Cuba has managed to build a trade relationship with socialist Venezuela by exchanging security and medical services for low cost fuel. Once a hotbed of struggle for the European powers, the Caribbean is now a bunch of isolated mini-states, many with struggling economies.
Few regions on the planet have declined in strategic relevance as dramatically as the Caribbean. Over the course of 400 years, the Caribbean Basin evolved from a key area of competition for the European powers to a geopolitically uneventful space dominated by the United States. Much like Latin America, the region is a collection of states that developed separately from one another. Divided by the sea, as well as language and cultural barriers left by European authorities, each country created its own economy and political system. And now many of these isolated mini-states face economic challenges posed by their small size and limited economic options. Four Centuries of History An understanding of the Caribbean's present condition requires an understanding of its history. In the decades after Christopher Columbus' landing in the New World, the importance of the region to the European powers grew dramatically.
