1.
Caribbean
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The Caribbean is a region that consists of the Caribbean Sea, its islands and the surrounding coasts. The region is southeast of the Gulf of Mexico and the North American mainland, east of Central America, situated largely on the Caribbean Plate, the region comprises more than 700 islands, islets, reefs and cays. These islands generally form island arcs that delineate the eastern and northern edges of the Caribbean Sea, in a wider sense, the mainland countries of Belize, Guyana, Suriname and French Guiana are often included due to their political and cultural ties with the region. Geopolitically, the Caribbean islands are usually regarded as a subregion of North America and are organized into 30 territories including sovereign states, overseas departments, and dependencies. From December 15,1954, to October 10,2010, there was a known as the Netherlands Antilles composed of five states. The West Indies cricket team continues to represent many of those nations, the region takes its name from that of the Caribs, an ethnic group present in the Lesser Antilles and parts of adjacent South America at the time of the Spanish conquest. The two most prevalent pronunciations of Caribbean are KARR-ə-BEE-ən, with the accent on the third syllable. The former pronunciation is the older of the two, although the variant has been established for over 75 years. It has been suggested that speakers of British English prefer KARR-ə-BEE-ən while North American speakers more typically use kə-RIB-ee-ən, usage is split within Caribbean English itself. The word Caribbean has multiple uses and its principal ones are geographical and political. The Caribbean can also be expanded to include territories with strong cultural and historical connections to slavery, European colonisation, the United Nations geoscheme for the Americas accords the Caribbean as a distinct region within the Americas. Physiographically, the Caribbean region is mainly a chain of islands surrounding the Caribbean Sea, to the north, the region is bordered by the Gulf of Mexico, the Straits of Florida and the Northern Atlantic Ocean, which lies to the east and northeast. To the south lies the coastline of the continent of South America, politically, the Caribbean may be centred on socio-economic groupings found in the region. For example, the known as the Caribbean Community contains the Co-operative Republic of Guyana. Bermuda and the Turks and Caicos Islands, which are in the Atlantic Ocean, are members of the Caribbean Community. The Commonwealth of the Bahamas is also in the Atlantic and is a member of the Caribbean Community. According to the ACS, the population of its member states is 227 million people. The geography and climate in the Caribbean region varies, Some islands in the region have relatively flat terrain of non-volcanic origin and these islands include Aruba, Barbados, Bonaire, the Cayman Islands, Saint Croix, the Bahamas, and Antigua
2.
Island country
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An island country is a country whose primary territory consists of one or more islands or parts of islands. As of 2011,46 of the 193 UN member states are island countries, the percentage of island countries that are democratic is higher than that of continental countries. Historically they have been prone to political stability than their continental counterparts. Island countries have often been the basis of maritime conquest and historical rivalry between other countries, Island countries are more susceptible to attack by large, continental countries due to their size and dependence on sea and air lines of communication. Many island countries are vulnerable to predation by mercenaries and other foreign invaders. Many island countries rely heavily on fish for their supply of food. Some are turning to renewable energy—such as wind power, hydropower, geothermal power, some island countries are more affected than other countries by climate change, which produces problems such as reduced land use, water scarcity and sometimes even resettlement issues. Some low-lying island countries are slowly being submerged by the water levels of the Pacific Ocean. Climate change also impacts island countries by causing natural disasters such as cyclones, hurricanes, flash floods. In 2011, the Center for Climate Change Law held a conference attended by 272 registrants from 39 island nations titled Legal Issues for Threatened Island Nations, many island countries rely heavily on imports and are greatly affected by changes in the global economy. The dominant industry for many countries is tourism. Island countries are small with low populations, although some, like Indonesia. Some island countries are centred on one or two islands, such as the United Kingdom, Trinidad and Tobago, New Zealand, Cuba, Bahrain, Singapore, Malta. Others are spread out over hundreds or thousands of islands, such as Indonesia, the Philippines, Seychelles. Geographically, the country of Australia is considered a continental landmass rather than an island, in the past, however, it was considered an island country for tourism purposes and is still often referred to as such
3.
Cayman Islands
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The Cayman Islands is a British Overseas Territory in the western Caribbean Sea. Its population is approximately 60,000, and its capital is George Town, the Cayman Islands are considered to be part of the geographic Western Caribbean Zone as well as the Greater Antilles. The territory is considered a major world offshore financial haven for many wealthy individuals. The Cayman Islands remained largely uninhabited until the 17th century, the first recorded permanent inhabitant of the Cayman Islands, Isaac Bodden, was born on Grand Cayman around 1661. He was the grandson of the original settler named Bodden who was one of Oliver Cromwells soldiers at the taking of Jamaica in 1655. England took formal control of the Cayman Islands, along with Jamaica, following several unsuccessful attempts at settlement, a permanent English-speaking population in the islands dates from the 1730s. With settlement, after the first royal land grant by the Governor of Jamaica in 1734, many were brought to the islands from Africa, this is evident today with the majority of native Caymanians being of African and English descent. The results of the first census taken in the islands in 1802 showed the population on Grand Cayman to be 933 with 545 of those inhabitants being enslaved, slavery was abolished in the Cayman Islands in 1833. At the time of abolition, there were over 950 Blacks of African ancestry enslaved by 116 white families of English ancestry. The islands continued to be governed as part of the Colony of Jamaica until 1962, the Cayman Islands historically have been a tax-exempt destination. On 8 February 1794, the Caymanians rescued the crews of a group of ten merchant ships, including HMS Convert, the ships had struck a reef and run aground during rough seas. Legend has it that King George III rewarded the island with a never to introduce taxes as compensation for their generosity. While this remains a legend, the story is not true. However, whatever the history, in practice the government of the Cayman Islands has always relied on indirect, the islands have never levied income tax, capital gains tax, or any wealth tax, making them a popular tax haven. On 11 September 2004 the island of Grand Cayman, which lies largely unprotected at sea level, was hit by Hurricane Ivan, an estimated 83% of the dwellings on the island were damaged including 4% requiring complete reconstruction. A reported 70% of all dwellings suffered severe damage from flooding or wind, another 26% sustained minor damage from partial roof removal, low levels of flooding, or impact with floating or wind driven hurricane debris. Power, water and communications were disrupted for months in areas as Ivan was the worst hurricane to hit the islands in 86 years. Grand Cayman began a rebuilding process and within two years its infrastructure was nearly returned to pre-hurricane status.23 years
4.
Cuba
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Cuba, officially the Republic of Cuba, is a country comprising the island of Cuba as well as Isla de la Juventud and several minor archipelagos. Cuba is located in the northern Caribbean where the Caribbean Sea, the Gulf of Mexico, and it is south of both the U. S. state of Florida and the Bahamas, west of Haiti, and north of Jamaica. Havana is the largest city and capital, other cities include Santiago de Cuba. Cuba is the largest island in the Caribbean, with an area of 109,884 square kilometres, prior to Spanish colonization in the late 15th century, Cuba was inhabited by Amerindian tribes. It remained a colony of Spain until the Spanish–American War of 1898, as a fragile republic, Cuba attempted to strengthen its democratic system, but mounting political radicalization and social strife culminated in the dictatorship of Fulgencio Batista in 1952. Further unrest and instability led to Batistas ousting in January 1959 by the July 26 Movement, since 1965, the state has been governed by the Communist Party of Cuba. A point of contention during the Cold War between the Soviet Union and the United States, a nuclear war broke out during the Cuban Missile Crisis of 1962. Culturally, Cuba is considered part of Latin America, Cuba is a Marxist–Leninist one-party republic, where the role of the vanguard Communist Party is enshrined in the Constitution. Independent observers have accused the Cuban government of human rights abuses. It is one of the worlds last planned economies and its economy is dominated by the exports of sugar, tobacco, coffee, according to the Human Development Index, Cuba is described as a country with high human development and is ranked the eighth highest in North America. It also ranks highly in some metrics of national performance, including health care, the name Cuba comes from the Taíno language. The exact meaning of the name is unclear but it may be translated either as where fertile land is abundant, authors who believe that Christopher Columbus was Portuguese state that Cuba was named by Columbus for the town of Cuba in the district of Beja in Portugal. Before the arrival of the Spanish, Cuba was inhabited by three distinct tribes of indigenous peoples of the Americas, the Taíno, the Guanajatabey, and the Ciboney people. The ancestors of the Ciboney migrated from the mainland of South America, the Taíno arrived from Hispanola sometime in the 3rd century A. D. When Columbus arrived they were the dominant culture in Cuba, having a population of 150,000. The name Cuba comes from the native Taíno language and it is derived from either coabana meaning great place, or from cubao meaning where fertile land is abundant. The Taíno were farmers, while the Ciboney were farmers as well as fishers and hunter-gatherers, Columbus claimed the island for the new Kingdom of Spain and named it Isla Juana after Juan, Prince of Asturias. In 1511, the first Spanish settlement was founded by Diego Velázquez de Cuéllar at Baracoa, other towns soon followed, including San Cristobal de la Habana, founded in 1515, which later became the capital
5.
Dominican Republic
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The Dominican Republic is a sovereign state occupying the eastern two-thirds of the island of Hispaniola, in the Greater Antilles archipelago in the Caribbean region. The western one-third of the island is occupied by the nation of Haiti, christopher Columbus landed on the Western part of Hispaniola, in what is now Haiti, on December 6,1492. The island became the first seat of the Spanish colonial rule in the New World, the Dominican people declared independence in November 1821 but were forcefully annexed by their more powerful neighbor Haiti in February 1822. After the 1844 victory in the Dominican War of Independence against Haitian rule the country again under Spanish colonial rule until the Dominican War of Restoration of 1865. The Dominican Republic experienced mostly internal strife until 1916, a civil war in 1965, the countrys last, was ended by another U. S. military occupation and was followed by the authoritarian rule of Joaquín Balaguer, 1966–1978. Since then, the Dominican Republic has moved toward representative democracy and has been led by Leonel Fernández for most of the time since 1996. Danilo Medina, the Dominican Republics current president, succeeded Fernandez in 2012, the Dominican Republic has the ninth-largest economy in Latin America and is the largest economy in the Caribbean and Central American region. Though long known for agriculture and mining, the economy is now dominated by services. Over the last two decades, the Dominican Republic have been standing out as one of the economies in the Americas – with an average real GDP growth rate of 5. 4% between 1992 and 2014. GDP growth in 2014 and 2015 reached 7.3 and 7. 0%, respectively, in the first half of 2016 the Dominican economy grew 7. 4% continuing its trend of rapid economic growth. Recent growth has been driven by construction, manufacturing and tourism, private consumption has been strong, as a result of low inflation, job creation, as well as high level of remittances. The Dominican Republic has a market, Bolsa de Valores de la Republica Dominicana. and advanced telecommunication system. Nevertheless, unemployment, government corruption, and inconsistent electric service remain major Dominican problems, the country also has marked income inequality. International migration affects the Dominican Republic greatly, as it receives, mass illegal Haitian immigration and the integration of Dominicans of Haitian descent are major issues. A large Dominican diaspora exists, mostly in the United States, contributes to development, the Dominican Republic is the most visited destination in the Caribbean. The year-round golf courses are major attractions, the island has an average temperature of 26 °C and great climatic and biological diversity. The country is also the site of the first cathedral, castle, monastery, and fortress built in all of the Americas, located in Santo Domingos Colonial Zone, a World Heritage Site. Music and sport are of importance in the Dominican culture, with Merengue and Bachata as the national dance and music
6.
