Caribbean

The Caribbean (, ; es, Caribe; french: Caraïbes; ht, Karayib; also gcf, label=Antillean Creole, Kawayib; nl, Caraïben; Papiamento: ) is a region of the

Americas

that comprises the Caribbean Sea, its surrounding coasts, and its islands (some of which lie within the Caribbean Sea and some of which lie on the edge of the Caribbean Sea where it borders the North Atlantic Ocean). The region lies southeast of the

Gulf of Mexico

and of the North American mainland, east of

Central America

, and north of

South America

.

The region, situated largely on the Caribbean Plate, has more than 700 islands,

islet

s,

reef

s and cays (see the list of Caribbean islands). Three

island arc

s delineate the eastern and northern edges of the Caribbean Sea: The

Greater Antilles

to the north, and the Lesser Antilles and Leeward Antilles to the south and east. Together with the nearby Lucayan Archipelago, these island arcs make up the West Indies. The Bahamas and the Turks and Caicos Islands are sometimes considered to be a part of the Caribbean, even though they are neither within the Caribbean Sea nor on its border, however The Bahamas is a full member state of the Caribbean Community and the Turks and Caicos Islands are an associate member.

Belize

,

Guyana

, and

Suriname

are also considered part of the Caribbean despite being mainland countries and they are full member states of the Caribbean Community and the

Association of Caribbean States

. Several regions of mainland South and Central America are also often seen as part of the Caribbean because of their political and cultural ties with the region. These include: Belize, the Caribbean region of Colombia, the Venezuelan Caribbean,

Quintana Roo

in

Mexico

(consisting of

Cozumel

and the Caribbean coast of the

Yucatán Peninsula

), and

The Guianas

(Guyana, Suriname,

French Guiana

, Guayana Region in

Venezuela

, and Amapá in

Brazil

).

A mostly tropical geography, the climates are greatly shaped by sea temperatures and precipitation, with the hurricane season regularly leading to natural disasters. Because of its tropical climate and low-lying island geography, the Caribbean is vulnerable to a number of climate change effects, including increased

storm intensity

, saltwater intrusion,

sea level rise

and coastal erosion, and precipitation variability. These weather changes will greatly change the economies of the islands, and especially the major industries of agricultural and tourism.

The Caribbean was occupied by indigenous people since at least 6000 BC. When European colonization followed the arrival of Columbus, the population was quickly decimated by brutal labour practices, enslavement and disease and on many islands, Europeans supplanted the native populations with enslaved Africans. Following the

independence of Haiti

from France in the early 19th century and the decline of slavery in the 19th century, island nations in the Caribbean gradually gained independence, with a wave of new states during the 1950s and 60s. Because of the proximity to the United States, there is also a long history of United States intervention in the region.

The islands of the Caribbean (the West Indies) are often regarded as a subregion of North America, though sometimes they are included in Middle America or then left as a subregion of their own and are organized into 30 territories including sovereign states, overseas departments, and dependencies. From December 15, 1954, to October 10, 2010, there was a country known as the Netherlands Antilles composed of five states, all of which were

Dutch

dependencies. From January 3, 1958, to May 31, 1962, there was also a short-lived political union called the

West Indies Federation

composed of ten English-speaking Caribbean territories, all of which were then

British

dependencies.

Etymology and pronunciation

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 of the Americas

. The term was popularized by British cartographer Thomas Jefferys who used it in his ''The West-India Atlas'' (1773).

The two most prevalent pronunciations of "Caribbean" outside the Caribbean are (), with the primary stress on the third syllable, and (), with the stress on the second. Most authorities of the last century preferred the stress on the third syllable. This is the older of the two pronunciations, but the stressed-second-syllable variant has been established for over 75 years. It has been suggested that speakers of British English prefer () while North American speakers more typically use (), but major American dictionaries and other sources list the stress on the third syllable as more common in American English too. According to the American version of Oxford Online Dictionaries, the stress on the second syllable is becoming more common in UK English and is increasingly considered "by some" to be more up to date and more "correct".

The Oxford Online Dictionaries claim that the stress on the second syllable is the most common pronunciation in the Caribbean itself, but according to the Dictionary of Caribbean English Usage, the most common pronunciation in Caribbean English stresses the first syllable instead, (). The word Caribbean consistently ranks as one of the most misspelled words in the English language.

