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The Antilles (/ænˈtɪliːz/; Antilles [ɑ̃.tij] in French; Antillas in Spanish; Antillen in Dutch and Antilhas in Portuguese) is an archipelago bordered by the Caribbean Sea to the south and west, the Gulf of Mexico to the northwest, and the Atlantic Ocean to the north and east.

The Antillean islands are divided into two smaller groupings: the Greater Antilles and the Lesser Antilles. The Greater Antilles includes the larger islands of Cuba, Jamaica, Puerto Rico, Hispaniola (subdivided into Haiti and the Dominican Republic) and the Cayman Islands. The Lesser Antilles contains the northerly Leeward Islands, the southeasterly Windward Islands, and the Leeward Antilles just north of Venezuela. The Lucayan Archipelago (consisting of the Bahamas and Turks and Caicos Islands), though part of the West Indies, are generally not included among the Antillean islands.^[1]

Geographically, the Antillean islands are generally considered a subregion of North America. Culturally speaking, Cuba, the Dominican Republic, and Puerto Rico – and sometimes the whole of the Antilles – are included in Latin America, although some sources avoid this socio-economic oversimplification by using the phrase "Latin America and the Caribbean" instead (see Latin America, "In Contemporary Usage").^[2] In terms of geology, the Greater Antilles are made up of continental rock, as distinct from the Lesser Antilles, which are mostly young volcanic or coral islands.

Background

Map of Antilles / Caribbean in 1843

The word Antilles originated in the period before the European colonization of the Americas, Antilia being one of those mysterious lands which figured on the medieval charts, sometimes as an archipelago, sometimes as continuous land of greater or lesser extent, its location fluctuating in mid-ocean between the Canary Islands and India.^[3]

After the 1492 arrival of Christopher Columbus's expedition in what was later called the West Indies, the European powers realized that the dispersed lands constituted an extensive archipelago inhabiting the Caribbean Sea and the Gulf of Mexico.^[4] The Antilles were called multiple names before their current name became the norm. Early Spanish visitors called them the Windward Islands. They were also called the Forward Islands by 18th-century British.^[5] Thereafter, the term Antilles was commonly assigned to the formation, and "Sea of the Antilles" became a common alternative name for the Caribbean Sea in various European languages.^{[citation needed]}

Demographics

The Antilles were described in 1778 by Thomas Kitchin as once being called the Caribbee Isles in homage to the Carib people who were the islands' first inhabitants.

Nations and territories

Lucayan Archipelago

• Bahamas


• 
  Turks and Caicos Islands (United Kingdom)

Greater Antilles

• Cuba


• 
  Hispaniola
  
  
  
  • Haiti
  
  
  • Dominican Republic
  
  
  
  


• Jamaica


• 
  Puerto Rico (United States)


• 
  Cayman Islands (United Kingdom)

Lesser Antilles

Leeward Antilles

• 
  Aruba (Kingdom of the Netherlands)


• 
  Bonaire (Netherlands)


• 
  Curaçao (Kingdom of the Netherlands)


• 
  Federal Dependencies of Venezuela
  
  
  
  • Los Monjes Archipelago
  
  
  • La Tortuga Island
  
  
  • La Sola Island
  
  
  • Los Testigos Islands
  
  
  • Los Frailes Islands
  
  
  • Patos Island
  
  
  • Los Roques Archipelago
  
  
  • Blanquilla Island
  
  
  • Los Hermanos Archipelago
  
  
  • Orchila Island
  
  
  • Las Aves Archipelago
  
  
  • Aves Island
  
  
  
  


• 
  Nueva Esparta State (Venezuela)
  
  
  
  • Margarita Island
  
  
  • Coche
  
  
  • Cubagua
  
  
  
  

Leeward Islands

• 
  Anguilla (United Kingdom)


• 
  Antigua and Barbuda
  
  
  
  • Antigua
  
  
  • Barbuda
  
  
  • Redonda
  
  
  
  


• 
  British Virgin Islands (United Kingdom)


• 
  Guadeloupe (France)
  
  
  
  • La Désirade
  
  
  • Marie-Galante
  
  
  • Les Saintes
  
  
  
  


• 
  Montserrat (United Kingdom)


• 
  Saba (Netherlands)


• 
  Saint Barthélemy (France)


• 
  Saint Martin
  
  
  
  • 
    Collectivity of Saint Martin (France)
  
  
  • 
    Sint Maarten (Kingdom of the Netherlands)
  
  
  
  


• 
  Saint Kitts and Nevis
  
  
  
  • Saint Kitts
  
  
  • Nevis
  
  
  
  


• 
  Sint Eustatius (Netherlands)


• 
  U.S. Virgin Islands (United States)
  
  
  
  • Saint Croix
  
  
  • Saint Thomas
  
  
  • Saint John
  
  
  
  

Windward Islands

• Dominica


• Grenada


• 
  Martinique (France)


• Saint Lucia


• Saint Vincent and the Grenadines

Other islands

• Barbados


• 
  Trinidad and Tobago
  
  
  
  • Tobago
  
  
  • Trinidad
  
  
  
  

See also

• Antillia

References