| West Indies (Northern and Eastern Caribbean, or Atlantic Caribbean) | |
 | |
| Information | |
| Region | North America |
|---|---|
| Area | 228 662 km² |
| Nice | West Indian, West Indian |
| Location | |
 15 ° 42 ′ 0 ″ N 72 ° 12 ′ 0 ″ W | |
The West Indies are an archipelago ofAtlantic Ocean located off thecentral America. These islands are very popular with travelers looking for sun and sandy beaches.
They are often called the Caribbean or the Caribbean, but strictly speaking, the latter include the entire Caribbean Sea watershed (i.e. the mainland parts bordering the sea) and do not normally include the islands outside the Caribbean Sea. Caribbean such as Bahamas or the islands Keys from the south of the Florida. The West Indies also do not cover the islands of the Western Caribbean (close to the Caribbean coast of Central America, or to the north the coast of South America in Colombia)
Understand
History
These islands were first inhabited by different Native American tribes such as the Tainos, Arawaks and the Caribbean, but the majority of these were decimated by the arrival of settlers. Europeans bringing diseases, but also because of wars and interbreeding. Many historic battles have taken place in the Caribbean which is also the site of many pirate stories.
These islands have a difficult history marked by their remoteness, the frequent deadly destructive natural disasters (cyclones, earthquakes, volcanism, tsunamis), the lack of natural resources (especially water) and fertile land. Yet they were the subject of many conflicts, especially during the formation of colonial empires for the conquest of America (they were then called the West Indies) for the massive import of populations reduced to slavery.
Of the ancient pre-Columbian Caribbean civilizations that lived there, there are not many traces left (these are still present but in a more marked way in the Western Caribbean, although dominated by the descendants of the Hispanic colonizers). Their current population has inherited many African, European and Asian cultures and has largely mixed. Different languages are spoken, mainly European languages including English, French, Spanish and Dutch, but also derivative Creoles based on these languages and African languages, sometimes with borrowings from ancient pre-Columbian Amerindian languages. The Christian religion is in the majority there but is equally divided between Catholicism (majority in the south in the Latin regions of French or Spanish influence) and Protestantism (majority in the north and Anglo-American or Dutch influence) and has taken precedence over the old ones. Native American beliefs.
However, if the colonization of these islands was made with so little resistance, it is also partly due to the importation of various European and African diseases by the colonists and the very many displaced slaves who also decimated the indigenous populations. unprepared (and already few in number because they lived in diverse communities in ancient pre-Columbian empires that also fought each other in a murderous way, even if they left architectural and artistic vestiges of their past glory before being totally dominated by newcomers). Even after the end of the colonial period and slavery and the access to independence of some Caribbean countries, the descendants experienced diverse political regimes marked by authoritarian regimes and periods of great economic misery, creating flows significant migratory flows throughout the Caribbean (also triggered by natural disasters that have regularly occurred there).
Even if today these islands are for some considered as temporary paradises for tourists because of their mild climate, the threat of natural plagues constantly threatens the development of islands already disadvantaged by their distance from the main modern trade routes, the current high density of their population, the lack of natural resources to meet their needs, the degradation of soils and fishery resources (as much by natural phenomena as by overexploitation or modern pollution). The old mining activities have almost disappeared, subsistence fishing has difficulty surviving, the large plantations have ceased their activities. The remaining farms have difficulty in promoting their products commercially on international markets from which they are very distant, industry and high value-added productions are almost absent. A significant part of recent activity has diversified in a few islands beyond just tourism in services, including financial activity with "tax havens" for some of them. The multiplicity of borders, the still presence of numerous pleasure craft or tourist planes favored by the recent remoteness of military conflict zones, means that these islands are also important crossing points for organized crime and money laundering. , and drug traffickers who still strongly affect the poor regions of South or Central America to supply the unofficial markets of North America, but also sometimes to corrupt and destabilize the surrounding continental countries.
Social difficulties and strong inequalities in living standards are still very marked there, but not always perceived by tourists who stay in sectors that are clearly more favored and protected, since the economy of these islands now depends heavily on tourism more than any other. other activity. However, the local Creole cultures are still rich in all this past, and in what nature has offered to their current inhabitants, as well as to their visitors who benefit from grandiose panoramas and a unique and often unique flora and fauna richness. unsuspected, that recent local policies try to better protect and promote, while strengthening essential links with other regions of the world and in particular better integration of these territories and their culture in European and American countries, on which the West Indies still depend more strongly and with whom they exchange populations. Creole cultures are exported and little by little find a better place.
Beyond the differences of political regimes and national borders, these very populated Caribbean islands have developed a broad cooperation and a strong solidarity between them to better help to solve the important challenges and the difficulties which they must face and to be heard. in the policy followed in other regions of the world (including on the American continent) and perhaps serve (with other Creole regions isolated from other continents) as a model for a better acceptance of multiculturalism.
Regions
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Other islands close to the American continent west of the Caribbean Sea (from southern Mexico on the east coast of Yucatán peninsula, along the east coast ofcentral America, whose islands depend on Belize and Honduras, as well as along the northern coast ofSouth America including those depending on Colombia) are part of the Caribbean (these islands are also called the Western Caribbean); but they are not part of the Antilles, unlike the islands of Lesser Antilles which depend on Venezuela or which form the independent State of Trinidad and Tobago.
The Bermuda are on the other hand an overseas territory British located much further in theAtlantic Ocean North, they are not part of the Antilles, or even the Caribbean.
Cities
- 1 Havana – Capital of Cuba
- 2 Nassau – Capital of Bahamas
- 3 Kingston – Capital of Jamaica
- 4 San Juan – Capital of Porto Rico
- 5 Saint John's – Capital ofAntigua and Barbuda
- 6 Porlamar – The largest city on the island Venezuelan of Margarita
