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West Indies

Adapted from Wikipedia · Discoverer experience

A detailed map showing the deep sea floor of the Atlantic and Caribbean Oceans, highlighting the Puerto Rico Trench, the deepest part of these seas.

The West Indies are a group of islands in the Caribbean Sea and the North Atlantic Ocean. They are part of the Americas and include 13 independent island countries and 18 dependencies. These islands are spread across three main groups: the Greater Antilles, the Lesser Antilles, and the Lucayan Archipelago.

The West Indies also include places like The Bahamas and the Turks and Caicos Islands, which lie in the North Atlantic Ocean. Often, the words "West Indies" and "Caribbean" are used to mean the same thing, though "Caribbean" can sometimes refer to areas on the coasts of Central and South American countries as well.

This beautiful region is made up of many different cultures, languages, and traditions, making it an interesting and important part of the world.

Terminology

The word "Indie" comes from the Latin word for "India," which was a land far to the east. Long ago, people from Europe wanted to travel to India to trade valuable spices. When Christopher Columbus sailed from Spain in 1492, he was looking for a shorter route to India. Instead, he reached the islands of the Americas. Because he thought he had found a part of India, he called these places the "West Indies."

At first, the name "West Indies" was used for all the lands in the Americas. Later, people began to use it just for the islands. Many companies and groups from Europe used the name "West Indies" in their titles, and the name is still used today, for example, by the West Indies cricket team, which represents all the islands in this area.

History

Main article: History of the Caribbean

Many different groups of people lived on these islands long ago, with signs of their lives dating back thousands of years. In the 1500s and 1600s, people from France, England, and the Netherlands started visiting the Caribbean Sea. They sometimes attacked ships from Spain and Portugal and used the islands of the Lesser Antilles as safe places to stop and fix their ships.

Over time, these visitors began to settle on islands like Saint Kitts and Barbados. When they started growing sugar, they brought many enslaved people from Africa to work on the farms. These changes greatly changed the populations of the islands.

Later, European countries continued to explore and settle along the coasts of South America and Central America. In 1916, Denmark sold its islands in the region to the United States, which became known as the United States Virgin Islands.

In the late 1950s, the United Kingdom tried to combine many of its island territories into one group called the West Indies Federation. However, this group had many problems and was not very popular, so it was dissolved in 1963. Some islands became independent countries, while others remained under British control.

Geology

The West Indies are a group of 7,000 islands and small land pieces that stretch over 3,000 km (2,000 miles) from the Florida peninsula to the northern coast of Venezuela. These islands include active volcanoes, low-lying island rings, islands made of limestone, and large pieces of land with tall mountains and rivers. Each group of islands has its own unique beginning and makeup.

The Greater Antilles are the oldest group and include the largest islands like Cuba, Hispaniola, Jamaica, and Puerto Rico, as well as the tallest mountains in the Caribbean. These islands are made from layers of rocks and earth from different times, including very old pieces from the North American plate.

The Lesser Antilles are a line of volcanic islands that formed because of movement in the earth’s crust. These islands began to appear less than 20 million years ago and still have active volcanoes today.

The Lucayan Archipelago includes The Bahamas and the Turks and Caicos Islands. These islands are made from layers of sand and other materials that built up over time during periods when sea levels were lower.

Countries and territories by subregion and archipelago

Life expectancy in the West Indies in 2019 and 2021

Caribbean (core area)

Main article: Caribbean

Antilles

Main article: Antilles

Greater Antilles

Main article: Greater Antilles

Lesser Antilles

Main article: Lesser Antilles

Leeward Antilles

Main article: Leeward Antilles

Map of the West Indies
Leeward Islands

Main article: Leeward Islands

Windward Islands

Main article: Windward Islands

Isolated islands in the Lesser Antilles

Lucayan Archipelago

Main article: Lucayan Archipelago

Isolated island in the Caribbean

See also: List of Caribbean islands

Central America

Main article: Central America

See also: Western Caribbean zone

Northern America

Main article: Northern America

South America

Main article: South America

See also: Caribbean South America

N.B.: Territories in italics are parts of transregional sovereign states or non-sovereign dependencies.

* These three Dutch Caribbean territories form the BES islands.

† Physiographically, these are continental islands not part of the volcanic Windward Islands arc. Based on proximity, these islands are sometimes grouped with the Windward Islands culturally and politically.

~ Disputed territories administered by Colombia.

^ The United Nations geoscheme includes Mexico in Central America.

Images

A stunning night-time view of the Atlantic continents — North and South America, Europe, and Africa — as seen from space, with city lights sparkling below.
A colorful map showing life expectancy across Caribbean countries in 2019, created using MapChart data from the World Bank.
A colorful map showing life expectancy across Caribbean countries and territories in 2021.
A stunning view of planet Earth from space.

Related articles

The Bahamas
Turks and Caicos Islands
Caribbean Sea
Americas
Caribbean
South America

This article is a child-friendly adaptation of the Wikipedia article on West Indies, available under CC BY-SA 4.0.

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