ABSTRACT
The English-speaking Commonwealth Caribbean community comprises two thinly populated mainland countries (Guyana in South America and Belize in Central America) and a chain of islands in the Caribbean Sea that are grouped into ten independent countries and five British territories (Figure 15.1). These islands start with Trinidad and Tobago in the south and Barbados in the east, extend northwest in an arc made up of the Windward (Grenada, St Vincent and the Grenadines, St Lucia, and Dominica) and the Leeward (Montserrat, St Kitts and Nevis, Anguilla, and Antigua and Barbuda) islands and the British Virgin Islands to Jamaica and the Cayman islands just south of Cuba, and include the Turks and Caicos islands and the Bahamas to the north of Cuba. The more than 4.5 million people who live on these islands depend primarily upon agriculture, fishing, mining, and tourism for their livelihoods. Only Trinidad, with limited oil but enormous gas reserves has developed a strong industrial economy.
