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By What Other Name Are The West Indies Known?

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Another name for the West Indies is the Caribbean Basin . Other words and phrases used to refer to the region of islands that dominate the Caribbean...

Which Indies are another name for the Caribbean?

The Caribbean, also known as West Indies , includes a number of islands and archipelagos (more than 700 islands), stretched across the Caribbean sea.

What is the West Indies why is it called that?

The West Indies refers to a collection of islands in the Caribbean. These islands have nothing to do with India – they were named the West Indies because when Christopher Columbus arrived on the island of Hispanola (where the Dominican Republic and Haiti are), he thought that he was in India .

What are the Indies called today?

The most restrictive and best-known use is as a synonym for the islands that now constitute the Republic of Indonesia (formerly known as the Netherlands Indies, or Dutch East Indies); these include the Greater Sunda Islands (Borneo, Celebes, Java, and Sumatra), the Lesser Sunda Islands (stretching eastward from Bali to ...

What is meant by West Indies?

British English: West Indies /ˌwɛst ˈɪndi:z/ NOUN. The West Indies is a group of islands off Central America, extending in an arc from Florida to Venezuela, separating the Caribbean Sea from the Atlantic Ocean .

Who is the most famous person in West Indies?

  • Viv Richards (Antigua) ...
  • Jamaica Kincaid (Antigua) ...
  • Sidney Poitier (Bahamas) ...
  • Jean Rhys (Dominica) ...
  • Sir Garfield Sobers (Barbados) ...
  • Rihanna (Barbados) ...
  • Usain Bolt (Jamaica) ...
  • Shelly-Ann Fraser-Pryce (Jamaica)

What area is the west Indies?

Area 275,400 km 2 (106,300 sq mi) UN M49 code 029 – Caribbean 419 – Latin America 019 – Americas 001 – World

What is capital of West Indies?

West Indian Federation Capital Chaguaramas (de jure) Port of Spain (de facto) Common languages English Patois English Creoles Spanish French Caribbean Hindustani Chinese Arabic Antillean French Creole Tamil Portuguese Demonym(s) West Indian Government Federal parliamentary constitutional monarchy

What is the difference between West Indies and Caribbean?

Caribbean is the term most politically correct social scientists and historians would use to denote the 7,000-odd islands that lie in the Caribbean Sea area — West Indies was a term coined by colonising European powers .

How many countries make West Indies?

The West Indies comprises 15 English speaking countries and territories in the Caribbean that play under a common banner.

Where do West Indies come from?

West Indies is the general geographical term for the many islands of the Caribbean , the largest of which are Cuba, Hispaniola (politically Haiti and the Dominican Republic), Jamaica, Puerto Rico, Trinidad, Guadeloupe, and Martinique.

What language do West Indies speak?

Of the 38 million West Indians (as of 2001), about 62% speak Spanish (a west Caribbean lingua franca). About 25% speak French, about 15% speak English, and 5% speak Dutch . Spanish and English are important second languages: 24 million and 9 million speak them as second languages.

Is India in East or West?

Continent Asia • Water 9% Coastline 7,516.6 km (4,670.6 mi)

What three countries were known as the Indies?

In a more strict sense, the Indies were used from a European perspective to refer to the islands of Southeast Asia (Malay Archipelago), that today comprise Malaysia, the Indonesian Archipelago, and the Philippine Archipelago .

What continent is India on?

Asia

Where are the British West Indies?

The British West Indies (BWI) were the British territories in the West Indies: Anguilla, the Cayman Islands, Turks and Caicos Islands, Montserrat, the British Virgin Islands, Antigua and Barbuda, The Bahamas, Barbados, Dominica, Grenada, Jamaica, Saint Kitts and Nevis, Saint Lucia, Saint Vincent and the Grenadines, ...

What is the name of Jamaica?

The island’s name, Jamaica, is derived from the Arawak word Xaymaca, which probably means “land of wood and water” or “land of springs” .

Who is captain of West Indies?

Captains

What is West Indies famous for?

Reggae music , now world-renowned, originated in Jamaica. Modern Caribbean literature owes much to writers and philosophers of the West Indies, including those who emigrated elsewhere; some notable names include Aimé Césaire (Martinique), V.S. Naipaul (Trinidad), Jean Price-Mars and Edwidge Danticat (Haiti), and C.L.R.

Is West Indies and Jamaica same country?

Jamaica and the West Indies are not the same . Jamaica is actually an island in the West Indies. The West Indies is a group of crescent-shaped islands over 3,200 km (2,000 miles) long which separates Gulf of Mexico and the Caribbean Sea, to the west and south, from the Atlantic Ocean, to the east and north.

Is Cuba in West Indies?

Cuba, country of the West Indies , the largest single island of the archipelago, and one of the more-influential states of the Caribbean region.

How many islands are there in West Indies?

The region, situated largely on the Caribbean Plate, has more than 700 islands, islets, reefs and cays (see the list of Caribbean islands).

Is Trinidad considered West Indies?

Trinidad and Tobago is generally considered to be part of the West Indies . According to some geographic definitions, Trinidad and Tobago are also part of the Windward Islands and Lesser Antilles, while other definitions regard Trinidad and Tobago as a separate island group.

Who discovered West Indies?

Hispanic control of the West Indies began in 1492 with Christopher Columbus ‘s first landing in the New World and was followed by the partitioning of the region by the Spanish, French, British, Dutch, and Danish during the 17th and 18th centuries.

What is the capital of America? Washington, D.C.

Edited and fact-checked by the FixAnswer editorial team.
Timothy Chehowski

Timothy is a travel writer sharing destination guides, travel tips, and cultural insights to help readers explore the world.