ABSTRACT
The Caribbean is a vast geographical region, an assortment of island and mainland territories ranging in size from less than 100 square kilometres to more than 100,000, bounded to its east by the Atlantic Ocean, to the south and west by Central and South America, and to the north by the Gulf of Mexico, Florida and again the Atlantic Ocean. The Tropic of Cancer runs just north of Cuba, the largest island, and through the Bahamas in the north of the region, whilst Trinidad in the south lies just over 10° north of the equator (see Map 2.1). Part of the Caribbean region is the West Indies, an archipelago that starts in the Bahamas and continues through the Antilles, spreading east, west and south from Florida in the United States to Venezuela in South America. The name West Indies dates back to the time of Columbus, who set out on a voyage to the Indies in 1492, believing he could reach them by sailing west rather than east. On arriving in the Bahamas he believed he had arrived in the Indies, and so designated the region ‘the Indies’ and the people he found there ‘Indians’. When his mistake was realised some years later, the area was renamed the ‘West Indies’ so as to differentiate it from the real Indies in the east.
