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Caribbean
Caribbean
Many of those living on
the Caribbean Islands are
the descendants of
slaves brought over from
Africa when the
Europeans began to
colonize the area.

Approximately 2% of
the islands in the
Caribbean are inhabited
by people.

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 Caribbean
The islands in the Caribbean are also sometimes referred
to as the West Indies. Christopher Columbus thought he
had reached the Indies (Asia) on his voyage to find
another route there. Instead he had reached the
Caribbean. The Caribbean was named the West Indies to
account for Columbus' mistake.

Some of the common languages spoken in the Caribbean

include English, French, Spanish, Dutch, Creole, and
Papiamento.

The three most populous island territories are Cuba, the

Dominican Republic and Haiti. About 30 million people
altogether occupy these countries, which is about 75
percent of the Caribbean population.

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Anguilla
Capital City: The Valley
Population: 16,000

Anguilla is a British Overseas Territory.

The currency they use is
East Caribbean Dollar.

Anguillas national sport

is boat racing.

An aerial view of the western portion of the island of Anguilla.

The Blowing Point ferry terminal is visible in the lower right.
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Antigua and Barbuda The currency they use is
East Caribbean Dollar.
Capital City: St. Johns
Population: 91,000

Antigua an Barbuda gained independence from the United Kingdom in 1981.

The highest point of Antigua was known

as the Boggy Peak until 4 August 2009,
when it was renamed Mount Obama
after Barack Obama who has his
birthday on this day.
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Aruba
Capital City: Oranjestad
Population: 103,000 (0.1m)

Aruba gained autonomy within the Kingdom of the Netherlands in 1986.

The currency they use is Aruban Florin.

Aruba is famous for its white-sand beaches.

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 The Bahamas The currency they use
is Bahamian Dollar.
Capital City: Nassau
Population: 390,000 (0.3m)
Bahamas gained independence
from the United Kingdom in 1973.

The Bahamas is one of only two countries whose official name begins with the word The" (The Gambia is the other).

Blue Lagoon Island is a private island located 5 km

from Nassau, and serves as a local tourist attraction.

The name Bahamas

comes from the Spanish
baja mar, meaning
shallow water or sea.
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Barbados The currency they use
is Barbadian Dollar.
Capital City: Bridgetown
Population: 277,000 (0.2m)
Barbados gained independence from
the United Kingdom in 1966.

The name 'Barbados' is derived from the Bearded Fig Trees (Los Barbados) once found in abundance on the island.

Sandy Lane is a 5-star beach resort in Barbados

owned by a group of Irish businessmen.

Morgan Lewis Windmill is the last sugar windmill to operate in Barbados, and is one
of the only two working sugar windmills in the world today.
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 British Virgin Islands The currency they
use is US Dollar.
Capital City: Road Town
Population: 28,000
The BVI are a British Overseas Territory.

Salt Island, home to the wreck of RMS Rhone

(thought to be one of the best dive sites in
the Caribbean), has not had more than three
inhabitants since 1980. Their rent, is a bag
of salt sent to the Queen every year.

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Caribbean Netherlands The currency they
use is US Dollar.
Island: Bonaire, Sint Eustatius, Saba
Capital City: Kralendijk, Oranjestad, The Bottom
Population: 19,000, 3,900 1,900

Mount Scenery on
The Caribbean Netherlands are the three special Saba, an elevation
municipalities of the Netherlands. of 887m (2,910 ft),
Saba is home to the shortest is the highest peak
runway in the world. It is in the Netherlands.
400m (1,300 feet) long.

Bonaire is famed for its

flamingo populations,
and the airport is called
Flamingo Airport.
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 Cayman Islands The currency they use is
Cayman Islands Dollar.
Capital City: Georgetown
Population: 56,000
The Cayman Islands is a
British Overseas Territory.

Caymanians enjoy a tropical marine climate with warm and rainy summers followed by cool and relatively dry winters.

The national symbol of the Cayman

Islands is the Green Sea Turtle.

Stingray City is a tourist attraction, where

southern stingrays are found in abundance and
visitors can pet and interact with the animals.
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Cuba The currency they
use is Cuban Peso.
Capital City: Havana
Population: 11,200,000 (11.2m)
Cuba gained independence
from the USA in 1902.

Fidel Castro (1926-2016) was a Cuban revolutionary and politician

who governed the Republic of Cuba from 1959 to 2008.

Cuba is famous for making

cigars and rum.

