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The Leeward Islands are the northern islands of the 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....
 chain of islands, part of the West Indies. They are situated where 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....
 meets the western Atlantic Ocean
Atlantic Ocean

The Atlantic Ocean is the second-largest of the world's oceanic divisions; with a total area of about 106.4 million square kilometres . It covers approximately one-fifth of the Earth's surface....
. The southern part of the Lesser Antilles chain is called the Windward Islands
Windward Islands

The Windward Islands are the southern islands of the Lesser Antilles....
.

e islands are called "leeward" because the prevailing winds in the area blow from the east (see trade wind
Trade wind

The trade winds are the Prevailing winds of easterlies surface winds found in the tropics near the Earth's equator. The trade winds blow predominantly from the northeast in the Northern Hemisphere and from the southeast in the Southern Hemisphere....
).






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Charlotte Amalie
The Leeward Islands are the northern islands of the 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....
 chain of islands, part of the West Indies. They are situated where 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....
 meets the western Atlantic Ocean
Atlantic Ocean

The Atlantic Ocean is the second-largest of the world's oceanic divisions; with a total area of about 106.4 million square kilometres . It covers approximately one-fifth of the Earth's surface....
. The southern part of the Lesser Antilles chain is called the Windward Islands
Windward Islands

The Windward Islands are the southern islands of the Lesser Antilles....
.

Explanation of Name

These islands are called "leeward" because the prevailing winds in the area blow from the east (see trade wind
Trade wind

The trade winds are the Prevailing winds of easterlies surface winds found in the tropics near the Earth's equator. The trade winds blow predominantly from the northeast in the Northern Hemisphere and from the southeast in the Southern Hemisphere....
). Thus these islands are downwind from, or leeward of, the southeasternmost Windward Islands
Windward Islands

The Windward Islands are the southern islands of the Lesser Antilles....
, the group of islands that first meet the trade wind
Trade wind

The trade winds are the Prevailing winds of easterlies surface winds found in the tropics near the Earth's equator. The trade winds blow predominantly from the northeast in the Northern Hemisphere and from the southeast in the Southern Hemisphere....
s.

List of the Leeward Islands

Sandy Ground Anguilla
  • U.S. Virgin Islands: St. Thomas, St. John
    Saint John, U.S. Virgin Islands

    Saint John is an island in the Caribbean Sea and a constituent Districts and sub-districts of the United States Virgin Islands of the United States Virgin Islands , an unincorporated territory of the United States....
    , St. Croix (US)
  • 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....
    : Tortola
    Tortola

    Tortola is the largest and most populated of the British Virgin Islands, a group of islands which form part of the archipelago of the Virgin Islands....
    , Virgin Gorda
    Virgin Gorda

    Virgin Gorda is the third-largest and second most populous of the British Virgin Islands . Located at approximately 18 degrees, 48 minutes North, and 64 degrees, 30 minutes West, it covers an area of about 8 square miles ....
    , Anegada
    Anegada

    Anegada is the northernmost of the British Virgin Islands, a group of islands which form part of the archipelago of the Virgin Islands. It lies approximately north of Virgin Gorda....
    , Jost Van Dyke
    Jost Van Dyke

    At roughly 8 square kilometers, Jost Van Dyke is the smallest of the four main islands of the British Virgin Islands, the northern portion of the archipelago of the Virgin Islands, located in the Atlantic Ocean and Caribbean Sea....
     (UK)
  • 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)
  • Saint Martin/Sint Maarten
    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....
     (Fr./Neth.)
  • Saint-Barthélemy
    Saint-Barthélemy

    Saint Barth?lemy , officially the Collectivity of Saint Barth?lemy , is an overseas collectivity of France. To the northwest lies St. Martin, to the southwest Saba, to the south St....
     (Fr.)
  • 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.)
  • 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.)
  • Saint Kitts
    Saint Kitts

    Saint Kitts The island is situated at , about 1,300 miles southeast of Miami, Florida, Florida, in the United States. It has a land area of about 68 sq....
  • Nevis
    Nevis

    Nevis is an island in the Caribbean, located near the northern end of the Lesser Antilles archipelago, about 220 miles southeast of Puerto Rico and 50 miles west of Antigua....
  • Barbuda
    Barbuda

    Barbuda is an island in the Eastern Caribbean, and forms part of the state of Antigua and Barbuda. It has a population of about 1,500, most of whom live in the town of Codrington, Barbuda....
  • Antigua
    Antigua

    Antigua is an island in the West Indies, in the Leeward Islands in the Caribbean region, the main island of the country of Antigua and Barbuda....
  • 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....
  • 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)
  • 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.)
  • La Désirade
    La Désirade

    La D?sirade is an island in the France overseas region and Overseas department of Guadeloupe, in the Lesser Antilles.It has a land area of 20.64 km? and a population of 1,595 in 2006 , with a population density of 77 inh....
     (Fr.)
  • Les Saintes (Fr.)
  • Marie-Galante
    Marie-Galante

    Marie-Galante is an island of the Caribbean Sea located in the Guadeloupean archipelago. Marie-Galante is constitutionally part of France, as Guadeloupe is an R?gion d'outre-mer and D?partement d'outre-mer....
     (Fr.)


The small and remote Isla Aves
Isla Aves

Isla de Aves , or Aves Island, is a Caribbean Sea islet whose status is the subject of a territorial dispute between Dominica and Venezuela....
 may perhaps be included with this group for convenience.

The 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....
, however, are divided into two groups, one group in the northeast, and one in the southwest, with different naming conventions.

See also

  • Antilles
    Antilles

    The Antilles Antillas in Spanish language; Antillen in Dutch language) refers to the islands forming the greater part of the Caribbean in the Caribbean Sea....
  • 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....


External links

  • with full page images and full searchable text is freely and openly available in the Digital Library of the Caribbean
    Digital Library of the Caribbean

    The Digital Library of the Caribbean was established by a committee of librarians, scholars, and archivists at a meeting held in San Juan, Puerto Rico on July 17, 2004....
  • with full page images and full searchable text is freely and openly available in the Digital Library of the Caribbean
    Digital Library of the Caribbean

    The Digital Library of the Caribbean was established by a committee of librarians, scholars, and archivists at a meeting held in San Juan, Puerto Rico on July 17, 2004....