has still been described as a Windward Island long after its political association was over. At the end of the 1980s/early 1990s there was a short-lived flurry of activity to create a political union and 'Constitutional Assemblies' were held with great fanfare in all of the Windward Islands. But this came to nothing.
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