Haiti
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Haiti, officially the Republic of Haiti and formerly called Hayti, is a country located on the island of Hispaniola in the Greater Antilles archipelago of the Caribbean Sea. It occupies the western three-eighths of the island, which it shares with the Dominican Republic, the region was originally inhabited by the indigenous Taíno people. Spain discovered the island on 5 December 1492 during the first voyage of Christopher Columbus across the Atlantic, when Columbus initially landed in Haiti, he had thought he had found India or Asia. On Christmas Day 1492, Columbus flagship the Santa Maria ran aground north of what is now Limonade, the island was named La Española and claimed by Spain, which ruled until the early 17th century. Competing claims and settlements by the French led to the portion of the island being ceded to France. The development of plantations, worked by slaves brought from Africa. Upon his death in a prison in France, he was succeeded by his lieutenant, Jean-Jacques Dessalines, the Haitian Revolution lasted just over a dozen years, and apart from Alexandre Pétion, the first President of the Republic, all the first leaders of government were former slaves. The Citadelle Laferrière is the largest fortress in the Americas, Henri Christophe – former slave and first king of Haiti, Henri I – built it to withstand a possible foreign attack. It has the lowest Human Development Index in the Americas, most recently, in February 2004, a coup détat originating in the north of the country forced the resignation and exile of President Jean-Bertrand Aristide. A provisional government took control with security provided by the United Nations Stabilization Mission in Haiti, the name Haïti comes from the indigenous Taíno language which was the native name given to the entire island of Hispaniola to mean, land of high mountains. The h is silent in French and the ï in Haïti, is a mark used to show that the second vowel is pronounced separately. In English, this rule for the pronunciation is often disregarded, the name Haïti was restored by Haitian revolutionary Jean-Jacques Dessalines as the official name of independent Saint-Domingue, as a tribute to the Amerindian predecessors. The Taíno name for the island was Haiti. The people had migrated over centuries into the Caribbean islands from South America, genetic studies show they were related to the Yanomami of the Amazon Basin. They also originated in Central and South America, after migrating to Caribbean islands, in the 15th century, the Taíno were pushed into the northeast Caribbean islands by the Caribs. In the Taíno societies of the Caribbean islands, the largest unit of organization was led by a cacique, or chief. The caciquedoms were tributary kingdoms, with payment consisting of harvests, Taíno cultural artifacts include cave paintings in several locations in the country. These have become symbols of Haiti and tourist attractions
7.
Jamaica
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Jamaica is an island country situated in the Caribbean Sea, consisting of the third-largest island of the Greater Antilles. The island,10,990 square kilometres in area, lies about 145 kilometres south of Cuba, Jamaica is the fourth-largest island country in the Caribbean, by area. Inhabited by the indigenous Arawak and Taíno peoples, the island came under Spanish rule following the arrival of Christopher Columbus in 1494, Many of the indigenous people died of disease, and the Spanish imported African slaves as labourers. Named Santiago, the island remained a possession of Spain until 1655, under British colonial rule Jamaica became a leading sugar exporter, with its plantation economy highly dependent on slaves imported from Africa. The British fully emancipated all slaves in 1838, and many chose to have subsistence farms rather than to work on plantations. Beginning in the 1840s, the British imported Chinese and Indian indentured labour to work on plantations, the island achieved independence from the United Kingdom on 6 August 1962. With 2.8 million people, Jamaica is the third-most populous Anglophone country in the Americas, Kingston is the countrys capital and largest city, with a population of 937,700. Jamaicans predominately have African ancestry, with significant European, Chinese, Hakka, Indian, due to a high rate of emigration for work since the 1960s, Jamaica has a large diaspora around the world, particularly in Canada, the United Kingdom, and the United States. Jamaica is a Commonwealth realm, with Queen Elizabeth II as its monarch and her appointed representative in the country is the Governor-General of Jamaica, an office held by Sir Patrick Allen since 2009. Andrew Holness has served as the head of government and Prime Minister of Jamaica from March 2016, the indigenous people, the Taíno, called it Xaymaca in Arawakan, meaning the Land of Wood and Water or the Land of Springs. Colloquially Jamaicans refer to their island as the Rock. Slang names such as Jamrock, Jamdown, or briefly Ja, have derived from this, the Arawak and Taíno indigenous people, originating in South America, settled on the island between 4000 and 1000 BC. When Christopher Columbus arrived in 1494, there were more than 200 villages ruled by caciques, the south coast of Jamaica was the most populated, especially around the area now known as Old Harbour. The Taino still inhabited Jamaica when the English took control of the island in 1655, the Jamaican National Heritage Trust is attempting to locate and document any evidence of the Taino/Arawak. Christopher Columbus claimed Jamaica for Spain after landing there in 1494 and his probable landing point was Dry Harbour, now called Discovery Bay, although there is some debate that it might have been St. Anns Bay. St. Anns Bay was named Saint Gloria by Columbus, as the first sighting of the land, the capital was moved to Spanish Town, then called St. Jago de la Vega, around 1534. Spanish Town has the oldest cathedral of the British colonies in the Caribbean, the Spanish were forcibly evicted by the English at Ocho Rios in St. Ann. In 1655, the English, led by Sir William Penn and General Robert Venables, the English continued to import African slaves as labourers
8.
Puerto Rico
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Puerto Rico, officially the Commonwealth of Puerto Rico and briefly called Porto Rico, is an unincorporated territory of the United States located in the northeast Caribbean Sea. It is an archipelago that includes the island of Puerto Rico and a number of smaller ones such as Mona, Culebra. The capital and most populous city is San Juan and its official languages are Spanish and English, though Spanish predominates. The islands population is approximately 3.4 million, Puerto Ricos rich history, tropical climate, diverse natural scenery, renowned traditional cuisine, and attractive tax incentives make it a popular destination for travelers from around the world. Four centuries of Spanish colonial government transformed the ethnic, cultural and physical landscapes primarily with waves of African captives, and Canarian. In the Spanish imperial imagination, Puerto Rico played a secondary, in 1898, following the Spanish–American War, the United States appropriated Puerto Rico together with most former Spanish colonies under the terms of the Treaty of Paris. Puerto Ricans are natural-born citizens of the United States, however, Puerto Rico does not have a vote in the United States Congress, which governs the territory with full jurisdiction under the Puerto Rico Federal Relations Act of 1950. As a U. S. territory, American citizens residing on the island are disenfranchised at the level and may not vote for president. However, Congress approved a constitution, allowing U. S. citizens on the territory to elect a governor. A fifth referendum will be held in June 2017, with only Statehood, in early 2017, the Puerto Rican government-debt crisis posed serious problems for the government. The outstanding bond debt that had climbed to $70 billion or $12,000 per capita at a time with 12. 4% unemployment, the debt had been increasing during a decade long recession. Puerto Ricans often call the island Borinquen – a derivation of Borikén, its indigenous Taíno name, the terms boricua and borincano derive from Borikén and Borinquen respectively, and are commonly used to identify someone of Puerto Rican heritage. The island is also known in Spanish as la isla del encanto. Columbus named the island San Juan Bautista, in honor of Saint John the Baptist, eventually traders and other maritime visitors came to refer to the entire island as Puerto Rico, while San Juan became the name used for the main trading/shipping port and the capital city. The islands name was changed to Porto Rico by the United States after the Treaty of Paris of 1898, the anglicized name was used by the US government and private enterprises. The name was changed back to Puerto Rico by a joint resolution in Congress introduced by Félix Córdova Dávila in 1931, the ancient history of the archipelago known today as Puerto Rico is not well known. The scarce archaeological findings and early Spanish scholarly accounts from the colonial era constitute the basis of knowledge about them. The first comprehensive book on the history of Puerto Rico was written by Fray Íñigo Abbad y Lasierra in 1786, the first settlers were the Ortoiroid people, an Archaic Period culture of Amerindian hunters and fishermen who migrated from the South American mainland
9.
Demonym
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A demonym is a word that identifies residents or natives of a particular place, which is derived from the name of that particular place. It is a neologism, previously gentilic was recorded in English dictionaries, e. g. the Oxford English Dictionary, thus a Thai may be any resident or citizen of Thailand, of any ethnic group, or more narrowly a member of the Thai people. Conversely, some groups of people may be associated with multiple demonyms, for example, a native of the United Kingdom may be called a British person, a Brit, or a Briton. In some languages, when a parallel demonym does not exist, in English, demonyms are capitalized and are often the same as the adjectival form of the place, e. g. Egyptian, Japanese, or Greek. Significant exceptions exist, for instance the adjectival form of Spain is Spanish, English widely includes country-level demonyms such as Ethiopian or Guatemalan and more local demonyms such as Seoulite, Wisconsinite, Chicagoan, Michigander, Fluminense, and Paulista. Some places lack a commonly used and accepted demonym and this poses a particular challenge to those toponymists who research demonyms. The word gentilic comes from the Latin gentilis and the English suffix -ic, the word demonym was derived from the Greek word meaning populace with the suffix for name. National Geographic attributes the term demonym to Merriam-Webster editor Paul Dickson in a recent work from 1990 and it was subsequently popularized in this sense in 1997 by Dickson in his book Labels for Locals. However, in What Do You Call a Person From, a Dictionary of Resident Names attributed the term to George H. Scheetz, in his Names Names, A Descriptive and Prescriptive Onymicon, which is apparently where the term first appears. Several linguistic elements are used to create demonyms in the English language, the most common is to add a suffix to the end of the location name, slightly modified in some instances. Cairo → Cairene Cyrenaica → Cyrene Damascus → Damascene Greece → Greek Nazareth → Nazarene Slovenia → Slovene Often used for Middle Eastern locations and European locations. Kingston-upon-Hull → Hullensian Leeds → Leodensian Spain → Spaniard Savoy → Savoyard -ese is usually considered proper only as an adjective, thus, a Chinese person is used rather than a Chinese. Monaco → Monégasque Menton → Mentonasque Basque Country → Basque Often used for French locations, mostly they are from Africa and the Pacific, and are not generally known or used outside the country concerned. In much of East Africa, a person of an ethnic group will be denoted by a prefix. For example, a person of the Luba people would be a Muluba, the plural form Baluba, similar patterns with minor variations in the prefixes exist throughout on a tribal level. And Fijians who are indigenous Fijians are known as Kaiviti and these demonyms are usually more informal and colloquial. In the United States such informal demonyms frequently become associated with mascots of the sports teams of the state university system. In other countries the origins are often disputed and these will typically be formed using the standard models above
10.
Eastern Time Zone
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Places that use Eastern Standard Time when observing standard time are 5 hours behind Coordinated Universal Time. Eastern Daylight Time, when observing daylight saving time DST is 4 hours behind Coordinated Universal Time, in the northern parts of the time zone, on the second Sunday in March, at 2,00 a. m. EST, clocks are advanced to 3,00 a. m. EDT leaving a one-hour gap, on the first Sunday in November, at 2,00 a. m. EDT, clocks are moved back to 1,00 a. m, southern parts of the zone do not observe daylight saving time. The Uniform Time Act of 1966 ruled that daylight saving time would run from the last Sunday of April until the last Sunday in October in the United States, the act was amended to make the first Sunday in April the beginning of daylight saving time as of 1987. The Energy Policy Act of 2005 extended daylight saving time in the United States beginning in 2007. So local times change at 2,00 a. m. EST to 3,00 a. m. EDT on the second Sunday in March, in Canada, the time changes as it does in the United States. However, a handful of communities unofficially observe Eastern Time because they are part of the Columbus, Georgia metropolitan area – Phenix City, Smiths Station, Lanett, and Valley. Florida, All of Florida is in the Eastern Time zone except for the portion of the Florida Panhandle west of the Apalachicola River, as the Eastern–Central zone boundary approaches the Gulf of Mexico, it follows the Bay/Gulf county line. Indiana, All of Indiana observes Eastern Time except for six counties in the Chicago metropolitan area. Kentucky, Roughly, the half of the state, including all of metropolitan Louisville, is in the Eastern Time Zone. Historically the entire state observed Central Time, when daylight saving time was first introduced, the Lower Peninsula remained on DST after it formally ended, effectively re-aligning itself into the Eastern Time Zone. The Upper Peninsula continued to observe Central Time until 1972, when all, Tennessee, Most of the eastern third of Tennessee is legally on Eastern Time. Eastern Time is also used somewhat as a de facto official time for all of the United States, since it includes the capital and the largest city. Major professional sports leagues also post all game times in Eastern time, for example, a game time between two teams from Pacific Time Zone will still be posted in Eastern time. Most cable television and national broadcast networks advertise airing times in Eastern time, national broadcast networks generally have two primary feeds, an eastern feed for Eastern and Central time zones, and a tape-delayed western feed for the Pacific Time Zone. The prime time is set on Eastern and Pacific at 8,00 p. m. with the Central time zone stations receiving the eastern feed at 7,00 p. m. local time. Mountain Time Zone stations receive a separate feed at 7,00 p. m. local time, as Arizona does not observe daylight saving time, during the summer months, it has its own feed at 7,00 p. m. local time
11.
UTC-5
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UTC−05,00 is a time offset that subtracts five hours from Coordinated Universal Time. In North America, it is observed in the Eastern Time Zone during standard time, the western Caribbean uses it year round. The southwestern and northwestern portions of Indiana Mexico – Central Zone Central, in most of Mexico, daylight time starts a few weeks after the United States. Communities on the U. S. border that observe Central Time follow the U. S. daylight time schedule
12.