Cuba is also famous for its classic

American cars. They are all pre-1959, as
the USA imposed a blockade on Cuba in
1960, meaning no trade between the
countries.
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 Curaao The currency they use is
Netherlands Antillean Guilder.
Capital City: Willemstad
Population: 159,000 (0.1m)
Curaao (pronounced cur-a-sow) gained autonomy
within the Kingdom of the Netherlands in 2010.

Once the centre of the Caribbean slave trade,

Curacao was hard hit by the abolition of slavery in
1863. Its prosperity was restored in the early 20th
century with the construction of refineries to service
the newly discovered Venezuelan oil fields.
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Dominica The currency they use is
East Caribbean Dollar.
Capital City: Roseau
Population: 72,000
Dominica gained independence
from the United Kingdom in 1978.

In 2004, because of its natural beauty, Dominica

was chosen to be one of the primary filming
locations for Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Man's
Chest and its follow-up, At World's End.

Roseau is a port of call for a

number of major cruise ship lines.

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 Dominican Republic The currency they use
is Dominican Peso.
Capital City: Santo Domingo
Population: 10,075,000 (10.0m)
Dominican Republic gained
independence from the USA in 1924.

The Dominican Republic and Haiti both share an island known as Hispaniola.

The national sport of the Dominican Republic is baseball.

Some of the world's best baseball players are Dominicans.

When Europeans discovered (and started conquering) the New World at the end of
the 15th century, this island became the first European settlement in the newly
discovered lands. Christopher Columbus brother Bartholomew built the city of
Santo Domingo in 1496, and it became the first seat of Spanish rule in America.
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Grenada The currency they use is
East Caribbean Dollar.
Capital City: St. Georges
Population: 110,000 (0.1m)
Grenada gained independence
from the United Kingdom in 1974.

Grenada is also known as the Island of Spice thanks to the large amount of nutmeg and other spices it produces.

There are only 3

traffic lights on the
entire island!

The national bird of Grenada is the

critically endangered Grenada dove.
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Guadeloupe
Capital City: Basse-Terre
Population: 402,000 (0.4m)
Guadeloupe is an Overseas Region
and Department of France.
The currency they
use is Euro.
La Grande Soufrire, meaning big sulphur
outlet in French, is an active stratovolcano
on the island of Basse-Terre. It is the
highest mountain peak in the Lesser
Antilles, and rises 1,467 m high.

The two main islands of Guadeloupe are Grande-Terre and Basse-Terre,

often referred to as the twin islands. These two islands are separated by a
narrow channel, but connected by a bridge.
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 The currency
Haiti they use is
Capital City: Port-au-Prince Haitian
Population: 10,604,000 (10.6m) Gourde.

A magnitude 7.0 earthquake struck Haiti in

2010, killing up to 316,000 people and caused
widespread homelessness and hunger.

Haiti gained independence

from France in 1804.

Citadelle Laferrire is the

largest fortress in the Americas.
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Jamaica The currency they use is
Jamaican Dollar.
Capital City: Kingston
Population: 2,950,000 (2.9m)
Jamaica gained independence from
the United Kingdom in 1962.

There are more churches

per square mile in Jamaica
(1,600 in total) than in any
other country in the world.

Reggae music originated in

Jamaica, home of well known
Rastafarian musician Bob Marley.

Jamaica produces many talented sportspeople, especially in athletics with

athletes such as Usain Bolt, Johan Blake and Shelly-Ann Fraser-Pryce.
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Martinique The currency they
use is Euro.
Capital City: Fort-De-France
Population: 385,000 (0.3m)

Martinique boasts a wide

range of wildlife, including
manatees, bats, snakes and
the Volcano Frog which is
endemic to the island.

Martinique is an Overseas Region

and Department of France.

Mount Pele is a stratovolcano famous

for its eruption in 1902 which killed
about 30,000 people. This is the only
major volcanic disaster in the history of
France and its overseas territories.
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 Montserrat The currency they use is
East Caribbean Dollar.
Capital City: Plymouth (Brades)
Population: 4,900
Montserrat is a British Overseas Territory.

Montserrat is nicknamed The Emerald Isle of the Caribbean

both for its resemblance to coastal Ireland and for the Irish
ancestry of many of its inhabitants.

Soufrire Hills volcano erupted in 1995 and

buried the island's capital, Plymouth, in more
than 12m of mud and rendered the southern
part of the island, now termed the exclusion
zone, uninhabitable.

