Did
You Know?
The term Indies, or Ind, was first used in the 1400's. Columbus thought he was finding a short route to the rich Indies when he landed in America. He therefore called the islands the Caribbean Indies. Later, these islands were named the West Indies and the Pacific islands were called the East Indies, in order to distinguish the two
groups
The West Indies
are an island chain that divides the Caribbean Sea from the rest of the Atlantic Ocean. The islands stretch about 2,000 miles (3,200 kilometers) from near southern Florida to Venezuela's northern coast.
Three main island groups make up the
West Indies: An Island Carnival
. They are (1) the
Bahamas in the north, (2) the Greater Antilles near the center, and (3) the
Lesser Antilles in the southeast. The Bahamas consist of about 3,000 small islands and reefs. The Greater Antilles include the large islands of Cuba, Jamaica, Hispaniola, and Puerto Rico. Politically, Hispaniola is divided into the Dominican Republic and Haiti. The Lesser Antilles are smaller islands southeast of Puerto Rico. They are divided into two groups, the
Leeward Islands and the
Windward Islands. All the West Indian islands except the Bahamas are sometimes called the Antilles. The warm sunny climate, beautiful beaches, and tropical scenery of the West Indies attract large numbers of tourists.
The first inhabitants of the West Indies were American Indians. In 1492,
Christopher Columbus became the first European to reach the islands, when he landed on an island believed to be present-day San Salvador in the Bahamas. He called them the Indies because he believed they were the East Indies islands of Asia. The islands were later given the name West Indies to distinguish them from the Asian islands. After Columbus visited the region, various European countries gained control of West Indian islands. Today, most of the islands make up, or form part of, independent nations. The rest are associated with Britain, France, the Netherlands, or the United States. For lists of the independent nations and the other political units of the West Indies, see the tables in this article.
People: Population and ancestry. The West Indies have a population of about 36 million. About a third of the people live on Cuba, the largest of the West Indian islands. Some West Indian islands are among the world's most densely populated places.
A majority of the people of the West Indies are descendants of black Africans who were brought to the islands as slaves to work on sugar cane plantations. Most of the rest are of mixed black and European ancestry, or have British, Dutch, French, Portuguese, or Spanish ancestry. Some people are descended from farmworkers, mainly East Indians and Chinese, who arrived in the 1800's, after slavery was abolished. The area's original Indian population has died out, except for a small group of Carib Indians on Dominica.
Languages. The many languages and dialects spoken in the West Indies reflect the cultural heritage of the European groups that colonized the area. For example, most of the people of Cuba, the Dominican Republic, and Puerto Rico speak Spanish. Dutch is the chief language of Aruba and the Netherlands Antilles. French is the official language of Haiti, Guadeloupe, and Martinique. English is the main language of the rest of the West Indies. Many West Indians use a patois (dialect) that mixes African languages and mainly English or French. A dialect called Papiamento, which is a combination of chiefly Dutch, English, Portuguese, and Spanish, is widely used in Aruba and the Netherlands Antilles.
Way of life. About 60 percent of the people of the West Indies live in urban areas, and about 40 percent live in rural areas. Most cities and towns in the West Indies lie along the coasts. These modern urban centers include such large cities as Havana, Cuba; San Juan, Puerto Rico; and Santo Domingo, Dominican Republic. They also include smaller towns, such as Bridgetown on Barbados and Roseau on Dominica. Many urban people work in business or government offices, stores, small factories, or in services related to tourism. The urban areas attract many rural people seeking a better way of life. But many of these people end up in crowded slums. The urban areas have a wide variety of housing, including shacks, modern suburban homes, high-rise apartments, and mansions.
The West Indies have few natural resources except for their land, so farming is an important way of life. Many people work on large sugar cane plantations that belong to wealthy landowners. Some people own or rent small plots of land on which they raise crops and livestock. Many families must struggle to produce enough food for their own needs. Most of the rural people live in small, one- or two-room wooden houses.
Because of the warm weather, clothing in the West Indies tends to be light and loose. Hats are popular because they provide protection from the sun. The diet of most West Indians includes rice, beans, goat stew, pork, fish, and such tropical fruits as bananas, oranges, papayas, and plantains. Soft drinks, beer, and rum rank as favorite beverages.
Religion. Most West Indians are Christians. Roman Catholicism is the main religion on the Spanish- and French-speaking islands. The English- and Dutch-speaking islands have a mixture of Catholics and Protestants. Small groups of Hindus, Jews, and Muslims also live in the West Indies. On several of the islands, people practice traditional African religions. Voodoo, one of the best known of these, is widespread on Haiti. Ras Tafari, a religious group that worships former Emperor Haile Selassie I of Ethiopia as God, has numerous followers on Jamaica and several other islands. See VOODOO.