Caribbean Sea
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The Caribbean Sea is a sea of the Atlantic Ocean in the tropics of the Western Hemisphere. The entire area of the Caribbean Sea, the islands of the West Indies. The Caribbean Sea is one of the largest seas and has an area of about 2,754,000 km2, the seas deepest point is the Cayman Trough, between the Cayman Islands and Jamaica, at 7,686 m below sea level. The Caribbean coastline has many gulfs and bays, the Gulf of Gonâve, Gulf of Venezuela, Gulf of Darién, Golfo de los Mosquitos, Gulf of Paria, the Caribbean Sea has the worlds second biggest barrier reef, the Mesoamerican Barrier Reef. It runs 1,000 km along the coasts of Mexico, Belize, Guatemala, the name Caribbean derives from the Caribs, one of the regions dominant Native American groups at the time of European contact during the late 15th century. During the first century of development, Spanish dominance in the region remained undisputed, from the 16th century, Europeans visiting the Caribbean region identified the South Sea as opposed to the North Sea. The Caribbean Sea had been unknown to the populations of Eurasia until 1492, at that time the Western Hemisphere in general was unknown to Europeans. Following the discovery of the islands by Columbus, the area was colonised by several Western cultures. As of 2015 the area is home to 22 island territories, the International Hydrographic Organization defines the limits of the Caribbean Sea as follows, On the North. In the Windward Channel – a line joining Caleta Point and Pearl Point in Haïti, in the Mona Passage – a line joining Cape Engano and the extreme of Agujereada in Puerto Rico. From Galera Point through Trinidad to Galeota Point and thence to Baja Point in Venezuela, note that, although Barbados is an island on the same continental shelf, it is considered to be in the Atlantic Ocean rather than the Caribbean Sea. The Caribbean Sea is an oceanic sea largely situated on the Caribbean Plate, the Caribbean Sea is separated from the ocean by several island arcs of various ages. The youngest stretches from the Lesser Antilles to the Virgin Islands to the north east of Trinidad, the larger islands in the northern part of the sea Cuba, Hispaniola, Jamaica and Puerto Rico lie on an older island arc. The geological age of the Caribbean Sea is estimated to be between 160 and 180 million years and was formed by a fracture that split the supercontinent called Pangea in the Mesozoic Era. It is assumed the proto-caribbean basin existed in the Devonian period, in the early Carboniferous movement of Gondwana to the north and its convergence with the Euramerica basin decreased in size. The next stage of the Caribbean Seas formation began in the Triassic, powerful rifting led to the formation of narrow troughs, stretching from modern Newfoundland to the west coast of the Gulf of Mexico which formed siliciclastic sedimentary rocks. In the early Jurassic due to powerful marine transgression, water broke into the present area of the Gulf of Mexico creating a vast shallow pool, the emergence of deep basins in the Caribbean occurred during the Middle Jurassic rifting. The emergence of these marked the beginning of the Atlantic Ocean
13.
Hispaniola
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Hispaniola is the 22nd-largest island in the world, located in the Caribbean island group, the Greater Antilles. It is the second largest island in the Caribbean after Cuba, two sovereign nations share the 76, 192-square-kilometre island. The only other shared island in the Caribbean is Saint Martin, Hispaniola is the site of the first permanent European settlement in the Americas, founded by Christopher Columbus on his voyages in 1492 and 1493. The island was called by various names by its native people, fernández de Oviedo and de las Casas both recorded that the island was called Haiti by the Taíno. DAnghiera added another name, Quizqueia, but later shows that the word does not seem to derive from the original Arawak Taíno language. When Columbus took possession of the island in 1492, he named it Insula Hispana, meaning the Spanish Island in Latin and La Isla Española, meaning the Spanish Island, in Spanish. De las Casas shortened the name to Española, and when d‘Anghiera detailed his account of the island in Latin, he rendered its name as Hispaniola. Due to Taíno, Spanish and French influences on the island, historically the whole island was referred to as Haiti, Hayti, Santo Domingo, St. Domingue. The name Haïti was adopted by Haitian revolutionary Jean-Jacques Dessalines in 1804, as the name of independent Saint-Domingue. It was also adopted as the name of independent Santo Domingo, as the Republic of Spanish Haiti. Christopher Columbus inadvertently landed on the island during his first voyage across the Atlantic in 1492, where his flagship, a contingent of men were left at an outpost christened La Navidad, on the north coast of present-day Haiti. The island was inhabited by the Taíno, one of the indigenous Arawak peoples, the Taino were at first tolerant of Columbus and his crew, and helped him to construct La Navidad on what is now Môle-Saint-Nicolas, Haiti, in December 1492. European colonization of the began in earnest the following year. In 1496 the town of Nueva Isabela was founded, after being destroyed by a hurricane, it was rebuilt on the opposite side of the Ozama River and called Santo Domingo. It is the oldest permanent European settlement in the Americas, several 16th century writers estimated the 1492 population of Hispaniola at over 1 million people. Twentieth-century estimates of the range from 60,000 to 8,000,000. Harsh enslavement by Spanish colonists, redirection of food supplies and labor towards the colonists, had a impact on both mortality and fertility over the first quarter century. Colonial administrators and Dominican and Hyeronimite priests observed that the search for gold, demographic data from two provinces in 1514 shows a low birth rate consistent with a 3. 5% annual population decline
14.
West Indies
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Indigenous peoples were the first inhabitants of the West Indies. In 1492, Christopher Columbus became the first European to arrive at the islands, after the first of the voyages of Christopher Columbus to the Americas, Europeans began to use the term West Indies to distinguish the region from the East Indies of South Asia and Southeast Asia. In the late century, French, English and Dutch merchants and privateers began their operations in the Caribbean Sea, attacking Spanish and Portuguese shipping. These African slaves wrought a demographic revolution, replacing or joining with either the indigenous Caribs or the European settlers who were there as indentured servants. The Dutch, allied with the Caribs of the Orinoco would eventually carry the struggles deep into South America, first along the Orinoco and these interconnected commercial and diplomatic relations made up the Western Caribbean Zone which was in place in the early eighteenth century. In 1916, Denmark sold the Danish West Indies to the United States for US$25 million in gold, the Danish West Indies became an insular area of the US, called the United States Virgin Islands. Between 1958 and 1962, the United Kingdom re-organised all their West Indies island territories into the West Indies Federation and they hoped that the Federation would coalesce into a single, independent nation. West Indian is the term used by the U. S. government to refer to people of the West Indies. Tulane University professor Rosanne Adderly says he phrase West Indies distinguished the territories encountered by Columbus, … The term West Indies was eventually used by all European nations to describe their own acquired territories in the Americas. Despite the collapse of the Federation … the West Indies continues to field a joint cricket team for international competition, the West Indies cricket team includes participants from Guyana, which is geographically located in South America. More than Slaves and Sugar, Recent Historiography of the Trans-imperial Caribbean, a Concise History of the Caribbean. Martin, Tony, Caribbean History, From Pre-colonial Origins to the Present
15.
Lesser Antilles
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The Lesser Antilles are a group of islands in the Caribbean Sea. Most form a long, partly volcanic island arc between the Greater Antilles to the north-west and the continent of South America, the islands form the eastern boundary of the Caribbean Sea with the Atlantic Ocean. Together, the Lesser Antilles and the Greater Antilles compose the Antilles, when combined with the Lucayan Archipelago, all three are known as the West Indies. The islands of the Lesser Antilles are divided into three groups, the Windward Islands in the south, the Leeward Islands in the north, and the Leeward Antilles in the west. The Windward Islands are so called because they were more windward to sailing ships arriving in the New World than the Leeward Islands, the trans-Atlantic currents and winds that provided the fastest route across the ocean brought these ships to the rough dividing line between the Windward and Leeward Islands. The Leeward Antilles consist of the Dutch ABC islands just off the coast of Venezuela, the Lesser Antilles more or less coincide with the outer edge of the Caribbean Plate. Many of the islands were formed as a result of the subduction of oceanic crust of the South American Plate under the Caribbean Plate in the Lesser Antilles subduction zone. This process is ongoing and is not only for many of the islands. The Lesser Antilles are divided into eight independent nations and numerous dependent, over one third of the total area and population of the Lesser Antilles lies within Trinidad and Tobago, a sovereign nation comprising the two southernmost islands of the Windward Island chain. Several islands along the north coast of Venezuela and politically part of country are also occasionally considered part of the Lesser Antilles. These are listed in the section below, the main Lesser Antilles are, Virgin Islands St. Thomas St. John St. They are the most southern islands of the Caribbean region, a Brief History of the Caribbean. New York, Facts on File,1992, the dictionary definition of Lesser Antilles at Wiktionary
16.
South America
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South America is a continent located in the western hemisphere, mostly in the southern hemisphere, with a relatively small portion in the northern hemisphere. It may also be considered a subcontinent of the Americas, which is the used in nations that speak Romance languages. The reference to South America instead of other regions has increased in the last decades due to changing geopolitical dynamics. It is bordered on the west by the Pacific Ocean and on the north and east by the Atlantic Ocean, North America and it includes twelve sovereign states, a part of France, and a non-sovereign area. In addition to this, the ABC islands of the Kingdom of the Netherlands, Trinidad and Tobago, South America has an area of 17,840,000 square kilometers. Its population as of 2005 has been estimated at more than 371,090,000, South America ranks fourth in area and fifth in population. Brazil is by far the most populous South American country, with more than half of the population, followed by Colombia, Argentina, Venezuela. In recent decades Brazil has also concentrated half of the regions GDP and has become a first regional power, most of the population lives near the continents western or eastern coasts while the interior and the far south are sparsely populated. Most of the continent lies in the tropics, the continents cultural and ethnic outlook has its origin with the interaction of indigenous peoples with European conquerors and immigrants and, more locally, with African slaves. Given a long history of colonialism, the majority of South Americans speak Portuguese or Spanish. South America occupies the portion of the Americas. The continent is delimited on the northwest by the Darién watershed along the Colombia–Panama border. Almost all of mainland South America sits on the South American Plate, South Americas major mineral resources are gold, silver, copper, iron ore, tin, and petroleum. These resources found in South America have brought high income to its countries especially in times of war or of rapid growth by industrialized countries elsewhere. However, the concentration in producing one major export commodity often has hindered the development of diversified economies and this is leading to efforts to diversify production to drive away from staying as economies dedicated to one major export. South America is one of the most biodiverse continents on earth, South America is home to many interesting and unique species of animals including the llama, anaconda, piranha, jaguar, vicuña, and tapir. The Amazon rainforests possess high biodiversity, containing a proportion of the Earths species. Brazil is the largest country in South America, encompassing around half of the land area
17.
Europe
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Europe is a continent that comprises the westernmost part of Eurasia. Europe is bordered by the Arctic Ocean to the north, the Atlantic Ocean to the west, yet the non-oceanic borders of Europe—a concept dating back to classical antiquity—are arbitrary. Europe covers about 10,180,000 square kilometres, or 2% of the Earths surface, politically, Europe is divided into about fifty sovereign states of which the Russian Federation is the largest and most populous, spanning 39% of the continent and comprising 15% of its population. Europe had a population of about 740 million as of 2015. Further from the sea, seasonal differences are more noticeable than close to the coast, Europe, in particular ancient Greece, was the birthplace of Western civilization. The fall of the Western Roman Empire, during the period, marked the end of ancient history. Renaissance humanism, exploration, art, and science led to the modern era, from the Age of Discovery onwards, Europe played a predominant role in global affairs. Between the 16th and 20th centuries, European powers controlled at times the Americas, most of Africa, Oceania. The Industrial Revolution, which began in Great Britain at the end of the 18th century, gave rise to economic, cultural, and social change in Western Europe. During the Cold War, Europe was divided along the Iron Curtain between NATO in the west and the Warsaw Pact in the east, until the revolutions of 1989 and fall of the Berlin Wall. In 1955, the Council of Europe was formed following a speech by Sir Winston Churchill and it includes all states except for Belarus, Kazakhstan and Vatican City. Further European integration by some states led to the formation of the European Union, the EU originated in Western Europe but has been expanding eastward since the fall of the Soviet Union in 1991. The European Anthem is Ode to Joy and states celebrate peace, in classical Greek mythology, Europa is the name of either a Phoenician princess or of a queen of Crete. The name contains the elements εὐρύς, wide, broad and ὤψ eye, broad has been an epithet of Earth herself in the reconstructed Proto-Indo-European religion and the poetry devoted to it. For the second part also the divine attributes of grey-eyed Athena or ox-eyed Hera. The same naming motive according to cartographic convention appears in Greek Ανατολή, Martin Litchfield West stated that phonologically, the match between Europas name and any form of the Semitic word is very poor. Next to these there is also a Proto-Indo-European root *h1regʷos, meaning darkness. Most major world languages use words derived from Eurṓpē or Europa to refer to the continent, in some Turkic languages the originally Persian name Frangistan is used casually in referring to much of Europe, besides official names such as Avrupa or Evropa
18.
