Caribbean

I

Introduction

Caribbean, archipelago in the northern part of the western hemisphere, separating the Caribbean Sea from the Atlantic Ocean. Christopher Columbus, the first European to visit the region during his search for a westward route to Asia, mistakenly named the islands of the archipelago “the Indies”; the region was subsequently generally known, particularly in the English-speaking world, as the West Indies to distinguish it from the East Indies, the name given to the Malay archipelago. The appellation “West Indies” today, however, is properly used only in specific contexts, such as the West Indies cricket team, the term “Caribbean” being used to describe the region.

The Caribbean region comprises three main island chains that extend in a roughly crescent shape from the eastern tip of the Yucatán Peninsula in Mexico and south-eastern Florida in the United States to the Venezuelan coast of South America. The Bahama Islands, in the north, form a south-easterly line. The Greater Antilles, comprising the islands of Cuba, Hispaniola, Jamaica, and Puerto Rico, lie in the centre. To the south-east, arching southwards from Puerto Rico and then westwards along the Venezuelan coast, are the Lesser Antilles, comprising the Leeward Islands and Windward Islands. Barbados, Trinidad, Tobago, and the Netherlands Antilles are often considered part of this third chain. The region has a land area of about 235,700 sq km (91,000 sq mi), and the total population (2000 estimate) is about 37.5 million.

II

Land and Resources

Most of the non-coral islands of the Caribbean are mountainous, projecting remnants of submerged ranges related to Central and South American mountain systems. Elevations of 2,130 to 2,440 m (7,000 to 8,000 ft) are common in the Greater Antilles; the highest point (3,098 m/10,164 ft) is Pico Duarte in the Cordillera Central of Hispaniola. The inner chain of the Lesser Antilles, part of a submerged volcanic ridge, consists mainly of volcanic cones. Many of these islands have sulphur and other mineral springs. The outer chain is composed largely of coral and uplifted limestone. Elevations in the Lesser Antilles rarely exceed 1,520 m (5,000 ft). The southernmost part of the archipelago, from Trinidad to Aruba, is geologically related to South American rock and mountain formations. The Bahamas and northern central Cuba, relatively flat limestone and coral formations, are geologically related to formations in Florida and the Yucatán Peninsula. Several deep ocean trenches lie close offshore and parallel to the islands of the Greater and Lesser Antilles, marking unstable crustal zones in which earthquakes may occur.

Except for part of the Bahamas chain, all the Caribbean islands lie within the Tropical Zone, but temperate climatic conditions exist in many mountainous regions; and weather conditions at lower elevations are modified by such oceanic influences as the trade winds. Two seasons are distinguishable: a relatively dry season, from November to May; and a wet season, from June to October. Hurricanes, formed in the Atlantic, may occur between July and October, causing large-scale damage to local infrastructure and economies when they sweep onshore.

III

Economy

Tourism is the economic mainstay of the region, as thousands of visitors, mostly from North America and Europe, seek to escape winter weather with a holiday in the Caribbean. The islands are famous for their palm-lined beaches, turquoise water filled with coral and tropical fish, and agreeable climate.

IV

Government

Politically the Caribbean region comprises 13 independent nations and a number of colonial dependencies, territories, and possessions. The Republic of Cuba, consisting of the island of Cuba and several off-lying islands, is the largest nation of the region. Haiti and the Dominican Republic, two other independent nations, occupy Hispaniola, the second-largest of the archipelago. Jamaica, Barbados, the Bahamas, Trinidad and Tobago, Dominica, Grenada, St Kitts and Nevis, St Lucia, St Vincent and the Grenadines, and Antigua and Barbuda are the other sovereign nations.

Sovereignty over nearly all the other islands of the region is distributed among the United States, France, the Netherlands, and the United Kingdom. Puerto Rico, fourth-largest island of the archipelago, is a commonwealth of the United States; and several of the Virgin Islands make up the Virgin Islands of the United States. The French Antilles include Martinique, Guadeloupe, and a number of small island dependencies of Guadeloupe. The Dutch possessions consist of Curaçao, Bonaire, Aruba, and smaller islands of the Netherlands Antilles. Venezuela holds about 70 Lesser Antilles islands. Dependencies of the United Kingdom are the Cayman Islands, Turks and Caicos Islands, and the British Virgin Islands.

Realizing the importance of solidarity and community, the sovereign nations formed the Caribbean Community and Common Market (CARICOM) in 1973 to address economic issues and to promote development in the Caribbean.