Education. Government-sponsored elementary and secondary education is available throughout the West Indies.
The West Indies have a number of colleges and universities, but many students go abroad to college. Many islands have technical schools that prepare people for careers in agriculture, engineering, tourism, and other fields.
Recreation. Popular sports in the West Indies include baseball, basketball, cricket, soccer, and track and field. Music is a favorite form of recreation. Most people enjoy performances of traditional songs and dances, and festivals are widely celebrated.
Land: The West Indies cover a land area of about 91,000 square miles (235,000 square kilometers). The region's islands are spread out over a huge crescent more than 2,000 miles (3,200 kilometers) long. The islands are part of an underwater mountain chain that linked North and South America in prehistoric times. Many of the islands were formed by volcanoes. Others were formed after wind and rain wore down the mountain peaks. These islands are mostly flat strips of coral and limestone.
Volcanic mountains rise on a number of the islands. Several volcanoes have erupted in the last 500 years. They include Mont Pelee on Martinique, Soufriere on Basse-Terre Island in Guadeloupe, and another volcano called Soufriere on Saint Vincent. Other islands have boiling sulfur springs and inactive volcanic craters. Duarte Peak in the Dominican Republic on Hispaniola is the highest peak in the West Indies. It rises 10,417 feet (3,175 meters) above sea level. Fertile lowlands and sandy beaches line the coasts of many islands.
The West Indies have a number of fine harbors, and many islands have numerous bays and inlets along their coasts. Swift-flowing rivers run on many islands, but most can only be navigated by small boats. The Puerto Rico Trench, which lies off the northern coast of Puerto Rico, is one of the deepest spots in all the world's oceans. It descends to 28,374 feet (8,648 meters) below the ocean's surface.
Plant and animal life. Lush tropical vegetation covers many of the islands of the West Indies. Mangrove swamps, shrubs, grasses, and cactuses are common. The region's many flowering plants include bougainvillea, hibiscus, orchid, and poinsettia. Palms and citrus trees flourish.
Bats, frogs, lizards, rodents, and many species of birds live on the islands. There are no large wild animals. Dolphins, tropical fish, and such game fish as barracuda, marlin, and sailfish thrive in the blue-green waters surrounding the West Indies.
Climate:
Except for part of the Bahamas chain, all the West Indies islands lie within the
Tropic 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 through May; and a wet season, from June through October.
Hurricanes, formed in the Atlantic, may occur between July and October,
destroying much life and property when they sweep onshore.
Rainfall in the West Indies ranges from 20 inches (50 centimeters) a year in some places to as much as 200 inches (500 centimeters) a year in mountainous areas. Most islands have alternate wet and dry seasons, with heavy showers common during the wet season. Hurricanes frequently strike the region, chiefly in late summer and early fall. They often cause severe damage.
Economy: Agriculture and tourism rank as the chief economic activities of the West Indies. Farming employs more than 40 percent of the work force. About 40 percent of the employed people work in government, tourism, or other service jobs. Most of the rest work in manufacturing, mining, or fishing. Unemployment is a problem.
Agriculture. Sugar cane is the area's leading crop. It is grown chiefly for export on large plantations. Other export crops include bananas, cacao (used to make chocolate), citrus fruits, coffee, tobacco, and spices. Farmers grow beans, carrots, sweet potatoes, tomatoes, and other crops throughout the West Indies. They also raise cattle, goats, pigs, and other livestock. However, many islands cannot produce enough to feed their people and must import food.
Tourism. More than 8 million people visit the islands each year to enjoy the sunny climate, beaches, and scenery. Many people tour the islands on cruise ships.
Manufacturing in the West Indies includes the production of cement, clothing, electrical parts, pharmaceuticals, plastics, and rum. Oil refineries on Curacao process oil from Venezuela and other countries.
Mining is relatively unimportant in most of the West Indies. There are some important deposits of oil, natural gas, and asphalt on Trinidad. Jamaica is a leading producer of bauxite. Cuba and the Dominican Republic have large deposits of iron ore and nickel.
Trade. The main exports of the West Indies include assembled goods, bananas, petroleum products, rum, and sugar. Imports include food, manufactured products, and raw materials. Canada, the United Kingdom, and the United States are the area's main trading partners. A number of West Indian countries belong to the Caribbean Community and Common Market (CARICOM), an economic union that encourages trade among its members.