New World
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The New World is one of the names used for the Earths Western Hemisphere, specifically the Americas. The term was coined by Florentine explorer Amerigo Vespucci, the Americas were also referred to as the fourth part of the world. New World are meaningful in historical context and for the purpose of distinguishing the worlds major ecozones, and to classify plant and animal species that originated therein. One can speak of the New World in a context, e. g. when discussing the voyages of Christopher Columbus. For lack of alternatives, the term is still useful to those discussing issues that concern the Americas. The term New World is used in a context, when one speaks of Old World. Biological taxonomists often attach the New World label to groups of species that are exclusively in the Americas, to distinguish them from their counterparts in the Old World. New World monkeys, New World vultures, New World warblers, the label is also often used in agriculture. Common Old World crops, and domesticated animals did not exist in the Americas until they were introduced by contact in the 1490s. Other famous New World crops include the cashew, cocoa, rubber, sunflower, tobacco, and vanilla, there are rare instances of overlap, e. g. In wine terminology, New World has a different definition, Vespucci was finally convinced when he proceeded on his mapping expedition through 1501-02, covering the huge stretch of coast of eastern Brazil. But this opinion is false, and entirely opposed to the truth, Vespuccis letter was a publishing sensation in Europe, immediately reprinted in several other countries. The Venetian explorer Alvise Cadamosto had used the term un altro mundo to refer to sub-Saharan Africa, however, this was merely a literary flourish, not a suggestion of a new fourth part of the world. Cadamosto was quite aware sub-Saharan Africa was firmly part of the African continent, the Italian-born Spanish chronicler Peter Martyr dAnghiera often shares credit with Vespucci for designating the Americas as a new world. Peter Martyr used the term Orbe Novo in the title of his history of the discovery of the Americas as a whole, a year later, Peter Martyr again refers to the marvels of the New Globe and the Western hemisphere. Christopher Columbus touched the continent of South America in his 1498 third voyage, in another letter, Columbus refers to having reached a new heavens and world and that he had placed another world under the dominion of the Kings of Spain. The Vespucci passage above applied the New World label to merely the continental landmass of South America, although the proceedings of the Toro-Burgos conferences are missing, it is almost certain that Vespucci articulated his recent New World thesis to his fellow navigators there. In English usage the term New World was problematic and only accepted relatively late, while it became generally accepted after Vespucci that Columbuss discoveries were not Asia but a New World, the geographic relationship between the two continents was still unclear
19.
Antillia
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Antillia is a phantom island that was reputed, during the 15th-century age of exploration, to lie in the Atlantic Ocean, far to the west of Portugal and Spain. The island also went by the name of Isle of Seven Cities and it originates from an old Iberian legend, set during the Muslim conquest of Hispania c. The island makes its first explicit appearance as a rectangular island in the 1424 portolan chart of Zuane Pizzigano. Thereafter, it appeared in most nautical charts of the 15th century. After 1492, when the north Atlantic Ocean began to be routinely sailed and it nonetheless lent its name to the Spanish Antilles. Stories of islands in the Atlantic Ocean, legendary and otherwise, have been reported since classical antiquity, utopian tales of the Fortunate Islands were sung by poets like Homer and Horace. Plato articulated the legend of Atlantis. Ancient writers like Plutarch, Strabo, and, more explicitly, Pliny the Elder and Ptolemy, notable among these are the Irish immrama, such as the immram of Uí Corra, or the sea voyages of the 6th-century Irish missionaries Saint Brendan and Saint Malo. These are the source for several legendary Atlantic islands such as Saint Brendans Island, the sagas of Norse seafarers to Greenland and Vinland, notably the Grœnlendinga saga and the saga of Erik the Red, have also been influential. Norse encounters with North American indigenous peoples seem to have filtered into Irish immrama, medieval Andalusian Arabs related stories of Atlantic island encounters in the legend of the 9th-century navigator Khashkhash of Cordoba and the 12th-century story of the eight Maghurin of Lisbon. It is from Christian Iberia that the legend of Antillia emerged, according to the legend, in c. They stumbled upon an island and decided to settle there, burning their ships to permanently sever their link to their now Muslim-dominated former homeland, the bishops erected seven settlements on the island. In one reading, the seven cities are named Aira, Antuab, Ansalli, Ansesseli, Ansodi, Ansolli, the legend, in this form, is told in various places. In the year 1414 a Spanish ship approached very near this Island, the legend is also found inscribed in the 1507/08 map of Johannes Ruysch, which reads, This island Antilia was once found by the Portuguese, but now when it is searched, cannot be found. There is 1 archbishop here and 6 other bishops, each of whom has his own city, the people live here in the most Christian manner, replete with all the riches of this century. Ruyschs inscription is reproduced almost verbatim in the Libro of Spanish historian Pedro de Medina, more elaborate versions of this story have been told in more modern times. Yet another variant of the tale is told in Manuel de Faria e Sousa, of Sacaru, a Visigothic governor of Mérida. It is mentioned again in a letter, issued by King John II of Portugal at the request of Fernão Dulmo authorizing him to search for
20.
Lucayan Archipelago
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The Lucayan Archipelago, also known as the Bahama Archipelago, is an island group comprising the Commonwealth of the Bahamas and the British Overseas Territory of the Turks and Caicos Islands. The archipelago is in the western North Atlantic Ocean, north of the Antilles, because the two nations of the Lucayan Archipelago do not border the Caribbean Sea, they are technically part of the West Indies but not the Caribbean. They are, however, often grouped with the Caribbean nations for convenience, the leaders of the Bahamas as well as Turks and Caicos Islands discussed the possibility of forming a federation in 2010. Bahamas Turks and Caicos Islands The Lucayan Archipelago was originally formed by the rifting of Pangaea, the Super-continent, the rifting of Pangaea was accompanied by volcanic activity due to the nature of the colliding North American and Caribbean plates. Evidence of the activity is found in the tilted fault blocks of Jurassic volcaniclastics which are commonly found in the Florida Straits area. In the southern region of the Bahamas, the basement rocks are oceanic crust, the Bahamas are referred to as carbonate islands, which is due to the formation of carbonate banks. This megabank formed in the Late Jurassic and is evidence of an absence of water at the time of formation due to the type of rock formed. Carbonates are more likely to form in shallower waters, thus the formation of two major banks in the Bahamas shows that there was an absence of deep water. There is also evidence of faulting which is shown in the tilting of the Bahama Banks and this tilting is due to the subduction of the North American plate under the Caribbean plate, in the vicinity of Cuba. The angle of tilting, which is left-lateral wrench faulting is in the direction of the subduction and this faulting occurred because as the North American plate subducted under the Caribbean plate, not all the rock layers moved as one continuous unit. List of islands of the Lucayan Archipelago Greater Antilles Lesser Antilles West Indies Keegan, the People Who Discovered Columbus, The Prehistory of the Bahamas. University Press of Florida ISBN 0-8130-1137-X Granberry, Julian, journal of the Bahamas Historical Society
21.
Capital (political)
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A capital city is the municipality exercising primary status in a country, state, province, or other region, usually as its seat of government. A capital is typically a city that encompasses the offices and meeting places of its respective government. In some jurisdictions, including countries, the different branches of government are located in different settlements. In some cases, a distinction is made between the capital and the seat of government, which is in another place. The word capital derives from the Latin caput, meaning head, in several English-speaking states, the terms county town, county seat, and borough seat are also used in lower subdivisions. In unitary states, subnational capitals are known as administrative centres. The capital is often, but not necessarily, the largest city of its constituent, historically, the major economic centre of a state or region often becomes the focal point of political power, and becomes a capital through conquest or federation. Examples are Ancient Babylon, Abbasid Baghdad, Ancient Athens, Rome, Constantinople, Changan, Ancient Cusco, Madrid, Paris, London, Moscow, Beijing, Tokyo, Vienna, and Berlin. Some of these cities are or were also religious centres, e. g. Constantinople, Rome, Jerusalem, Ancient Babylon, Moscow, Belgrade, Paris, and Peking. A capital city that is also the economic, cultural. The convergence of political and economic or cultural power is by no means universal, traditional capitals may be economically eclipsed by provincial rivals, e. g. Nanking by Shanghai, Quebec City by Montreal, and numerous US state capitals. The decline of a dynasty or culture could also mean the extinction of its city, as occurred at Babylon. Although many capitals are defined by constitution or legislation, many long-time capitals have no legal designation as such, for example Bern, Edinburgh, Lisbon, London, Paris, are located in or near them. In Canada, there is a capital, while the ten provinces. The states of such countries as Mexico, Brazil, and Australia all have capital cities, for example, the six state capitals of Australia are Adelaide, Brisbane, Hobart, Melbourne, Perth, and Sydney. In Australia, the capital cities is regularly used, to refer to the aforementioned state capitals plus the federal capital Canberra and Darwin. Abu Dhabi is the city of the Emirate of Abu Dhabi. In unitary states which consist of multiple constituent countries, such as the United Kingdom or the Kingdom of Denmark, the national capitals of Germany and Russia, the Stadtstaat of Berlin and the Federal City of Moscow, are also constituent states of both countries in their own right
22.
George Town, Cayman Islands
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George Town is a city situated on Grand Cayman island of the Cayman Islands. It serves as the capital of the Cayman Islands, in the British West Indies, as of 2007, the city had a population of 28,836, making it the second largest city of all the British Overseas Territories. George Town is the heart of the Cayman Islands financial services industry, the Caymanian government offices are located in the city. The Caymanian government offices are located in George Town and these offices include the Legislative Assembly of the Cayman Islands, the Court Houses and the Government Administration Building. The Government Administration Building houses the offices of the Premier and other members of Cabinet, the former Old Courts Building located at the corner of Shedden Road and Harbour Drive is now the National Museum of Grand Cayman. The building was more than 150 years ago and has served the Caymanian government not only as a court building but as a jail. George Towns famous Seven Mile Beach is a crescent of coral-sand beach extending up to the West Bay region of Grand Cayman and is the most popular. The financial services generated CI$1.2 billion of GDP in 2007, 36% of all employment, the Cayman Islands ranks fifth internationally in terms of value of liabilities booked and sixth in terms of assets booked. It has branches of 40 of the worlds 50 largest banks, the Cayman Islands are the second largest captive domicile in the world with more than 700 captives, writing more than US$7.7 billion of premiums and with US$36.8 billion of assets under management. There are more than 9,500 funds under licence with globally recognised legal, audit/accounting, major law firms such as Maples and Calder have established themselves in the Cayman Islands. Similarly, large accounting firms such as KPMG, Ogier, Ernst & Young, as a result, the Cayman Islands are a leader in captive domiciles, hedge fund registrations and is considered a major international banking centre. George Town is a port of call for the Caribbean with cruise ships anchoring in George Town Harbour Tuesday through Friday. Cruise ships calling at George Town anchor offshore and ferry their passengers ashore by tenders, passengers disembark in George Town, in the centre of the Grand Cayman shopping district and usually remain anchored from early morning until mid-afternoon. For nightlife, Seven Mile Beach is host to numerous nightclubs, George Towns waterfront is also home to a Harley-Davidson shop, a Jimmy Buffetts Margaritaville franchise, and a Guy Harvey art studio and restaurant. Ritz-Carlton Grand Cayman is the grandest hotel on the island, George Town, as well as the rest of Grand Cayman, is served by nearby Owen Roberts International Airport. It is one of the two entrance points to the Cayman Islands by air, the other being Charles Kirkconnell Airport on Cayman Brac. There are over 55 weekly flights into the Cayman Islands, Cayman Airways is the National Flag Carrier of the Cayman Islands and features five Boeing 737 jets and two Twin Otters. Non-stop service to Grand Cayman are available from Atlanta, Chicago, Tampa, Newark, London, Toronto, New York, Montego Bay, havana, Miami, Panama City, La Ceiba and more
23.