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 Puerto Rico The currency they
use is US Dollar.
Capital City: San Juan
Population: 3,400,000 (3.4m)

Puerto Rico is an Unincorporated

Territory of the USA.

The 16th century

Fort San Felipe del Morro
in San Juan, Puerto Rico.

Columbus named the island San Juan Bautista, in honour of Saint John the Baptist,
while the capital city was named Ciudad de Puerto Rico (Rich Port City).
Eventually people started to refer to the entire island as Puerto Rico, while San Juan
became the name used for the main shipping port /capital city.
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 Saint Barthlemy The currency
Capital City: Gustavia they use is Euro.
Population: 9,200

Saint Barthlemy is an
Overseas Collectivity of France.

Christopher Columbus was the

first European to encounter the
island in 1493. He named it
after his brother Bartolomeo.

In 1784, the French sold the

island to Sweden, who renamed
the largest town Gustavia, after
the Swedish King Gustav III.
France then repurchased the
island in 1878.

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Saint Kitts and Nevis
Capital City: Basseterre
Population: 54,000
The currency they use is
East Caribbean Dollar.
Saint Kitts and Nevis
gained independence
from the United
Kingdom in 1983.

Saint Kitts and Nevis is the smallest sovereign

state in the Western Hemisphere, in both
area and population.

When Christopher Columbus

discovered the island, he named it
after his patron saint, St.
Christopher. Later it was
shortened to St. Kitts, his
nickname. He also named the
other island Nevis because it
looked like a snow capped
mountain and the Spanish word
for snow is nieves.
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Saint Lucia The currency
Capital City: Castries they use is East
Population: 185,000 Caribbean Dollar.

Saint Lucia gained independence

from the United Kingdom in 1979.

The island is 27 miles long and 14 miles across at its widest point.
Saint Lucia is named
after St. Lucy of Syracuse.
Saint Lucia is the worlds
only country named after
a woman.

Castries is the capital city and major port.

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 Saint Martin Saint Martin is an Overseas Collectivity of France.
Capital City: Marigot
Population: 36,000
The currency they use is Euro.

St. Martin is the smallest island

in the world divided between
two countries, France and the
Netherlands. The island is 34
square miles in total size.

Thanks to St. Maarten France

shares a border with The
Netherlands. That does not
happen in Europe.
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Saint Vincent and the Grenadines
Capital City: Kingstown The currency
Population: 103,000 they use is East
Caribbean
Dollar.
Saint Vincent and the Grenadines
gained independence from the United
Kingdom in 1979. The country is also
known simply as Saint Vincent.

Due to the islands volcanic origin,

most of St Vincent beaches are black sand
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Sint Maarten The currency
they use is
Capital City: Philipsburg Netherlands
Population: 33,000 Antillean Guilder.

Princess Juliana airport is best known for very

low-altitude flyover landing approaches due
to one end of its runway being extremely
close to the shore and Maho Beach.

Sint Maarten gained autonomy

within the Kingdom of the
Netherlands in 2010.
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 Trinidad and Tobago The currency they use is
Trinidad and Tobago Dollar.
Capital City: Port of Spain
Population: 1,350,000 (1.3m)
Trinidad and Tobago gained independence
from the United Kingdom in 1962.

Steel drums are a musical Limbo dancing originated in Trinidad.

instrument originating from
Trinidad and Tobago.

Columbus renamed it "La Isla de la Trinidad" ("The Island of the Trinity"), fulfilling
a vow made before setting out on his third voyage of exploration.
Tobago's cigar-like shape may have given it its Spanish name (tobacco)
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 Turks and Caicos Islands
Capital City: Cockburn Town
Population: 31,000
TCI are a British Overseas Territory. The currency they
use is US Dollar.

The water is warm here. In the summer

a dip in the surf at Grace Bay Beach will
be almost like taking a bath28-29C
to be exact! In winter the water
temperature is a little cooler at about
23-26C.
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 U.S. Virgin Islands The currency they
use is US Dollar.
Capital City: Charlotte Amalie
Population: 106,000
Puerto Rico is an Unincorporated Territory of the USA.

Trunk Bay on Saint John is often referred to as

one of the most beautiful beaches in the world.

The U.S. Virgin Islands is the
only location in the United
States where you drive on
the left side of the road.
The Virgin Islands of the United States, are a
group of islands in the Caribbean, consisting of
the main islands of Saint Croix, Saint John
and Saint Thomas, and many other minor islands.
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