From 1500 to 1850 the Americas flowed wealth through the Caribbean to Spain. England's privateers took a slice of this and invested it in weakening Spain. Then from 1600 England, and its French and Dutch friends, made their own riches through agricultural products grown using slave labor. The humanitarian laws outlawing the slave trade and abolishing slavery, stopped the Caribbean wealth flow to Europe. The paradox is that the colonialism that built imperial empires had hollowed out Caribbean wealth. When European colonialism left so did the Caribbean economy. For the past 200 years it has been the hopeful resilience of Caribbeans that has kept them looking for a solution to the paradox. Along the way they have given us a culture that we should reflect on and enjoy.