Havana
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Havana is the capital city, largest city, province, major port, and leading commercial centre of Cuba. The city extends mostly westward and southward from the bay, which is entered through a narrow inlet, the sluggish Almendares River traverses the city from south to north, entering the Straits of Florida a few miles west of the bay. King Philip II of Spain granted Havana the title of City in 1592, walls as well as forts were built to protect the old city. The sinking of the U. S. battleship Maine in Havanas harbor in 1898 was the cause of the Spanish–American War. Contemporary Havana can essentially be described as three cities in one, Old Havana, Vedado and the suburban districts. The city is the center of the Cuban government, and home to various ministries, headquarters of businesses, the current mayor is Marta Hernández of the Communist Party of Cuba. In 2009, the city/province had the third highest income in the country, the city attracts over a million tourists annually, the Official Census for Havana reports that in 2010 the city was visited by 1,176,627 international tourists, a 20% increase from 2005. Old Havana was declared a UNESCO World Heritage Site in 1982, the city is also noted for its history, culture, architecture and monuments. As typical of Cuba, Havana also features a tropical climate, in May 2015, Havana was officially recognized as one of the New7Wonders Cities together with Vigan, Doha, La Paz, Durban, Beirut, and Kuala Lumpur. Most native settlements became the site of Spanish colonial cities retaining their original Taíno names, an alternate theory is that Habana is derived from the Middle Dutch word havene, referring to a harbour, etymologically related to the English word haven. All attempts to found a city on Cubas south coast failed, however, an early map of Cuba drawn in 1514 places the town at the mouth of this river. The town that became Havana finally originated adjacent to what was then called Puerto de Carenas, the quality of this natural bay, which now hosts Havanas harbor, warranted this change of location. Pánfilo de Narváez gave Havana – the sixth town founded by the Spanish on Cuba – its name, the name combines San Cristóbal, patron saint of Havana. Shortly after the founding of Cubas first cities, the served as little more than a base for the Conquista of other lands. Havana began as a port, and suffered regular attacks by buccaneers, pirates. The first attack and resultant burning of the city was by the French corsair Jacques de Sores in 1555, ships from all over the New World carried products first to Havana, in order to be taken by the fleet to Spain. The thousands of ships gathered in the bay also fueled Havanas agriculture and manufacture, since they had to be supplied with food, water. On December 20,1592, King Philip II of Spain granted Havana the title of City, later on, the city would be officially designated as Key to the New World and Rampart of the West Indies by the Spanish Crown
24.
Santo Domingo
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Santo Domingo, officially Santo Domingo de Guzmán, is the capital and largest city in the Dominican Republic and the largest metropolitan area in the Caribbean by population. In 2010, its population was counted as 965,040, the city is coterminous with the boundaries of the Distrito Nacional, itself bordered on three sides by Santo Domingo Province. Santo Domingo is the site of the first university, cathedral, castle, monastery, the citys Colonial Zone was declared as a World Heritage Site by UNESCO. Santo Domingo was called Ciudad Trujillo, from 1936 to 1961, after the Dominican Republics dictator, Rafael Trujillo, following his assassination, the city resumed its original designation. Santo Domingo is the cultural, financial, political, commercial and industrial center of the Dominican Republic, Santo Domingo also serves as the chief seaport of the country. The citys harbor at the mouth of the Ozama River accommodates the largest vessels, temperatures are high year round, with a cool breeze around winter time. At the time, the territory consisted of five chiefdoms, Marién, Maguá, Maguana, Jaragua. These were ruled respectively by caciques Guacanagarix, Guarionex, Caonabo, Bohechío, dating from 1496, when the Spanish settled on the island, and officially from 5 August 1498, Santo Domingo became the oldest European city in the Americas. Bartholomew Columbus founded the settlement and named it La Nueva Isabela, in 1495 it was renamed Santo Domingo, in honor of Saint Dominic. Santo Domingo came to be known as the Gateway to the Caribbean, in June 1502, Santo Domingo was destroyed by a major hurricane, and the new Governor Nicolás de Ovando had it rebuilt on a different site on the other side of the Ozama River. The original layout of the city and a portion of its defensive wall can still be appreciated today throughout the Colonial Zone. Diego Colon arrived in 1509, assuming the powers of Viceroy, in 1512, Ferdinand established a Real Audiencia with Juan Ortiz de Matienzo, Marcelo de Villalobos, and Lucas Vazquez de Ayllon appointed as judges of appeal. In 1514, Pedro Ibanez de Ibarra arrived with the Laws of Burgos, rodrigo de Alburquerque was named repartidor de indios and soon named visitadores to enforce the laws. In 1586, Francis Drake captured the city and held it for ransom, an expedition sent by Oliver Cromwell in 1655 attacked the city of Santo Domingo, but was defeated. The English troops withdrew and took the less guarded colony of Jamaica, in 1697, the Treaty of Ryswick included the acknowledgement by Spain of Frances dominion over the Western third of the island, now Haiti. From 1795 to 1822 the city changed several times along with the colony it headed. The city was ceded to France in 1795 after years of struggles, it was captured by Haitian rebels in 1801, recovered by France in 1802. In 1821 Santo Domingo became the capital of an independent nation after the Criollo bourgeois within the country, led by José Núñez de Cáceres, the nation was unified with Haiti just two months later
25.
Port-au-Prince
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Port-au-Prince is the capital and most populous city of Haiti. The citys population was estimated at 987,310 in 2015 with the area estimated at a population of 2,618,894. The metropolitan area is defined by the IHSI as including the communes of Port-au-Prince, Delmas, Cite Soleil, Tabarre, Carrefour, and Pétion-Ville. The city of Port-au-Prince is on the Gulf of Gonâve, the bay on which the city lies and it was first incorporated under French colonial rule in 1749. The citys layout is similar to that of an amphitheatre, commercial districts are near the water, the city was catastrophically affected by a devastating earthquake in 2010, with large numbers of structures damaged or destroyed. Haitis government estimated the toll to be 230,000. It is said that a captain named de Saint-André named the area in 1706, after he sailed into the bay in a ship named Le Prince, hence Port-au-Prince to mean, Port of the Le Prince. However, the port and the region continued to be known as Hôpital. It was later renamed back to Port-au-Prince by Jacques I, Emperor of Haiti, when Haiti was divided between a kingdom in the north and a republic in the south, Port-au-Prince was the capital of the republic, under the leadership of Alexandre Pétion. Henri Christophe renamed the city Port-aux-Crimes after the assassination of Jacques I at Pont Larnage, prior to the arrival of Christopher Columbus, the island of Hispaniola was inhabited by people known as the Taíno, who arrived in approximately 2600 BC in large dugout canoes. They are believed to come primarily from what is now eastern Venezuela, by the time Columbus arrived in 1492 AD, the region was under the control of Bohechio, Taíno cacique Xaragua. He, like his predecessors, feared settling too close to the coast, such settlements would have proven to be tempting targets for the Caribes, instead, the region served as a hunting ground. The population of the region was approximately 400,000 at the time, with the arrival of the Spaniards, the Amerindians were forced to accept a protectorate, and Bohechio, childless at death, was succeeded by his sister, Anacaona, wife of the cacique Caonabo. The Spanish insisted on larger tributes, eventually, the Spanish colonial administration decided to rule directly, and in 1503, Nicolas Ovando, then governor, set about to put an end to the régime headed by Anacaona. He invited her and other leaders to a feast. Anacaona was spared, only to be hanged publicly some time later, through violence and murders, the Spanish settlers decimated the native population. Not long thereafter, Ovando founded Santa Maria del Puerto, the latter was first burned by French explorers in 1535, then again in 1592 by the English. These assaults proved to be too much for the Spanish colonial administration, around 1650, French pirates, or flibustiers, running out of room on the Île de la Tortue began to arrive on the coast, and established a colony at Trou-Borded
26.
Kingston, Jamaica
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Kingston is the capital and largest city of Jamaica, located on the southeastern coast of the island. It faces a natural harbour protected by the Palisadoes, a sand spit which connects the town of Port Royal. In the Americas, Kingston is the largest predominantly English-speaking city south of the United States. The local government bodies of the parishes of Kingston and St. Andrew were amalgamated by the Kingston and St. Andrew Corporation Act of 1923, to form the Kingston and St. Andrew Corporation. Greater Kingston, or the Corporate Area refers to areas under the KSAC, however, it does not solely refer to Kingston Parish. Kingston Parish had a population of 96,052, and St. Andrew parish had a population of 555,828 in 2001, Kingston is only bordered by Saint Andrew to the east, west and north. The city proper is bounded by Six Miles to the west, Stony Hill to the north, Papine to the northeast and Harbour View to the east, communities in urban and suburban Saint Andrew. Communities in rural St. Andrew such as Gordon Town, Mavis Bank, Lawrence Tavern, Mt. Airy, two parts make up the central area of Kingston, the historic Downtown, and New Kingston. Both are served by Norman Manley International Airport and also by the smaller, Kingston was founded in July 1692 as a place for survivors of the 1692 earthquake that destroyed Port Royal. Before the earthquake, Kingston’s functions were purely agricultural, the earthquake survivors set up a camp on the sea front. Approximately two thousand people died due to mosquito-borne diseases, initially the people lived in a tented camp on Colonel Barrys Hog Crawle. The town did not begin to grow until after the destruction of Port Royal by fire in 1703. Surveyor John Goffe drew up a plan for the town based on a grid bounded by North, East, West, by 1716 it had become the largest town and the centre of trade for Jamaica. The government sold land to people with the regulation that they no more than the amount of the land that they owned in Port Royal. Gradually wealthy merchants began to move their residences from above their businesses to the lands north on the plains of Liguanea. The first free school, Wolmerss, was founded in 1729 and there was a theatre, first on Harbour Street, in 1755 the governor, Sir Charles Knowles, had decided to transfer the government offices from Spanish Town to Kingston. It was thought by some to be a location for the Assembly in proximity to the moral distractions of Kingston. By the end of the 18th century, the city contained more than 3,000 brick buildings, the harbour fostered trade, and played part in several naval wars of the 18th century
27.
