There are 7,000 different islands in the Caribbean Sea; solely about 100 are occupied. 13 are international locations, whereas the others are territories or dependencies of different nations.
Caribbean international locations:
Territories/dependencies:
Anguilla (British abroad territory)
Aruba (Constituent kingdom, Netherlands)
Bonaire (Particular municipality, Netherlands)
British Virgin Islands (British abroad territory)
Cayman Islands (British abroad territory)
Curaçao (Constituent kingdom, Netherlands)
Federal Dependencies of Venezuela (Territories, Venezuela)
Guadeloupe (Abroad division, France)
Martinique (Abroad division, France)
Montserrat (British abroad territory)
Navassa Island (Uninhabited territory, United States)
Nueva Esparta (State, Venezuela)
Puerto Rico (Territory, United States)
Saba (Particular municipality, Netherlands)
San Andrés and Providencia (Division, Colombia)
Saint Barthélemy (Abroad collectivity, France)
Saint Martin (Abroad collectivity, France)
Sint Eustatius (Particular municipality, Netherlands)
Sint Maarten (Constituent kingdom, Netherlands)
Turks and Caicos Islands (British abroad territory)
United States Virgin Islands (Territory, United States)
After I communicate of the area, I don’t imply solely the island nations, since lots of the international locations on the mainland of Central and South America are counted as being a part of the Caribbean basin—and others, like Mexico, have coastal Afro-Caribbean cultural teams. Different international locations are house to cultural teams just like the Garifuna, who may be present in Honduras, Guatemala, and Belize.
Caribbean Basin – mainland
Nicaragua (Atlantic Coast, Bluefields)
Given the historical past of a number of European colonizations of the world, in addition to the huge settlement of Africans through the transatlantic slave commerce, the Caribbean is extraordinarily various—“racially,” ethnically, culturally, and linguistically.
The Slavery and Remembrance website affords this historic overview:
Starting within the late fifteenth and early sixteenth centuries, Europeans started to take advantage of the area for mineral and agricultural manufacturing, launching unprecedented demographic modifications as indigenous folks have been systematically changed with folks of African origins. Defining the Caribbean is troublesome, as every island, place, and other people has adopted a singular trajectory to the current. Usually, nevertheless, it’s doable to determine just a few patterns in land, labor, and historical past.
One sample is a strategy of demographic collapse as a consequence of European and African (Outdated World) ailments being delivered to the New World. Estimates differ wildly, however most students agree that native Caribbean populations exceeded a number of million earlier than contact, and declined quickly—maybe as a lot as 90 p.c in some locations—throughout the first century after European arrival. Warfare accounted for a few of this decline, however the major trigger was the unintentional introduction of pathogens like influenza and smallpox (to call solely two). Going through an inadequate indigenous labor provide, Europeans started to import African laborers by means of the transatlantic slave trade.
A big African-descended inhabitants is one other characteristic of the Caribbean. Over the lengthy course of the slave commerce, slave retailers delivered greater than 4 million Africans to the Caribbean. These populations led to the expansion of multiracial societies within the area, lots of which have hybrid African-European-indigenous cultural traits.
Because of colonization from a number of European nations, and the slave commerce—which launched enslaved Africans originating largely from Central and West Africa—the Caribbean has large linguistic variety. Formally, there are six languages spoken within the Caribbean: English, Spanish, French, Dutch, Haitian Creole, and Papiamento, which is a Portuguese and Spanish-based Creole that’s the official language of Aruba, Curacao, and Bonaire.
Let’s take a enjoyable break and take heed to phrases utilized in a wide range of Caribbean English-speaking international locations on this video from the YouTube channel Additional Caribbean, offered by bloggers Britney-Lee and Gaurica Makhijani.
Now it’s time for a enjoyable pop quiz from the identical pair.
How did you do? (I solely acquired two appropriate. Editor’s boast be aware: I acquired 9 proper.)
On a extra severe political be aware, simply as we’re often uncovered to happenings within the European Union (EU) by our mainstream information protection, and to a lesser extent, to the goings-on of the Group of American States (OAS), we must also familiarize ourselves with the Caribbean Community and Common Market (CARICOM).
Right here’s a short historical past of CARICOM:
The institution of the Caribbean Neighborhood and Frequent Market (CARICOM) was the results of a 15-year effort to meet the hope of regional integration which was born with the institution of the British West Indies Federation in 1958. The West Indies Federation got here to an finish in 1962 however its finish, could also be considered the actual starting of what’s now the Caribbean Neighborhood.
With the tip of the Federation, political leaders within the Caribbean made extra severe efforts to strengthen the ties between the islands and mainland by offering for the continuance and strengthening of the areas of cooperation that existed through the Federation. Additional, Jamaica and Trinidad and Tobago each attained independence in August [of] that yr and with it the facility to regulate their very own home and exterior affairs.
In saying its intention to withdraw from the Federation, the Authorities of Trinidad and Tobago proposed the creation of a Caribbean Neighborhood, consisting not solely of the ten members of the Federation, but in addition of the three Guianas and all of the islands of the Caribbean Sea – each unbiased and non-independent.
To debate this idea, the Prime Minister of Trinidad and Tobago convened the primary Heads of Authorities Convention in July 1963, and attended by the leaders of Barbados, British Guiana, Jamaica and Trinidad and Tobago. At this Convention, the taking part leaders of the 4(4) Caribbean Nations all spoke clearly of the necessity for shut cooperation with Europe, Africa and Latin America.
Who are the CARICOM member nations?
The Caribbean Neighborhood (CARICOM) is a grouping of twenty international locations: fifteen Member States and 5 Affiliate Members. It’s house to roughly sixteen million residents, 60% of whom are beneath the age of 30, and from the primary ethnic teams of Indigenous Peoples, Africans, Indians, Europeans, Chinese language, Portuguese and Javanese. The Neighborhood is multi-lingual; with English as the foremost language complemented by French and Dutch and variations of those, in addition to African and Asian expressions.
Stretching from The Bahamas within the north to Suriname and Guyana in South America, CARICOM includes states which might be thought-about growing international locations, and apart from Belize, in Central America and Guyana and Suriname in South America, all Members and Affiliate Members are island states.
Bermuda, which isn’t really within the Caribbean, grew to become an affiliate member of CARICOM in 2003.
You possibly can (and will!) comply with CARICOM on Twitter.
In future installments of Caribbean Issues, I’ll be CARICOM actions, in addition to following up on the dire state of affairs in Haiti, which is each present process a regime change and making an attempt to get better from the latest earthquake and Tropical Storm Grace. I’ll be suggesting books from a broad spectrum of Caribbean authors of each fiction and nonfiction, in addition to exploring Caribbean contributions to world tradition.
I stay up for listening to your solutions and pursuits within the feedback, and hope that this collection will encourage some readers to put in writing your personal tales in regards to the Caribbean.
