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Antilles
 
 
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The Antilles (the same in French
French language

French is a Romance language spoken around the world by around 80 million people as first language, by 190 million as second language, and by about another 200 million people as an acquired tongue, with significant speakers in 54 countries....
) Antillas in Spanish
Spanish language

Spanish or Castilian is a Romance languages that originated in northern Spain, and gradually spread in the Kingdom of Castile and evolved into the principal language of government and trade....
; Antillen in Dutch
Dutch language

Dutch is a West Germanic languages spoken by over 22 million people as a first language, and about 5 million people as a second language."1% of the EU population claims to speak Dutch well enough in order to have a conversation." Outside the European Union the number of second language speakers of Dutch is very small. Most native...
) refers to the islands forming the greater part of the West Indies
Caribbean

The Caribbean is a region consisting of the Caribbean Sea, its islands , and the surrounding coasts. The region is located southeast of the Gulf of Mexico and Northern America, east of Central America, and to the north of South America....
 in the Caribbean Sea
Caribbean Sea

The Caribbean Sea is a sea of the Atlantic Ocean situated in the mid-latitudes of the Western Hemisphere, bounded to the south and west by the Americas, with the North Atlantic Ocean proper to the northeast and the Gulf of Mexico to the northwest....
. The Antilles are divided into two major groups: the "Greater Antilles
Greater Antilles

File:LocationGreaterAntilles.pngThe Greater Antilles is one of three island groups in the Caribbean. Comprising Cuba, Jamaica, Hispaniola, and Puerto Rico--the four largest islands of the Antilles--the Greater Antilles constitutes almost 90% of the land mass of the entire West Indies....
" to the north including the larger islands of Cuba
Cuba

The Republic of Cuba is a country in the Caribbean. It consists of the island of Cuba , the island of Isla de la Juventud, and several adjacent small islands....
, Jamaica
Jamaica

Jamaica is an island nation of the Greater Antilles, in length and as much as in width situated in the Caribbean Sea. It is about south of Cuba, and west of the island of Hispaniola, on which Haiti and the Dominican Republic are situated....
, Hispaniola
Hispaniola

Hispaniola is the second-largest and most populous island of the Antilles, lying between the islands of Cuba to the west, and Puerto Rico to the east....
 (Haiti
Haiti

Haiti , officially the Republic of Haiti , is a Haitian Creole language- and French language-speaking Caribbean country. Along with the Dominican Republic, it occupies the island of Hispaniola, in the Greater Antilles archipelago....
 and the Dominican Republic
Dominican Republic

The Dominican Republic is a nation on the island of Hispaniola, part of the Greater Antilles archipelago in the Caribbean region. The western third of the island is occupied by the nation of Haiti, making Hispaniola one of two Caribbean islands that are List of divided islands, Saint Martin being the other....
), and Puerto Rico
Puerto Rico

Puerto Rico , officially the Commonwealth of Puerto Rico , is a Autonomy Territories of the United States of the United States located in the northeastern Caribbean, east of the Dominican Republic and west of the Virgin Islands....
; and the smaller "Lesser Antilles
Lesser Antilles

The Lesser Antilles, also known as the Caribbees, are part of the Antilles, which together with the Bahamas, the Turks and Caicos Islands, and Greater Antilles form the West Indies....
" on the southeast—comprising the northerly Leeward Islands
Leeward Islands

The Leeward Islands are the northern islands of the Lesser Antilles chain of islands, part of the West Indies. They are situated where the Caribbean Sea meets the western Atlantic Ocean....
, the southeasterly Windward Islands
Windward Islands

The Windward Islands are the southern islands of the Lesser Antilles....
, and the Leeward Antilles
Leeward Antilles

The Leeward Antilles are a chain of islands in the Caribbean ? specifically, the southerly islands of the Lesser Antilles along the southeastern fringe of the Caribbean Sea, just north of the Venezuelan coast of the South American mainland....
 just north of Venezuela
Venezuela

Venezuela , officially the Bolivarian Republic of Venezuela , is a country on the northern coast of South America.The country comprises a continental mainland and numerous islands located off the Venezuelan coastline in the Caribbean Sea....
.