San Juan, Puerto Rico
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San Juan is the capital and most populous municipality in the Commonwealth of Puerto Rico, an unincorporated territory of the United States. As of the 2010 census, it had a population of 395,326 making it the 46th-largest city under the jurisdiction of the United States, San Juan was founded by Spanish colonists in 1521, who called it Ciudad de Puerto Rico. Puerto Ricos capital is the second oldest European-established capital city in the Americas, after Santo Domingo, today, San Juan is Puerto Ricos most important seaport, and is the islands manufacturing, financial, cultural, and tourism center. San Juan is also a city of the San Juan-Caguas-Fajardo Combined Statistical Area. In 1508, Juan Ponce de León founded the settlement which he called Caparra. In 1521, the settlement was given its formal name. On the other hand, the name for the island became the name for the city only after the occupation of the island by the United States. San Juan, as a settlement of the Spanish Empire, was used by merchant, because of its prominence in the Caribbean, a network of fortifications was built to protect the transports of gold and silver from the New World to Europe. Because of the cargoes, San Juan became a target of the foreign powers of the time. The city was witness to attacks from the English led by Sir Francis Drake in 1595 and by George Clifford, Earl of Cumberland, artillery from San Juans fort, El Morro, repelled Drake, however, Clifford managed to land troops and lay siege to the city. After a few months of English occupation, Clifford was forced to abandon the siege when his troops began to suffer from exhaustion, in 1625 the city was sacked by Dutch forces led by Captain Balduino Enrico, but El Morro withstood the assault and was not taken. The Dutch were counterattacked by Captain Juan de Amezquita and 50 members of the militia on land. The land battle left 60 Dutch soldiers dead and Enrico with a wound to his neck which he received from the hands of Amezquita. The Dutch ships at sea were boarded by Puerto Ricans who defeated those aboard, after a long battle, the Spanish soldiers and volunteers of the citys militia were able to defend the city from the attack and save the island from an invasion. On October 21, Enrico set La Fortaleza and the city ablaze, captains Amezquita and Andre Botello decided to put a stop to the destruction and led 200 men in an attack against the enemys front and rear guard. They drove Enrico and his men from their trenches and into the ocean in their haste to reach their ships, the British attack in 1797, during the French Revolutionary Wars, led by Sir Ralph Abercromby. His army laid siege to the city but was forced to withdraw in defeat as the Puerto Rican defenses proved more resilient than those of Trinidad. The USS Yale captured a Spanish freighter, the Rita in San Juan Bay, on May 9, Yale fought a brief battle with an auxiliary cruiser of Spain, name unknown, resulting in a Spanish victory
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International Standard Book Number
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The International Standard Book Number is a unique numeric commercial book identifier. An ISBN is assigned to each edition and variation of a book, for example, an e-book, a paperback and a hardcover edition of the same book would each have a different ISBN. The ISBN is 13 digits long if assigned on or after 1 January 2007, the method of assigning an ISBN is nation-based and varies from country to country, often depending on how large the publishing industry is within a country. The initial ISBN configuration of recognition was generated in 1967 based upon the 9-digit Standard Book Numbering created in 1966, the 10-digit ISBN format was developed by the International Organization for Standardization and was published in 1970 as international standard ISO2108. Occasionally, a book may appear without a printed ISBN if it is printed privately or the author does not follow the usual ISBN procedure, however, this can be rectified later. Another identifier, the International Standard Serial Number, identifies periodical publications such as magazines, the ISBN configuration of recognition was generated in 1967 in the United Kingdom by David Whitaker and in 1968 in the US by Emery Koltay. The 10-digit ISBN format was developed by the International Organization for Standardization and was published in 1970 as international standard ISO2108, the United Kingdom continued to use the 9-digit SBN code until 1974. The ISO on-line facility only refers back to 1978, an SBN may be converted to an ISBN by prefixing the digit 0. For example, the edition of Mr. J. G. Reeder Returns, published by Hodder in 1965, has SBN340013818 -340 indicating the publisher,01381 their serial number. This can be converted to ISBN 0-340-01381-8, the check digit does not need to be re-calculated, since 1 January 2007, ISBNs have contained 13 digits, a format that is compatible with Bookland European Article Number EAN-13s. An ISBN is assigned to each edition and variation of a book, for example, an ebook, a paperback, and a hardcover edition of the same book would each have a different ISBN. The ISBN is 13 digits long if assigned on or after 1 January 2007, a 13-digit ISBN can be separated into its parts, and when this is done it is customary to separate the parts with hyphens or spaces. Separating the parts of a 10-digit ISBN is also done with either hyphens or spaces, figuring out how to correctly separate a given ISBN number is complicated, because most of the parts do not use a fixed number of digits. ISBN issuance is country-specific, in that ISBNs are issued by the ISBN registration agency that is responsible for country or territory regardless of the publication language. Some ISBN registration agencies are based in national libraries or within ministries of culture, in other cases, the ISBN registration service is provided by organisations such as bibliographic data providers that are not government funded. In Canada, ISBNs are issued at no cost with the purpose of encouraging Canadian culture. In the United Kingdom, United States, and some countries, where the service is provided by non-government-funded organisations. Australia, ISBNs are issued by the library services agency Thorpe-Bowker
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Leeward Antilles
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The Leeward Antilles, while among the Lesser Antilles, are not to be confused with the Leeward Islands to the northeast. Recent studies indicate that the Leeward Antilles are accreting to South America, evolution of the Southern Caribbean Plate Boundary. Eos, Transactions, American Geophysical Union,87,97,100, collaborative Research, Crust-Mantle Interactions During Continental Growth and High-Pressure Rock Exhumation at an Oblique Arc-Continent Collision Zone, Geology of Northeastern Venezuela. SE Caribbean Plate Boundary Continental Dynamics Project
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Aruba
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It measures 32 kilometres long from its northwestern to its southeastern end and 10 kilometres across at its widest point. Together with Bonaire and Curaçao, Aruba forms a group referred to as the ABC islands, collectively, Aruba and the other Dutch islands in the Caribbean are often called the Dutch Caribbean. Aruba is one of the four countries that form the Kingdom of the Netherlands, along with the Netherlands, Curaçao, the citizens of these countries all share a single nationality, Dutch. Aruba has no subdivisions, but, for census purposes, is divided into eight regions. Unlike much of the Caribbean region, Aruba has a dry climate and this climate has helped tourism as visitors to the island can reliably expect warm, sunny weather. It has an area of 179 km2 and is densely populated. Arubas first inhabitants are thought to have been Caquetío Amerindians from the Arawak tribe, fragments of the earliest known Indian settlements date back to 1000 AD. As sea currents made travel to other Caribbean islands difficult. Europeans first learned of Aruba following the explorations for Spain by Amerigo Vespucci, both described Aruba as an island of giants, remarking on the comparatively large stature of the native Caquetíos compared to Europeans. Gold was not discovered on Aruba for another 300 years, Vespucci returned to Spain with stocks of cotton and brazilwood from the island and described houses built into the ocean. Vespucci and Ojedas tales spurred interest in Aruba, and Spaniards soon colonized the island, because it had low rainfall, Aruba was not considered profitable for the plantation system and the economics of the slave trade. Aruba was colonized by Spain for over a century, simas, the Cacique, or chief, in Aruba, welcomed the first Catholic priests in Aruba, who gave him a wooden cross as a gift. In 1508, the Spanish Crown appointed Alonso de Ojeda as its first Governor of Aruba, Arawaks spoke the broken Spanish which their ancestors had learned on Hispaniola. Another governor appointed by Spain was Juan Martínez de Ampiés, a cédula real decreed in November 1525 gave Ampiés, factor of Española, the right to repopulate Aruba. In 1528, Ampiés was replaced by a representative of the House of Welser, the Dutch statutes have applied to Aruba since 1629. The Netherlands acquired Aruba in 1636, since 1636, Aruba has been under Dutch administration, initially governed by Peter Stuyvesant, later appointed to New Amsterdam. Stuyvesant was on a mission in Aruba in November and December 1642. The island was included under the Dutch West India Company administration, as New Netherland and Curaçao, in 1667 the Dutch administration appointed an Irishman as Commandeur in Aruba
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Bonaire
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Bonaire is an island in the Leeward Antilles in the Caribbean Sea. Together with Aruba and Curaçao, it forms the group known as the ABC islands, unlike much of the Caribbean region, the ABCs lie outside the hurricane belt. The islands have a climate, which helps tourism, as visitors to the islands can reliably expect warm. Bonaire is a destination for SCUBA divers, and it is also well known for easy access to its various reefs from the shore. The island has a permanent population of 18,905 and an area of 294 km2, Bonaire was part of the Netherlands Antilles until the countrys dissolution in 2010, when the island became a special municipality within the country of the Netherlands. It is one of the three BES islands in the Caribbean, the other two BES islands are Sint Eustatius and Saba, the name Bonaire is thought to have originally come from the Caquetio word Bonay, a name that meant low country. The early Spanish and Dutch modified its spelling to Bojnaj and also Bonaire, the French influence, while present at various times, was never strong enough to make the assumption that the name means good air. Bonaires earliest known inhabitants were the Caquetio Indians, a branch of the Arawak who came by canoe from Venezuela in about 1000 AD, archeological remains of Caquetio culture have been found at certain sites northeast of Kralendijk and near Lac Bay. Caquetio rock paintings and petroglyphs have been preserved in caves at Spelonk, Onima, Ceru Pungi, the Caquetios were apparently a very tall people, for the Spanish name for the ABC Islands was las Islas de los Gigantes or the islands of the giants. In 1499, Alonso de Ojeda arrived in Curaçao and an island that was almost certainly Bonaire. Ojeda was accompanied by Amerigo Vespucci and Juan de la Cosa, de La Cosas Mappa Mundi of 1500 shows Bonaire and calls it Isla do Palo Brasil or Island of Brazilwood. In 1526, Juan de Ampies was appointed Spanish commander of the ABC Islands and he brought back some of the original Caquetio Indian inhabitants to Bonaire and Curaçao. Ampies also imported domesticated animals from Spain, including cows, donkeys, goats, horses, pigs, the Spaniards thought that Bonaire could be used as a cattle plantation worked by natives. The cattle were raised for hides rather than meat, the Spanish inhabitants lived mostly in the inland town of Rincon which was safe from pirate attack. The Dutch West India Company was founded in 1621, starting in 1623, ships of the West India Company called at Bonaire to obtain meat, water, and wood. The Dutch also abandoned some Spanish and Portuguese prisoners there, the Dutch and the Spanish fought from 1568 to 1648 in what is now known as the Eighty Years War. In 1633, the Dutch—having lost the island of St. Maarten to the Spanish—retaliated by attacking Curaçao, Bonaire, Bonaire was conquered in March 1636. The Dutch built Fort Oranje in 1639, while Curaçao emerged as a center of the slave trade, Bonaire became a plantation of the Dutch West India Company
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Leeward Islands
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The Leeward Islands /ˈliːwərd/ are a group of islands in the West Indies. In English, the term refers to the islands of the Lesser Antilles chain. As a group they start east of Puerto Rico and reach southward to Dominica and they are situated where the northeastern Caribbean Sea meets the western Atlantic Ocean. The more southerly part of the Lesser Antilles chain are called the Windward Islands, the name of this island group, Leeward Islands, dates from previous centuries, when sailing ships were the sole form of transportation across the Atlantic Ocean. In the West Indies, the winds, known as the trade winds. The early Spanish colonizers called Puerto Rico and the islands to the west Sotavento, the islands to the south and east of Puerto Rico were then called Islas de Barlovento, meaning windward islands. When the British gained control of many of the Lesser Antilles, they designated Antigua, Montserrat, guadeloupe and the islands to the south were designated Windward Islands. Later on, all north of Martinique became known as the Leeward Islands. Thus, Dominica is the first of the Leeward islands, the islands along the Venezuelan coast, known in English as the Leeward Antilles, in languages other than English are known as the Leeward Islands. The islands are affected by volcanism, and notable eruptions have occurred in Montserrat in the 1990s. The islands were among the first parts of the Americas to fall under the control of the Spanish Empire, mont serrat in Catalan means saw mountain, referring to the serrated appearance of the mountain range. The Leeward Islands became a British colony in 1671, in 1699, prior to the War of the Spanish Succession, Christopher Codrington became the governor of the Leeward Islands. The war lasted from 1701 to 1714, daniel Parke II was the British governor of the Leeward Islands from 1706 to 1710. He was assassinated during a mutiny triggered by his self-enriching enforcement of Stuart imperialism, although comparatively much smaller than the surrounding islands in the Caribbean, the Leeward Islands posed the most significant rebellion to the British Stamp Act. In 1816 the colony was dissolved, with its last governor being James Leith, in 1833, the colony was reformed. From 1833 until 1871, the Governor of Antigua performed the duties of the Governor of the Leeward Islands, today the Islands are governed by a number of national and colonial administrations. Digital Library of the Caribbean−dloc. org, Antigua, Montserrat and Virgin Islands Gazette — openly−freely available, with searchable text and full page images
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Anguilla