History: Early days. Ciboney Indians were the first inhabitants of the West Indies. They began living there during prehistoric times. Arawak Indians from South America moved to the West Indies between about 200 B.C. and A.D. 1000. They eventually settled in the Greater Antilles. About A.D. 1300, the Arawak were followed by the more warlike Carib Indians, who populated most of the Lesser Antilles. Both groups grew crops near their villages. The people also fished, hunted, and gathered wild plants for food.
The colonial period. Christopher Columbus landed on an island believed to be San Salvador in the in 1492. During the next 10 years, he reached, and claimed for Spain, almost all the West Indian islands. The Spanish set up the first permanent European settlement in the West Indies in 1496 at Santo Domingo on Hispaniola. The search for gold and other riches drew thousands of Europeans to the region. In the early 1500's, Spaniards founded colonies on Cuba,
Jamaica, and Puerto Rico. They enslaved the Indians and forced them to work in gold mines. Disease and overwork and other harsh treatment killed almost all the Indians.
Other Europeans learned of the wealth of the West Indies. Pirates from England, France, and the Netherlands attacked Spanish ships and ports and stole valuable cargo. In the 1600's, the Danes, Dutch, English, and French established colonies on the smaller islands. In 1670, the English gained formal possession of Jamaica. The French took control of the western third of Hispaniola in 1697.
In the late 1600's and 1700's, the colonial powers gained great wealth from sugar cane grown in the West Indies. The Europeans brought millions of black
African slaves to the islands to work on plantations.
Independence movements. During the 1800's, revolutions weakened colonial control on several islands. In 1804, Haiti became the first independent nation in the West Indies after slaves on Hispaniola, led by Toussaint L'Ouverture and others, rebelled against their French rulers. The Dominican Republic broke off from Haiti and declared independence in 1844. Slavery was abolished in all of the West Indies by the late 1800's. The plantation system then became much less profitable because plantation owners lost most of their cheap labor. As a result, European interest in the West Indies declined.
The United States began playing an active role in the West Indies in 1898. In that year, a revolution in Cuba drew the United States into the Spanish-American War against Spain. After the United States won the war, Cuba became independent and Puerto Rico became a U.S. colony. In 1917, the United States purchased what are now the U.S. Virgin Islands from Denmark.
Dictators controlled Cuba, the Dominican Republic, and Haiti during much of the first half of the 1900's. In 1959, Fidel Castro overthrew the government of Cuba and established a Communist state.
Many islands of the West Indies have become independent or have gained more control over their own affairs since 1945. Both the Netherlands Antilles and Puerto Rico gained almost complete self-government in the early 1950's. Ten British colonies formed the West Indies Federation in 1958. They were (1) Antigua, (2) Barbados, (3) Dominica, (4) Grenada, (5) Jamaica, (6) Montserrat, (7) St. Christopher-Nevis-Anguilla, (8) St. Lucia, (9) St. Vincent, and (10) Trinidad and Tobago. The federation was dissolved in 1962 after Jamaica and Trinidad and Tobago became independent.
In the late 1960's, Antigua, Dominica, Grenada, St. Christopher-Nevis-Anguilla, St. Lucia, and St. Vincent became states associated with the United Kingdom. Together, the six states were called the West Indies Associated States. By the early 1980's, all of the West Indies Associated States except for St. Christopher-Nevis-Anguilla had become independent nations. In 1980, Anguilla officially became a separate British dependency. The rest of the state became independent in 1983 as a nation called St. Christopher and Nevis. This nation is now known as St. Kitts and Nevis.
The West Indies today face a number of economic and social
problems. Many people leave the islands in search of jobs. West Indian governments are trying to develop new industries to lessen dependence on agriculture and tourism. Such regional economic organizations as the Caribbean Development Bank and
CARICOM are also working to stimulate industrial growth.
Political
Divisions:
Politically, the West Indies 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
West Indies nation. 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, Saint Kitts and
Nevis, Saint Lucia, Saint Vincent and the Grenadines, and Antigua and Barbuda
are the other sovereign nations. (See
Caribbean Destinations)
Sovereignty over
nearly all the other West Indies islands 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 are United States territories. The French West Indies includes Martinique, Guadeloupe,
and a number of small island dependencies of Guadeloupe. The Dutch possessions
consist of Curaçao, Bonaire, Aruba, and smaller Lesser Antilles islands. Venezuela holds about 70 Lesser Antilles islands.
Dependencies of the United Kingdom are the Cayman
Islands, Turks and Caicos
Islands, and some of the Virgin Islands. Have A
Good Lime!
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