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Caribbeanislands
The Antilles (the same in French
French language

French is a Romance language spoken around the world by around 80 million people as first language, by 190 million as second language, and by about another 200 million people as an acquired tongue, with significant speakers in 54 countries....
) Antillas in Spanish
Spanish language

Spanish or Castilian is a Romance languages that originated in northern Spain, and gradually spread in the Kingdom of Castile and evolved into the principal language of government and trade....
; Antillen in Dutch
Dutch language

Dutch is a West Germanic languages spoken by over 22 million people as a first language, and about 5 million people as a second language."1% of the EU population claims to speak Dutch well enough in order to have a conversation." Outside the European Union the number of second language speakers of Dutch is very small. Most native...
) refers to the islands forming the greater part of the West Indies
Caribbean

The Caribbean is a region consisting of the Caribbean Sea, its islands , and the surrounding coasts. The region is located southeast of the Gulf of Mexico and Northern America, east of Central America, and to the north of South America....
 in the Caribbean Sea
Caribbean Sea

The Caribbean Sea is a sea of the Atlantic Ocean situated in the mid-latitudes of the Western Hemisphere, bounded to the south and west by the Americas, with the North Atlantic Ocean proper to the northeast and the Gulf of Mexico to the northwest....
. The Antilles are divided into two major groups: the "Greater Antilles
Greater Antilles

File:LocationGreaterAntilles.pngThe Greater Antilles is one of three island groups in the Caribbean. Comprising Cuba, Jamaica, Hispaniola, and Puerto Rico--the four largest islands of the Antilles--the Greater Antilles constitutes almost 90% of the land mass of the entire West Indies....
" to the north including the larger islands of Cuba
Cuba

The Republic of Cuba is a country in the Caribbean. It consists of the island of Cuba , the island of Isla de la Juventud, and several adjacent small islands....
, Jamaica
Jamaica

Jamaica is an island nation of the Greater Antilles, in length and as much as in width situated in the Caribbean Sea. It is about south of Cuba, and west of the island of Hispaniola, on which Haiti and the Dominican Republic are situated....
, Hispaniola
Hispaniola

Hispaniola is the second-largest and most populous island of the Antilles, lying between the islands of Cuba to the west, and Puerto Rico to the east....
 (Haiti
Haiti

Haiti , officially the Republic of Haiti , is a Haitian Creole language- and French language-speaking Caribbean country. Along with the Dominican Republic, it occupies the island of Hispaniola, in the Greater Antilles archipelago....
 and the Dominican Republic
Dominican Republic

The Dominican Republic is a nation on the island of Hispaniola, part of the Greater Antilles archipelago in the Caribbean region. The western third of the island is occupied by the nation of Haiti, making Hispaniola one of two Caribbean islands that are List of divided islands, Saint Martin being the other....
), and Puerto Rico
Puerto Rico

Puerto Rico , officially the Commonwealth of Puerto Rico , is a Autonomy Territories of the United States of the United States located in the northeastern Caribbean, east of the Dominican Republic and west of the Virgin Islands....
; and the smaller "Lesser Antilles
Lesser Antilles

The Lesser Antilles, also known as the Caribbees, are part of the Antilles, which together with the Bahamas, the Turks and Caicos Islands, and Greater Antilles form the West Indies....
" on the southeast—comprising the northerly Leeward Islands
Leeward Islands

The Leeward Islands are the northern islands of the Lesser Antilles chain of islands, part of the West Indies. They are situated where the Caribbean Sea meets the western Atlantic Ocean....
, the southeasterly Windward Islands
Windward Islands

The Windward Islands are the southern islands of the Lesser Antilles....
, and the Leeward Antilles
Leeward Antilles

The Leeward Antilles are a chain of islands in the Caribbean ? specifically, the southerly islands of the Lesser Antilles along the southeastern fringe of the Caribbean Sea, just north of the Venezuelan coast of the South American mainland....
 just north of Venezuela
Venezuela

Venezuela , officially the Bolivarian Republic of Venezuela , is a country on the northern coast of South America.The country comprises a continental mainland and numerous islands located off the Venezuelan coastline in the Caribbean Sea....
. The Bahamas
The Bahamas

The Bahamas, officially the Commonwealth of The Bahamas, is an independent, sovereign, English language-speaking country consisting of two thousand cays and seven hundred islands that form an archipelago....
, though part of the West Indies, are generally not included among the Antillean islands.

