West Indies

The West Indies, also called “West India”, is a vast group of islands belonging to different states that separate the Caribbean Sea from the Atlantic Ocean and the Gulf of Mexico. Starting from the peninsula Florida, USA, the islands extend 1,200 miles (approximately 1,900 kilometers) southeastwards, then 500 miles (approximately 800km) south and finally west along the north coast of Venezuela (see figure 5).

Geographically the islands divide into three groups:

· Greater Antilles: Cuba, Jamaica, Hispaniola (politically Haiti and the Dominican Republic) and finally Puerto Rico

· Lesser Antilles: Virgin Islands, Anguilla, Saint Kitts and Nevis, Antigua and Barbuda, Guadeloupe, Dominica, Martinique, Barbados and other smaller islands

· The Bahamas and the Turks and Caicos Islands

Politically many of the islands were annexed by world powers at that time. When Columbus landed on San Salvador in 1942, Spain claimed the region. Sugar plantations were established and black slaves were deported on several islands of the West Indies. In the following centuries the islands were fiercely fought over by Britain, France, the Netherlands, Denmark and – a while later – the USA; again and again taken and retaken by another power. In 1945 large parts of the region were still annexed. Only Cuba, Haiti and the Dominican Republic were officially independent. Only in the late decades of the last century most of the islands were liberated and became independent states. A few of them, however, e.g. Cayman Islands (United Kingdom), Curaçao (the Netherlands), Puerto Rico (USA), Martinique (France), are still more or less political dependent parts of the former occupants.

As a result of this history, the official languages are still predominantly Spanish, English, Dutch and French. Sometimes two or more official languages exist, e.g. on Puerto Rico – its head of state is the President of the US – English and Spanish are the official languages, but Spanish remains dominant among the inhabitants. Another relic of bygone occupant times is that several independent states of the West Indies are still member of The Commonwealth, e.g. Jamaica, Bahamas and Trinidad and Tobago. The Commonwealth is an intergovernmental alliance of states subsequent to the decolonization of the British Empire beginning in the mid-nineteenth century. Another interesting fact is that Queen Elizabeth II is still the head of state of several states in the region of the West Indies: Antigua and Barbuda, Bahamas, Barbados, Grenada, Jamaica, Saint Kitts and Nevis, Saint Lucia, St Vincent and the Grenadines and Trinidad and Tobago, though all mentioned islands are independent, self-governed states.

The name “West Indies” is actually a misnomer, i.e. “a name wrongly or unsuitably applied to a person or an object”. Since Columbus made landfall in the Caribbean Sea for the first time, the Europeans have been using “West Indies” to name the archipelago in contrast to the East Indies, islands in the Pacific Ocean that stretch on both sides of the equator. The fact that Columbus – as well as most Europeans – thought he had discovered the western sea route to India was the origin for the misnomer; even after the misconception was cleared up, Europeans continued to call the islands West Indies or West India as they continued to call the natives “Indians” – another misnomer. Both mentioned misnomers have stood the test of time down to the present day.