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Anguilla is a British overseas territory in the Caribbean. It is one of the most northerly of the Leeward Islands in the Lesser Antilles, lying east of Puerto Rico, the islands capital is The Valley. The total land area of the territory is 35 square miles, Anguilla has become a popular tax haven, having no capital gains, estate, profit or other forms of direct taxation on either individuals or corporations. In April 2011, faced with a deficit, it introduced a 3% Interim Stabilisation Levy. The name Anguilla is an anglicised or latinate form of earlier Spanish anguila, French anguille, or Italian anguilla, for similar reasons, it was formerly known as Snake or Snake Island. Anguilla was first settled by Indigenous Amerindian peoples who migrated from South America, the earliest Native American artefacts found on Anguilla have been dated to around 1300 BC, remains of settlements date from AD600. The Arawak name for the island seems to have been Malliouhana, traditional accounts state that Anguilla was first colonised by English settlers from Saint Kitts beginning in 1650. The French temporarily took over the island in 1666 but returned it to English control under the terms of the Treaty of Breda the next year. A Major John Scott who visited in September 1667, wrote of leaving the island in good condition and it is likely that some of these early Europeans brought enslaved Africans with them. Historians confirm that African slaves lived in the region in the early 17th century, for example, Africans from Senegal lived in St. Christopher in 1626. By 1672 a slave depot existed on the island of Nevis, while the time of African arrival in Anguilla is difficult to place precisely, archival evidence indicates a substantial African presence of at least 100 slaves by 1683. These seem to have come from Central Africa as well as West Africa, attempts by the French to capture the island during the War of Austrian Succession and the Napoleonic Wars ended in failure. During the early period, Anguilla was administered by the British through Antigua, in 1825. In 1967, Britain granted Saint Kitts and Nevis full internal autonomy, Anguilla was also incorporated into the new unified dependency, named Saint Christopher-Nevis-Anguilla, against the wishes of many Anguillians. This led to two Anguillian Revolutions in 1967 and 1969 headed by Atlin Harrigan and Ronald Webster, the island briefly operated as the independent Republic of Anguilla. The goal of the revolution was not independence per se, but rather independence from Saint Kitts and Nevis, British authority was fully restored in July 1971 and in 1980 Anguilla was finally allowed to secede from Saint Kitts and Nevis and become a separate British Crown colony. Anguilla is an internally self-governing overseas territory of the United Kingdom and its politics take place in a framework of a parliamentary representative democratic dependency, whereby the Chief Minister is the head of government, and of a pluriform multi-party system. The United Nations Committee on Decolonization includes Anguilla on the United Nations list of Non-Self-Governing Territories, the territorys constitution is Anguilla Constitutional Order 1 April 1982
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Antigua and Barbuda
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Antigua and Barbuda is a twin-island country in the Americas, lying between the Caribbean Sea and the Atlantic Ocean. It consists of two inhabited islands, Antigua and Barbuda, and a number of smaller islands. The permanent population numbers about 81,800 and the capital and largest port and city is St. Johns, on Antigua. Separated by a few miles, Antigua and Barbuda are in the middle of the Leeward Islands, part of the Lesser Antilles. The countrys name was given by Christopher Columbus in 1493 after discovering the island, the country is nicknamed Land of 365 Beaches due to the many beaches surrounding the islands. Its governance, language, and culture have all been influenced by the British Empire. Antigua is Spanish for ancient and Barbuda is Spanish for bearded, the island of Antigua, originally called Waladli by Arawaks, is today called Wadadli by locals. Christopher Columbus, while sailing by in 1493 may have named it Santa Maria la Antigua, Antigua was first settled by archaic age hunter-gatherer Amerindians called the Siboney or Ciboney. Carbon dating has established the earliest settlements started around 3100 BC and they were succeeded by the ceramic age pre-Columbian Arawak-speaking Saladoid people who migrated from the lower Orinoco River. The Arawaks introduced agriculture, raising, among crops, the famous Antigua black pineapple, corn, sweet potatoes, chiles, guava, tobacco. The indigenous West Indians made excellent seagoing vessels which used to sail around on the Atlantic. As a result, Caribs and Arawaks were able to much of South America. Their descendants still live there, notably in Brazil, Venezuela, most Arawaks left Antigua around 1100 AD, those who remained were later raided by the Caribs. The Catholic Encyclopedia makes it clear that the European invaders had difficulty differentiating between the groups of the native peoples they encountered. As a result, the number and types of groups in existence at that time may have been much more varied. European and African diseases, malnutrition, and slavery eventually killed most of the Caribbeans native population, smallpox was probably the greatest killer. Some historians believe that the stress of slavery may also have played a part in the massive number of deaths amongst enslaved natives. Others believe the reportedly abundant but starchy, low-protein diet may have contributed to their severe malnutrition as they were used to a diet fortified with protein from the sea, the Spaniards did not colonise Antigua because it lacked fresh water but not aggressive Caribs
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British Virgin Islands
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The British Virgin Islands, officially the Virgin Islands, are a British overseas territory located in the Caribbean to the east of Puerto Rico. The islands make up part of the Virgin Islands archipelago, the islands constitute the US Virgin Islands. The 150-square-kilometre British Virgin Islands consist of the islands of Tortola, Virgin Gorda, Anegada. About 15 of the islands are inhabited, the capital, Road Town, is situated on Tortola, the largest island, which is about 20 km long and 5 km wide. The islands had a population of about 28,000 at the 2010 Census, of whom approximately 23,500 lived on Tortola, British Virgin Islanders are classed as British Overseas Territories citizens and since 2002 have had an entitlement to take up full UK citizenship. Although the territory is not part of the European Union and not directly subject to EU law, the official name of the territory is still simply the Virgin Islands, but the prefix British is often used. This is commonly believed to distinguish it from the neighbouring American territory which changed its name from the Danish West Indies to Virgin Islands of the United States in 1917. Moreover, the territorys Constitutional Commission has expressed the view that every effort should be made to encourage the use of the name Virgin Islands. In 1968 the British Government issued a memorandum requiring that the stamps in the territory should say British Virgin Islands. This was likely to prevent confusion following on from the adoption of US currency in the Territory in 1959, the Virgin Islands were first settled by the Arawak from South America around 100 BC. The Arawaks inhabited the islands until the 15th century when they were displaced by the more aggressive Caribs, the first European sighting of the Virgin Islands was by Christopher Columbus in 1493 on his second voyage to the Americas. Columbus gave them the fanciful name Santa Ursula y las Once Mil Vírgenes, shortened to Las Vírgenes, there is no record of any native Amerindian population in the British Virgin Islands during this period, although the native population on nearby Saint Croix was decimated. The Dutch established a permanent settlement on the island of Tortola by 1648, in 1672, the English captured Tortola from the Dutch, and the English annexation of Anegada and Virgin Gorda followed in 1680. Meanwhile, over the period 1672–1733, the Danish gained control of the islands of Saint Thomas, Saint John. The British islands were considered principally a strategic possession, but were planted when economic conditions were particularly favourable, the British introduced sugar cane which was to become the main crop and source of foreign trade, and slaves were brought from Africa to work on the sugar cane plantations. In 1917, the United States purchased St. John, St. Thomas, the British Virgin Islands were administered variously as part of the British Leeward Islands or with St. Kitts and Nevis, with an administrator representing the British Government on the islands. The islands gained separate status in 1960 and became autonomous in 1967. Since the 1960s, the islands have diversified away from their traditionally agriculture-based economy towards tourism and financial services and they are located in the Virgin Islands archipelago, a few miles east of the US Virgin Islands
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Guadeloupe
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Guadeloupe is an insular region of France located in the Leeward Islands, part of the Lesser Antilles in the Caribbean. Administratively, it is a region consisting of a single overseas department. With a land area of 1,628 square kilometres and a population of 400,132 as of January 2015. Guadeloupes two main islands are Basse-Terre to the west and Grande-Terre to the east, which are separated by a strait that is crossed with bridges. They are often referred to as a single island, the department also includes the Dependencies of Guadeloupe, which include the smaller islands of Marie-Galante and La Désirade, and the Îles des Saintes. Guadeloupe, like the other departments, is an integral part of France. As a constituent territory of the European Union and the Eurozone, as an overseas department, however, it is not part of the Schengen Area. The prefecture of Guadeloupe is the city of Basse-Terre, which lies on the island of the same name, the official language is French, and virtually the entire population except recent arrivals from metropolitan France also speak Antillean Creole. Christopher Columbus named the island Santa María de Guadalupe in 1493 after the Virgin Mary, venerated in the Spanish town of Guadalupe, the island was called Karukera by the Arawak people, who settled on there in 300 AD/CE. During the 8th century, the Caribs came and killed the population of Amerindians on the island. During his second trip to the Americas, in November 1493, Christopher Columbus became the first European to land on Guadeloupe, while seeking fresh water. He called it Santa María de Guadalupe de Extremadura, after the image of the Virgin Mary venerated at the Spanish monastery of Villuercas, in Guadalupe, the expedition set ashore just south of Capesterre, but left no settlers behind. Columbus is credited with discovering the pineapple on the island of Guadeloupe in 1493 and he called it piña de Indias, which can be correctly translated as pine cone of the Indies. During the 17th century, the Caribs fought against the Spanish settlers, after successful settlement on the island of St. Due to Martiniques inhospitable nature, the duo resolved to settle in Guadeloupe in 1635, took possession of the island and it was annexed to the kingdom of France in 1674. Over the next century, the British seized the island several times, the economy benefited from the lucrative sugar trade, which commenced during the closing decades of the 17th century. Guadeloupe produced more sugar than all the British islands combined, worth about £6 million a year, the British captured Guadeloupe in 1759. The British government decided that Canada was strategically important and kept Canada while returning Guadeloupe to France in the Treaty of Paris that ended the Seven Years War
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Montserrat
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Montserrat is a Caribbean island—specifically in the Leeward Islands, which is part of the chain known as the Lesser Antilles, in the British West Indies. It is a British Overseas Territory, Montserrat measures approximately 16 km long and 11 km wide, with approximately 40 km of coastline. Montserrat is nicknamed The Emerald Isle of the Caribbean both for its resemblance to coastal Ireland and for the Irish ancestry of many of its inhabitants, on 18 July 1995, the previously dormant Soufrière Hills volcano, in the southern part of the island, became active. Eruptions destroyed Montserrats Georgian era capital city of Plymouth, between 1995 and 2000, two-thirds of the islands population was forced to flee, primarily to the United Kingdom, leaving fewer than 1,200 people on the island as of 1997. Visitors are generally not permitted entry into the zone. Relatively quiet since early 2010, the continues to be closely monitored by the Montserrat Volcano Observatory. It is the most studied volcano in the world and Montserrat has been regarded as a Modern Day Pompeii in the Caribbean, a new town and port is being developed at Little Bay, which is on the northwest coast of the island. While this construction proceeds, the centre of government and businesses is at Brades, in 1493, Christopher Columbus named the island Santa María de Montserrate, after the Virgin of Montserrat in the Monastery of Montserrat, on Montserrat mountain, near Barcelona in Catalonia, Spain. Montserrat means serrated mountain in Catalan, archaeological field work in 2012, in Montserrats Centre Hills indicated there was an Archaic occupation between 4000 and 2500 BP. Later coastal sites show the presence of the Saladoid culture, in November 1493, Christopher Columbus passed Montserrat in his second voyage, after being told that the island was unoccupied due to raids by the Caribs. A number of Irishmen settled in Montserrat in 1642, the island was captured by the French in 1666. It was captured shortly afterwards by the English and English control of the island was confirmed under the Treaty of Breda the following year, despite the interruption to English rule, the islands legal status is that of a colony acquired by settlement. A neo-feudal colony developed amongst the redlegs, the colonists began to transport Sub-Saharan African slaves for labour, as was common to most Caribbean islands. The colonists built an economy based on the production of sugar, rum, arrowroot and sea island cotton, by the late 18th century, numerous plantations had been developed on the island. Many Irish continued to be transported to the island, to work as indentured servants, on 17 March 1768, slaves rebelled but failed to achieve freedom. The people of Montserrat celebrate St Patricks Day as a public holiday due to the slave revolt, festivities held that week commemorate the culture of Montserrat in song, dance, food and traditional costumes. In 1782, during the American Revolutionary War, France briefly captured Montserrat after supporting the American rebels, the French returned the island to Great Britain under the 1783 Treaty of Paris, which ended that conflict. The Irish constituted the largest proportion of the population from the founding of the colony in 1628
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Saba