Geographically
Geography

Geography is the study of the Earth and its lands, features, inhabitants, and phenomena. A literal translation would be "to describe or write about the Earth"....
, the Antilles are generally considered part of North America
North America

North America is the northern continent of the Americas, situated in the Earth's northern hemisphere and almost totally in the western hemisphere....
. Cuba, the Dominican Republic, and Puerto Rico—due to the prevalence of Spanish
Spanish language

Spanish or Castilian is a Romance languages that originated in northern Spain, and gradually spread in the Kingdom of Castile and evolved into the principal language of government and trade....
—are included in Latin America
Latin America

Latin America is a region of the Americas where Romance languages ? particularly Spanish language and Portuguese language, and variably French language ? are primarily spoken....
.

In terms of geology
Geology

Geology is the science and study of the solid and liquid matter that constitute the Earth. The field of geology encompasses the study of the composition, structural geology, physical properties, dynamics, and History of the Earth of Earth materials, and the processes by which they are formed, moved, and changed....
, the Greater Antilles are made up of continent
Continent

A continent is one of several large landmasses on Earth. They are generally identified by convention rather than any strict criteria, with seven regions commonly regarded as continents ? they are : Asia, Africa, North America, South America, Antarctica, Europe, and Australia ....
al rock, as distinct from the Lesser Antilles, which are mostly young volcanic
Volcano

A volcano is an opening, or rupture, in a planet's surface or Crust , which allows hot, molten rock, ash, and gases to escape from below the surface....
 or coral
Coral

Corals are marine organisms from the class Anthozoa and exist as small sea anemone?like polyps, typically in colonies of many identical individuals....
 islands.

Background

The word Antilles originated in the period before the European conquest of the New World
New World

The New World is one of the names used for the non-Eurasian/non-African parts of the Earth, specifically the Americas and Australasia. When the term originated in the late 15th century, the Americas were new to the Europeans, who previously thought of the world as consisting only of Europe, Asia, and Africa ....
—Antilia being one of those mysterious lands which figured on the medieval chart
Chart

and A chart is a visual representation of data, in which the data are represented by symbols such as bars in a bar chart or lines in a line chart....
s, sometimes as an archipelago
Archipelago

An archipelago is a chain or cluster of islands that are formed tectonically. The word archipelago literally means "chief sea", from Italian language arcipelago , derived ultimately from Greek language arkhon and pelagos ....
, sometimes as continuous land of greater or lesser extent, its location fluctuating in mid-ocean between the Canary Islands
Canary Islands

The Canary Islands are a Spain archipelago which, in turn, forms one of the Spanish Autonomous Communities and an Outermost Region of the European Union....
 and India
India

India, officially the Republic of India , is a country in South Asia. It is the List of countries and outlying territories by total area country by geographical area, the List of countries by population country, and the most populous liberal democracy in the world....
.

After the 1492 arrival of Christopher Columbus
Christopher Columbus

Christopher Columbus was a Republic of Genoa navigator, colonialist and explorer whose voyages across the Atlantic Ocean?funded by Queen Isabella of Spain?led to general European awareness of the America in the Western Hemisphere....
's expedition in what was later called the West Indies, the European powers realized that the dispersed lands comprised an extensive archipelago enclosing the Caribbean Sea
Caribbean Sea

The Caribbean Sea is a sea of the Atlantic Ocean situated in the mid-latitudes of the Western Hemisphere, bounded to the south and west by the Americas, with the North Atlantic Ocean proper to the northeast and the Gulf of Mexico to the northwest....
 and the Gulf of Mexico
Gulf of Mexico

The Gulf of Mexico is the ninth largest body of water in the world. Considered a smaller part of the Atlantic Ocean, it is an oceanic basin largely surrounded by the North American continent and the island of Cuba....
. Thereafter, the term Antilles was commonly assigned to the formation, and "Sea of the Antilles" became a common alternate name for the Caribbean Sea in various European languages.

