Antilles

[an-til-eez]

Antilles: see West Indies.

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formerly Curaçao

Nonmetropolitan island territory of The Netherlands (pop., 2005 est.: 183,000), in the Caribbean Sea. Area: 308 sq mi (800 sq km). It consists of two widely separated groups of islands: Sint Eustatius, the southern section of St. Martin, and Saba making up the northern group, at the northern end of the Leeward Islands; and Curaçao and Bonaire (and also Aruba until 1986) constituting the southern group, about 500 mi (800 km) to the southwest, off the coast of Venezuela. The capital, on Curaçao, is Willemstad. Originally inhabited by Arawak and Carib Indians, the islands were encountered in the late 15th century and claimed for Spain. In the 17th century the Dutch gained control, and in 1845 the islands became the Netherlands Antilles. In 1954 they became an integral part of The Netherlands, with full autonomy in domestic affairs. Aruba seceded from the federation in 1986.

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Encyclopedia Britannica, 2008. Encyclopedia Britannica Online.

Greater and Lesser Antilles

Two groups of islands in the West Indies, bounding the Caribbean Sea on the north and east, respectively. The Greater Antilles include the largest islands (Cuba, Jamaica, Hispaniola, and Puerto Rico), the Lesser Antilles all being much smaller. The name Antilia originally referred to semimythical lands located somewhere west of Europe across the Atlantic. After Christopher Columbus's discoveries, the Spanish name Antillas was commonly assigned to the new lands; “Sea of the Antilles” in various European languages is used as an alternative name for the Caribbean Sea.

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Encyclopedia Britannica, 2008. Encyclopedia Britannica Online.

Antilles, Greater and Lesser

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Encyclopedia Britannica, 2008. Encyclopedia Britannica Online.

Antilles

The Antilles (the same in French; Antillas in Spanish; Antillen in Dutch) refers to the islands forming the greater part of the West Indies in the Caribbean Sea. The Antilles are divided into two major groups: the "Greater Antilles" to the north including the larger islands of Cuba, Jamaica, Hispaniola (Haiti and the Dominican Republic), and Puerto Rico; and the smaller "Lesser Antilles" on the southeast—comprising the northerly Leeward Islands, the southeasterly Windward Islands, and the Leeward Antilles just north of Venezuela. The Bahamas, though part of the West Indies, are generally not included among the Antillean islands.

Geographically, the Antilles are generally considered part of America. Cuba, the Dominican Republic, and Puerto Rico—due to the prevalence of Spanish—are included in Latin America.

In terms of geology, the Greater Antilles are made up of continental rock, as distinct from the Lesser Antilles, which are mostly young volcanic or coral islands.

Background

The word Antilles originated in the period before the European conquest of the New World—Antilia being one of those mysterious lands which figured on the medieval charts, sometimes as an archipelago, sometimes as continuous land of greater or lesser extent, its location fluctuating in mid-ocean between the Canary Islands and India.

After the 1492 arrival of Christopher Columbus's expedition in what was later called the West Indies, the European powers realized that the dispersed lands comprised an extensive archipelago enclosing the Caribbean Sea and the Gulf of Mexico. Thereafter, the term Antilles was commonly assigned to the formation, and "Sea of the Antilles" became a common alternate name for the Caribbean Sea in various European languages.