If the middle decades of the nineteenth century saw the Caribbean becoming relatively sufficient unto itself – turning away from traditional genetic and trade links that had tied the region to an Atlantic world but more specifically Africa and Europe – the decades after 1870 were marked by the growth of a much more clearly defined North American orientation. This new connection had three main sources. In the first place, the United States replaced the European nations as the hegemonic imperial power in the region. Secondly, the Caribbean developed increasingly strong economic links with the United States and, to a lesser extent, Canada in terms of trade, capital flows, and investment. Thirdly, it was in the period after 1870 that Caribbean people began, for the first time, to migrate out of the region in large numbers. Most common among the destinations of these new emigrants was the United States and its outliers. This newfound orientation towards North America laid the foundations for longer-term challenges to understandings of identity, nationality, and allegiance.

Looking northwards, rather than south towards the continental mainland or east to Africa and Europe, had precedents. North America had had close links with some of the Caribbean colonies – notably those of the English and the French – down to the Seven Years War and the American Revolution. These connections waned after 1783 and, in any case, had never weighed more heavily than the links the Caribbean had across the Atlantic with Africa and Europe.