Greater Antilles

Cuba
Cuba

The Republic of Cuba is a country in the Caribbean. It consists of the island of Cuba , the island of Isla de la Juventud, and several adjacent small islands....
  • Hispaniola
    Hispaniola

    Hispaniola is the second-largest and most populous island of the Antilles, lying between the islands of Cuba to the west, and Puerto Rico to the east....
  • Dominican Republic
    Dominican Republic

    The Dominican Republic is a nation on the island of Hispaniola, part of the Greater Antilles archipelago in the Caribbean region. The western third of the island is occupied by the nation of Haiti, making Hispaniola one of two Caribbean islands that are List of divided islands, Saint Martin being the other....
  • Haiti
    Haiti

    Haiti , officially the Republic of Haiti , is a Haitian Creole language- and French language-speaking Caribbean country. Along with the Dominican Republic, it occupies the island of Hispaniola, in the Greater Antilles archipelago....
Jamaica
Jamaica

Jamaica is an island nation of the Greater Antilles, in length and as much as in width situated in the Caribbean Sea. It is about south of Cuba, and west of the island of Hispaniola, on which Haiti and the Dominican Republic are situated....
 Puerto Rico
Puerto Rico

Puerto Rico , officially the Commonwealth of Puerto Rico , is a Autonomy Territories of the United States of the United States located in the northeastern Caribbean, east of the Dominican Republic and west of the Virgin Islands....
 (U.S. commonwealth)

Lesser Antilles


Anguilla
Anguilla

Anguilla is a British overseas territories in the Caribbean, one of the most northerly of the Leeward Islands in the Lesser Antilles. It consists of the main island of Anguilla itself, approximately 26 km long by 5 km wide at its widest point, together with a number of much smaller islands and cays with no permanent population....
 (UK) Antigua and Barbuda
Antigua and Barbuda

Antigua and Barbuda is an island nation located on the eastern boundary of the Caribbean Sea with the Atlantic Ocean. As its name suggests, it consists of two major islands Antigua and Barbuda as well as a number of smaller islets....
    • Redonda
      Redonda

      Redonda is a very small, uninhabited Caribbean island or islet which is politically a part of the nation of Antigua and Barbuda, in the Leeward Islands, West Indies....
       (Ant.)
Aruba
Aruba

Aruba is a -long island of the Lesser Antilles in the southern Caribbean Sea, north of the Paraguan? Peninsula, Falc?n State, Venezuela. Together with Bonaire and Cura?ao it forms a group referred to as the ABC islands of the Leeward Antilles, the southern island chain of the Lesser Antilles....
 (Neth.) Barbados
Barbados

Barbados , situated just east of the Caribbean Sea, is an independent Continental Island-island nation in the western Atlantic Ocean. Located at roughly 13? North of the equator and 59? West of the prime meridian, it is considered a part of the Lesser Antilles....
 British Virgin Islands
British Virgin Islands

The British Virgin Islands is a British overseas territory, located in the Caribbean to the east of Puerto Rico. The islands make up part of the Virgin Islands, the remaining islands constituting the United States Virgin Islands....
 (UK) Dominica
Dominica

The Commonwealth of Dominica, commonly known as Dominica, is an island nation in the Caribbean Sea. To the north/northwest lies Guadeloupe, to the southeast Martinique....
 Grenada
Grenada

Grenada is an island nation that includes the southern Grenadines in the southeastern Caribbean Sea. Grenada is located northwest of Trinidad and Tobago, northeast of Venezuela, and southwest of Saint Vincent and the Grenadines....
  • French Antilles (Fr.)
  • Guadeloupe
    Guadeloupe

    Guadeloupe is an island group or archipelago located in the eastern Caribbean Sea at , with a land area of 1,628 square kilometres . It is an overseas department of France....
     (Fr. Ant.)
  • Martinique
    Martinique

    Martinique is an island in the eastern Caribbean Sea, having a land area of 1,128 km?. It is an overseas department of France. To the northwest lies Dominica, to the south St Lucia....
     (Fr. Ant.)
Montserrat
Montserrat

