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History: Discovered and first explored by
Christopher Columbus, and was named after the Carib, a warlike tribe of cannibalistic
Indians that inhabited some of the Lesser Antilles at the time of the
European
conquest. The Caribbean a vast volcanic mountain chain lies along the floor of
the Caribbean Sea.
The tops of some of the mountains extend beyond the water to form many of the
islands of the region. Other islands are cays (pronounced keez), low-lying coral
islands, formed over thousands of years from the accumulation the skeletal
remains of tiny sea animals.
The islands of the Caribbean
Sea
are divided into three main groups-the Bahamas, the Greater
Antilles, and the
Lesser Antilles. The Bahamas is an archipelago, or a group of 700 islands north
of the Caribbean Sea. People inhabit only about thirty of the Bahamian islands.
South of the Bahamas are the largest islands of the Caribbean, called the
Greater Antilles. The Greater Antilles include Cuba, Jamaica, Puerto Rico, and
Hispañola. The largest islands of the Greater Antilles have rugged mountains
and lush, thick rain forests. Hispañola is home to two nations: Haiti and the
Dominican Republic. Most of the rest of the Caribbean islands form an arc that
stretches from Puerto Rico to Trinidad and Tobago and the coast of South America
(Guyana and Venezuela). These islands are known as the Lesser Antilles.
The
Caribbean sea: Caribbean
Sea, arm of the Atlantic Ocean, partially enclosed on the north and east by the
islands of the West Indies, and bounded on the south by South America and
Panama, and on the west by Central America. The name of the sea is derived from
the Carib people, who inhabited the area when Spanish explorers arrived there in
the 15th century. The Caribbean is approximately 2415 km (approximately 1500 mi)
long east and west and between about 640 and 1450 km (about 400 and 900 mi)
wide. It has an area of about 1,942,500 sq km (about 750,000 sq mi). At the
northwestern extremity it is connected with the Gulf of Mexico by the Yucatán
Channel, a passage about 193 km (about 120 mi) wide between Cuba and the
Yucatán Peninsula. The Windward Passage between Cuba and Haiti is a major
shipping route between the United States and the Panama Canal. Many gulfs and
bays indent the coastline of South America, Guyana and notably the Gulf of Venezuela, which
carries tidal waters to Lake Maracaibo in Venezuela. With a few exceptions the
entire Caribbean Basin is more than 1830 m (more than 6000 ft) deep. Large areas
of the sea exceed 3660 m (12,000 ft) in depth; the greatest depth measured thus
far is Cayman Trench (7535 m/24,720 ft) between Jamaica and Cayman Islands.
Navigation is open and clear, making the Caribbean a major trade route for Latin
American countries. The main oceanic current in the Caribbean Sea is an
extension of the North Equatorial and South Equatorial currents, which enter the
sea at the southeastern extremity and flow in a generally northwestern
direction. A popular resort area, the Caribbean Sea is noted for its mild
tropical climate.
Caribbean
Culture: A diverse and complex blend
of many cultures. Throughout the colonial period in its aftermath, Caribbean
peoples have struggled and fought to maintain ties with their ancestral links
while creating something entirely new and different, wherever you go in the
Caribbean, you will find the old and the new - indigenous forms melding with the
European and African influences, Asian and Middle Eastern components
adding their components adding their impression, and then new forms which can
not themselves necessarily be traced to any other origin than that of Caribbean.
The twentieth-century migration
of Caribbean peoples north wards has produced yet another form of Caribbean
culture, as Europeans and North Americans communities interact with
Caribbean people.
The most notable example of this is the preponderance of Carnival-type festivals
held in a growing number of metropolitan cities around the world such as New
York
/ Toronto / England and many others.
Speaking
the Lingo: Arising first during the
period of slavery, Creole languages were a result of the forced migration of
African peoples to work on the European owned plantations throughout the region.
Simply put, a Creole, or patois language is a combination of African syntax
(sentence structure) with a European lexicon (words). It arose out of a need for
the slaves, with their knowledge of African languages, to communicate in a
language closer to that of their overseers. The ensuing combinations of French
and African produced the French Creole, spoken (with national variations) in
Haiti, Martinique, Guadeloupe, St. Lucia, Dominica and French Guyana. In the
Dutch-influenced islands, the combination of Dutch, Portuguese, English and
African resulted in Papiamento. And in Jamaica, Patwa.
These
various Creoles have been spoken by the majority of peoples in the Caribbean for
over two hundred years. However, because historically Creole was spoken mainly
by a group of people who had been denied educational opportunities, it became
associated with the poor and laboring classes, and often families would forbid
their children from learning or speaking it, encouraging them instead to become
proficient in the dominant European language alone.
This has changed in recent decades, with growing numbers of 'nationalist'
movements recognizing the cultural importance of Creole, its rich expressive
linguistic potentials, and its place in the forging of national identity. Have a good
Lime!!!
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