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Saba is a Caribbean island and the smallest special municipality of the Netherlands. It consists largely of the active volcano Mount Scenery, at 887 metres the highest point of the entire Netherlands. Saba has an area of 13 square kilometres. As of January 2013, the population was 1,991 inhabitants and its towns and major settlements are The Bottom, Windwardside, Hells Gate and St. Johns. The origin of the name Saba comes from the Arabic word Sabha, like many Caribbean islands, Saba is highly dependent on fossil fuels imports, which leaves it vulnerable to global oil price fluctuations that directly impact the cost of electricity. This new energy policy is defined by the development plan 2014–2020’. Intermediate targets are 20% renewable electricity by 2017 and 40% by 2020, christopher Columbus is said to have sighted the island on 13 November 1493. He did not land, being deterred by the islands rocky shores. In 1632, a group of shipwrecked Englishmen landed upon Saba and they stated they found the island uninhabited when they were rescued, however, clear evidence has been found indicating that Caribs and Arawak Native Nations have lived on the island. In 1635, a stray Frenchman claimed Saba for Louis XIII of France, in the latter 1630s, the Dutch Governor of the neighboring island of Sint Eustatius sent several Dutch families over to colonize the island for the Dutch West India Company. These Dutch family names included Hassell, Heyliger, Leverock, Zagers, the Netherlands have been in continuous possession of Saba since 1816, after numerous flag changes during the previous centuries. By 2016 the island had been French for 12 years, English for 18 years, in the 17th and 18th centuries Sabas major industries were sugar, indigo and rum produced on plantations owned by Dutchmen living on St Eustatius, and later fishing, particularly lobster fishing. In the 17th century Saba was believed to be a hideout for Jamaican pirates. England also deported its undesirable people to live in the Caribbean colonies, and some of them also became pirates, the island of Saba is forbidding and steep, a natural fortress, and so the island became a private sanctuary for the families of smugglers and pirates. The most notable native Saban pirate was Hiram Beakes, who famously quipped, during this period of time, with most of the islands men gone out to sea, the island became known as The Isle of Women. The remains of the settlements of 1630–40 can be found on the west side at Tent Bay and these settlements were destroyed by a landslide in the 17th century. A status referendum was held in Saba on 5 November 2004,86. 05% of the population voted for closer links to the Netherlands. Saba consists largely of the active volcano Mount Scenery
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Saint Martin
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Saint Martin is an island in the northeast Caribbean, approximately 300 km east of Puerto Rico. It is the smallest inhabited island divided between two nations, the southern Dutch part comprises Sint Maarten and is one of four constituent countries that form the Kingdom of the Netherlands. The northern French part comprises the Collectivité de Saint-Martin and is an overseas collectivity of France. On 1 January 2009, the population of the island was 77,741 inhabitants, with 40,917 living on the Dutch side. Collectively, the two territories are known as St-Martin / St Maarten, sometimes SXM, the IATA identifier for Princess Juliana International Airport, is used to refer to the island. St. Martin received the ISO 3166-1 code MF in October 2007, the Dutch part changed in status to a country within the Kingdom of the Netherlands in 2010 and was given the code SX. Saint Martin has an area of 87 km2,53 km2 of which is under the sovereignty of France. This is the land border shared by France and the Kingdom of the Netherlands anywhere on Earth. The main cities are Philipsburg and Marigot, the Dutch side is more heavily populated. The largest settlement on the island is Lower Princes Quarter. The highest hilltop is the Pic Paradis in the center of a chain on the French side. Both sides are hilly with large mountain peaks and this forms a valley where many houses are located. There are no rivers on the island, but many dry guts, hiking trails give access to the dry forest covering tops and slopes. The island is located south of Anguilla, separated from the British territory by the Anguilla Channel, Saint Martin is northwest of Saint Barthélemy, separated from the French territory by the Saint-Barthélemy Channel. It is one of the Renaissance Islands, under the Köppen climate classification, the island has a tropical monsoon climate with a dry season from January to April and a rainy season from August to December. The precipitation patterns are due to the movement of the Azores high during the year, with the wind direction predominantly from the east or the northeast, temperatures remain stable throughout the year and temperatures rarely exceed 34 °C or fall below 20 °C. Temperatures remain steady throughout the year with a mean temperature of 27.2 °C. The average sea temperature is 27.2 °C ranging from a low of 25.9 °C in February to a high of 28.4 °C in October, the total average yearly rainfall is 1,047 mm, with 142 days of measurable rainfall
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United States Virgin Islands
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The United States Virgin Islands, officially the Virgin Islands of the United States, are a group of islands in the Caribbean that are an insular area of the United States. The islands are part of the Virgin Islands archipelago and are located in the Leeward Islands of the Lesser Antilles. The U. S. Virgin Islands consist of the islands of Saint Croix, Saint John, and Saint Thomas. The total land area of the territory is 133.73 square miles, the territorys capital is Charlotte Amalie on the island of Saint Thomas. Previously the Danish West Indies of the Kingdom of Denmark–Norway, they were sold to the United States by Denmark in the Treaty of the Danish West Indies of 1916. They are classified by the U. N. as a Non-Self-Governing Territory, the U. S. Virgin Islands are organized under the 1954 Revised Organic Act of the Virgin Islands and have since held five constitutional conventions. The Fifth Constitutional Convention of the U. S. Virgin Islands met in October 2012 to address these concerns, in 2010 the population was 106,405, and mostly Afro-Caribbean. Tourism and related categories are the economic activity, employing a high percentage of the civilian non-farm labor force that totalled 42,752 persons in 2016. Private sector jobs made up 71 percent of the total workforce, the average private sector salary was $34,088 and the average public sector salary was $52,572. In a May 2016 report, some 11,000 people were categorized as being involved in some aspect of agriculture in the first half of 2016, at that time, there were approximately 607 manufacturing jobs and 1,487 natural resource and construction jobs. The single largest employer was the government, in mid February 2017, the USVI was facing a financial crisis due to a very high debt level of $2 billion and a structural budget deficit of $110 million. The U. S. Virgin Islands were originally inhabited by the Ciboney, Carib, the islands were named by Christopher Columbus on his second voyage in 1493 for Saint Ursula and her virgin followers. Over the next two hundred years, the islands were held by many European powers, including Spain, Great Britain, the Netherlands, France, and Denmark-Norway. The Danish West India Company settled on Saint Thomas in 1672, settled on Saint John in 1694, the islands became royal Danish colonies in 1754, named the Danish West Indian Islands. Sugarcane, produced by labor, drove the islands economy during the 18th and early 19th centuries. The Danish West India and Guinea Company are also credited with naming the island St. John, the Danish crown took full control of Saint John in 1754 along with St. Thomas and St. Croix. Sugarcane plantations such as the famous Annaberg Sugar Plantation were established in great numbers on St. John because of the intense heat, the establishment of sugarcane plantations also led to the buying of more slaves from Africa. In 1733 St. John was the site of one of the first significant slave rebellions in the New World when Akwamu slaves from the Gold Coast took over the island for six months, the Danish were able to defeat the enslaved Africans with help from the French in Martinique
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Saint Kitts and Nevis
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The Federation of Saint Kitts and Nevis, also known as the Federation of Saint Christopher and Nevis, is a two-island country in the West Indies. Located in the Leeward Islands chain of the Lesser Antilles, it is the smallest sovereign state in the Americas and Western Hemisphere, the country is a Commonwealth realm, with the British monarch as head of state. The capital city is Basseterre on the island of Saint Kitts. The smaller island of Nevis lies about 2 miles southeast of Saint Kitts across a channel called The Narrows. The British dependency of Anguilla was historically also a part of this union, to the north-northwest lie the islands of Sint Eustatius, and Saba, Saint Barthélemy, Saint-Martin/Sint Maarten and Anguilla. To the east and northeast are Antigua and Barbuda, and to the southeast is the uninhabited island of Redonda, and the island of Montserrat. Saint Kitts and Nevis were among the first islands in the Caribbean to be settled by Europeans, Saint Kitts was home to the first British and French colonies in the Caribbean, and thus has also been titled The Mother Colony of the West Indies. Nevis is also the birthplace of Alexander Hamilton, Saint Kitts was named Liamuiga, which roughly translates as fertile land, by the Kalinago Indians who originally inhabited the island. The name is preserved via St. Kittss western peak, Mount Liamuiga, neviss pre-Columbian name was Oualie, meaning land of beautiful waters. Christopher Columbus upon sighting what we now call Nevis in 1493 gave that island the name San Martín, the current name Nevis is derived from a Spanish name Nuestra Señora de las Nieves. This Spanish name means Our Lady of the Snows and it is not known who chose this name for the island, but it is a reference to the story of a fourth-century Catholic miracle, a summertime snowfall on the Esquiline Hill in Rome. Perhaps the white clouds which usually wreathe the top of Nevis Peak reminded someone of the story of a snowfall in a hot climate. The island of Nevis upon first British settlement was referred to as Dulcina, eventually the original Spanish name was restored and used in the shortened form, Nevis. There is some disagreement over the name which Christopher Columbus gave to St. Kitts, for many years it was thought that he named the island San Cristóbal, after Saint Christopher, his patron saint and the patron hallow of travellers. New studies suggest that Columbus named the island Sant Yago, the name San Cristóbal was given by Columbus to the island now known as Saba,20 miles northwest. It seems that San Cristóbal came to be applied to the island of St. Kitts only as the result of a mapping error, no matter the origin of the name, the island was well documented as San Cristóbal by the 17th century. The first English colonists kept the English translation of this name, in the 17th century, a common nickname for Christopher was Kit, or Kitt. This is why the island was often referred to as Saint Kitts Island
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Sint Eustatius
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Sint Eustatius, also known affectionately to the locals as Statia, is part of the Caribbean Netherlands, i. e. it is a Caribbean island and a special municipality of the Netherlands. The island lies in the northern Leeward Islands portion of the West Indies, Sint Eustatius is immediately to the northwest of Saint Kitts, and to the southeast of Saba. The island has an area of 21 square kilometres, in the 2001 census, the population was recorded as 3,543 inhabitants, with a population density of 169 inhabitants per square kilometre. As of 2015, the population was estimated at 3,877. The official language is Dutch, but English is the language of life on the island. A local English-based creole is spoken informally. Travellers to the island by air arrive through F. D, formerly part of the Netherlands Antilles, Sint Eustatius became a special municipality within The Netherlands on 10 October 2010. The name of the island, “Sint Eustatius”, is the Dutch name for Saint Eustace, the island was seen by Christopher Columbus in 1493 and claimed by many different nations. From the first settlement, in the 17th century until the early 19th century, in 1636, the chamber of Zeeland of the Dutch West India Company took possession of the island that was then reported to be uninhabited. As of 1678, the islands of St. Eustatius, Sint Maarten and Saba fell under command of the Dutch West India Company. At the time, the island was of importance for cultivation of tobacco. Its economy developed by ignoring the monopolistic trade restrictions of the British, French, St. Eustatiuss economy, under the Dutch, flourished. The island was known as The Golden Rock, edmund Burke said of the island in 1781, It has no produce, no fortifications for its defense, nor martial spirit nor military regulations. The universality of its use, the neutrality of its nature was its security and its proprietors had, in the spirit of commerce, made it an emporium for all the world. Its wealth was prodigious, arising from its industry and the nature of its commerce, the island sold arms and ammunition to anyone willing to pay. It was one of the few places from which the young United States could obtain military stores, the good relationship between St. Eustatius and the United States resulted in the noted First Salute. On November 16,1776, Captain Isaiah Robinson of the 14-gun American brig Andrew Doria, Robinson announced his arrival by firing a thirteen gun salute, one gun for each of the thirteen American colonies in rebellion against Britain. Governor Johannes de Graaff replied with a gun salute from the cannons of Fort Oranje
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Sint Maarten
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Sint Maarten is an island country in the Caribbean. It is a constituent country of the Kingdom of the Netherlands, before 10 October 2010, Sint Maarten was known as the Island Territory of Sint Maarten, and was one of five island territories that constituted the Netherlands Antilles. However, though he claimed it as a Spanish territory, Columbus never landed there, the French and Dutch, on the other hand, both coveted the island. While the French wanted to colonize the islands between Trinidad and Bermuda, the Dutch found San Martín a convenient halfway point between their colonies in New Amsterdam and Brazil. With few people inhabiting the island, the Dutch easily founded a settlement there in 1631, jan Claeszen Van Campen became its first governor, and soon thereafter the Dutch West India Company began its salt mining operations. French and British settlements sprang up on the island as well, taking note of these successful colonies and wanting to maintain their control of the salt trade, the Spanish now found St. Martin much more appealing. The Eighty Years War which had been raging between Spain and the Netherlands provided further incentive to attack, Spanish forces captured Saint Martin from the Dutch in 1633, seizing control and driving most or all of the colonists off the island. At Point Blanche, they built what is now Old Spanish Fort to secure the territory, although the Dutch retaliated in several attempts to win back St. Martin, they failed. Fifteen years after the Spanish conquered the island, the Eighty Years War ended, since they no longer needed a base in the Caribbean and St. Martin barely turned a profit, the Spanish lost their inclination to continue defending it. In 1648, they deserted the island, with St. Martin free again, both the Dutch and the French jumped at the chance to re-establish their settlements. Dutch colonists came from St. Eustatius, while the French came from St. Kitts, after some initial conflict, both sides realized that neither would yield easily. Preferring to avoid a war, they signed the Treaty of Concordia in 1648. During the treatys negotiation, the French had a fleet of ships off shore. In spite of the treaty, relations between the two sides were not always cordial, between 1648 and 1816, conflicts changed the border sixteen times. The entire island came under effective French control from 1795 when Netherlands became a state under the French Empire until 1815. In the end, the French came out ahead with 53 km2 against 34 km2 on the Dutch side, with the new cultivation of cotton, tobacco, and sugar, the French and the Dutch imported a massive number of slaves to work on the plantations. The slave population grew larger than that of the land owners. Subjected to cruel treatment, slaves staged rebellions, and their overwhelming numbers made it impossible to ignore their concerns, in 1848, the French abolished slavery in their colonies including the French side of St. Martin
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