Montserrat is British overseas territory located in the Leeward Islands, part of the chain of islands called the Lesser Antilles in the Caribbean Sea....
 (UK)
  • Netherlands Antilles
    Netherlands Antilles

    The Netherlands Antilles , previously known as the Netherlands West Indies or Dutch Antilles/West Indies, is part of the Lesser Antilles and consists of two island group in the Caribbean Sea: Cura?ao and Bonaire, just off the Venezuelan coast, and Sint Eustatius, Saba and Sint Maarten, located southeast of the Virgin Islands....
     (Neth.)
  • Bonaire
    Bonaire

    The Island Territory of Bonaire is one of five islands of the Netherlands Antilles of the Netherlands Antilles, consisting of the main island of Bonaire and, nestled in its western crescent, the uninhabited islet of Klein Bonaire....
     (Neth. Ant.)
  • Curaçao
    Curaçao

    Cura?ao is an island in the southern Caribbean Sea, off the Venezuelan coast. The island area of Cura?ao , which includes the main island plus the small, uninhabited island of Klein Cura?ao , is one of five islands of the Netherlands Antilles of the Netherlands Antilles, and as such, is a part of the Kingdom of the Netherlands....
     (Neth. Ant.)
  • Saba
    Saba

    Saba is the smallest island of the Netherlands Antilles, located at . It consists largely of the dormant volcano, Mount Scenery , the highest point of the Kingdom of the Netherlands....
     (Neth. Ant.)
  • Sint Eustatius
    Sint Eustatius

    Sint Eustatius, also known as Statia, or Saint Eustace, is one of the islands which make up the Netherlands Antilles; it is in the northern, Leeward Islands portion of the West Indies, southeast of the Virgin Islands....
     (Neth. Ant.)
Saint Barthélemy (Fr.) Saint Kitts and Nevis
Saint Kitts and Nevis

The Federation of Saint Kitts and Nevis , located in the Leeward Islands, is a federal two-island nation in the West Indies. It is the smallest nation in the Americas, in both List of countries by area and List of countries by population....
 Saint Lucia
Saint Lucia

Saint Lucia is an island nation in the eastern Caribbean Sea on the boundary with the Atlantic Ocean. Part of the Lesser Antilles, it is located north/northeast of the islands of Saint Vincent and the Grenadines, northwest of Barbados and south of Martinique....
  • Saint Martin
    Saint Martin

    Saint Martin is a tropical island in the northeast Caribbean, approximately 300 km east of Puerto Rico. The 87 km? island is divided roughly in half between France and the Netherlands Antilles ; it is the smallest inhabited List of divided islands....
  • Saint Martin
    Saint Martin (France)

    Saint Martin , officially the Collectivity of Saint Martin , is an overseas collectivity of France located in the Caribbean. It came into being on February 22, 2007, encompassing the northern parts of the Saint Martin and neighbouring islets, the largest of which is ?le Tintamarre....
     (Fr.)
  • Sint Maarten
    Sint Maarten

    The island area of Sint Maarten is one of five islands of the Netherlands Antilles of the Netherlands Antilles, encompassing the southern half of the Saint Martin....
     (Neth. Ant.)
Saint Vincent and the Grenadines
Saint Vincent and the Grenadines

Saint Vincent and the Grenadines is an island nation in the Lesser Antilles island arc of the Caribbean Sea. Its territory consists of the main island of Saint Vincent and the northern two-thirds of the Grenadines....
 Trinidad and Tobago
Trinidad and Tobago

The Republic of Trinidad and Tobago is an island country in the southern Caribbean, lying northeast of the South American country of Venezuela and south of Grenada in the Lesser Antilles....
    • Tobago
      Tobago

      Tobago is the smaller of the two main islands that make up the Trinidad and Tobago. It is located in the southern Caribbean Sea, northeast of the island of Trinidad and southeast of Grenada....
    • Trinidad
      Trinidad

      Trinidad is the larger and more populous of the two major islands and islands of Trinidad and Tobago which make up the country of Trinidad and Tobago....
U.S. Virgin Islands

Footnotes