Definition

The word "Caribbean" has multiple uses. Its principal ones are geographical and political. The Caribbean can also be expanded to include territories with strong cultural and historical connections to Africa, slavery, European colonisation and the plantation system.

* The United Nations geoscheme for the Americas presents 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 by considering narrower and wider socio-economic groupings:
** At its core is the Caribbean Community (CARICOM), whose full members include the

Commonwealth of the Bahamas

in the Atlantic, the

Co-operative Republic of Guyana

and the

Republic of Suriname

in South America, and

Belize

in Central America; its associate members include

Bermuda

and the Turks and Caicos Islands in the Atlantic Ocean.
** Most expansive is the

Association of Caribbean States

(ACS), which includes almost every nation in the region surrounding the Caribbean and also

El Salvador

on the Pacific Ocean. According to the ACS, the total population of its member states is 227 million people.

Countries and territories

History

The oldest evidence of humans in the Caribbean is in southern

Trinidad

at

Banwari Trace

, where remains have been found from seven thousand years ago. These pre-ceramic sites, which belong to the Archaic (pre-ceramic) age, have been termed Ortoiroid. The earliest archaeological evidence of human settlement in Hispaniola dates to about 3600 BC, but the reliability of these finds is questioned. Consistent dates of 3100 BC appear in

Cuba

. The earliest dates in the Lesser Antilles are from 2000 BC in

Antigua

. A lack of pre-ceramic sites in the Windward Islands and differences in technology suggest that these Archaic settlers may have Central American origins. Whether an Ortoiroid colonization of the islands took place is uncertain, but there is little evidence of one.

Between 400 BC and 200 BC the first ceramic-using agriculturalists, the Saladoid culture, entered Trinidad from South America. They expanded up the Orinoco River to Trinidad and then spread rapidly up the islands of the Caribbean. Some time after 250 AD another group, the Barancoid, entered Trinidad. The Barancoid society collapsed along the Orinoco around 650 AD and another group, the Arauquinoid, expanded into these areas and up the Caribbean chain. Around 1300 AD a new group, the Mayoid, entered Trinidad and remained the dominant culture until Spanish settlement.

At the time of the European discovery of most of the islands of the Caribbean, three major Amerindian indigenous peoples lived on the islands: the Taíno in the

Greater Antilles

, the Bahamas and the

Leeward Islands

, the Island Caribs and Galibi in the Windward Islands, and the Ciboney in western Cuba. The Taínos are subdivided into Classic Taínos, who occupied Hispaniola and

Puerto Rico

, Western Taínos, who occupied Cuba,

Jamaica

, and the Bahamian archipelago, and the Eastern Taínos, who occupied the Leeward Islands. Trinidad was inhabited by both Carib speaking and Arawak-speaking groups.

Soon after

Christopher Columbus

came to the Caribbean, both Portuguese and Spanish explorers began claiming territories in Central and South America. These early colonies brought gold to Europe; most specifically England, the Netherlands, and France. These nations hoped to establish profitable colonies in the Caribbean. Colonial rivalries made the Caribbean a cockpit for European wars for centuries.

The Caribbean was known for pirates, especially between 1640 and 1680. The term "

buccaneer

" is often used to describe a pirate operating in this region. The Caribbean region was war-torn throughout much of its colonial history, but the wars were often based in Europe, with only minor battles fought in the Caribbean. Some wars, however, were born of political turmoil in the Caribbean itself.

Haiti

was the first Caribbean nation to gain independence from European powers (see

Haitian Revolution

). Some Caribbean nations gained independence from European powers in the 19th century. Some smaller states are still dependencies of European powers today. Cuba remained a Spanish colony until the Spanish–American War. Between 1958 and 1962, most of the British-controlled Caribbean became the

West Indies Federation

before they separated into many separate nations.

Foreign interventions by the United States

The United States has conducted military operations in the Caribbean and Latin America regions for at least 100 years. Successive administrations of the Caribbean region have regularly maintained that the Caribbean must remain a zone of peace and have sought declarations at the United Nations to declare the region as such.

Since the

Monroe Doctrine

, the United States gained a major influence on most Caribbean nations. In the early part of the 20th century, this influence was extended by participation in the Banana Wars. Victory in the Spanish–American War and the signing of the Platt Amendment

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