*** Caribbean








The Caribbean


Figure 1.--Here we see two youths from Curaçao riding donkies in 1931. Notice the cacti hedge. The Dutch West Indies unlike many other caribbean islands are very arid islands. As a result, the major Dutch islands were not among the enormously valuable sugar islands.

The Caribbean is a very diverse area. Some islands have rain forests and others are near desert. The larger islands have mountaneous teraines. The Caribbean often described as part of Latin America, but in fact many of the islands are former British colonies. European countries began colonizing the islands at a very early point of the European maritime outreach. The first colony was Santo Domingo followed by Cuba and Purto Rico. The Caribbean became the Spanish Main and the Spanish attempted to close it off from other countries. The Spanish attempted to enslave the Native American peoples, but mistreatment and disease essentially wiped out the Native Americans on most of the islands. The islands proved of relatively minor importance and the Spanish focus moved to the mainland. Subsequently sugar emerged as a major crop. Slaves were brought in from Africa and Africans now constitute the bulk of the population on many islands. The Caribbean thus became an important cog in the Atlantic slave trade. Sugar made the islands so emensly valuable that they became prizes in the wars waged by the great maritime powers (Britain, France, the Netherlands, and Spain). The bulk of the islands are found on the perifery of the Caribbean. The major islands are the Greater Antilles (Cuba, Santo Domingo, Jamaica, and Puero Rico). The islands and their relatively small European populations proved easy targets for raiding naval forces. Even after the decline of Spanish naval power, Spain held on to Cuba, Dominican Republic, and Puerto Rico becuse of the relative large populations. The declining value of sugar meant that the islands declined in economic importnce. Some of the islands today are relatively prosepous, benefitting from industries like tourism and offshore banking. Other islands are very poor (Cuba, Haiti, and Jamaica). Many of the islands have had difficulty developing successful economies. Cuba has some of the best prospects for economic success, but Castro and Communism has turned it into one of the poorest countries in the Hemisphere, kept afloat first by Soviet and now Venezuelan assistance.

Geography

The Caribbean is composed of more than 7,000 islands, islets, and cays. Islets are very small rocky islands, cay's are small, low islands composed largely of coral or sand. There are also a few inhabited reefs. There are a few larger islands--basically the Greater Antilles. The Caribbean is dominated by an arc of islands including both the Greater and Lesser Antilles, commonly referred to as the West Indies. The arc is essentially a largely submerged mountain range connecting South America (the Guianas) amd North America (Florida and Yucatan). These islands for the most part are not located in the Caribbean, but create the border between the Atlantic Ocean and the Caribbean. Many of the smaller islands of the Lesser Antilles are volcanic in orgin. The Bahamas and he Turks and Caicos are actually located outsude the Caribbean and is composed of coral island, better describes as cays. The largest islands in the Caribbean are the Greater Antilles: Cuba, Jamaica, Hispaniola (Haiti and the Dominican Republic), and Puerto Rico. The Lesser Antilles is a long chain of small islands, bordered in the east by the Atlantic Ocean, curve southward, terminating in Trinidad just off the northern coast of Venezuela and the Guianas. The Lesser Antilles include the Leeward Islands group in the north and the Windward Islands group in the south. There are also islands actually in the Caibbean, inclusing the Leeward Antilles (Aruba, Bonaire, Cura�o and a small group of Venezuelan islands). The Cayman Islands are located south of Cuba.

History

Caribbean history begins with the Native American peoples. The Americas were setlled from north to south as Siberian hunters crossed the Bearing Sea land bridge and gradually moved south from Nort America into South America. The Caribbean was different. It was populated from south to north. Natives Americans mocing into ghe Guians and weastern Venzuela through the Orionoco Basin crossed over to Trinidad and then moved up the Caribbedan Arc, eventually reaching Cuba. Some Native Amerivans from Florida apparently reached western Cuba, but almost all of the Caribbean was settled from the south. These were pre-literate stone age people. There was no written record and the archeological evidence is minimal. Written history thus begins with the arrival of the Spanish (1492). The European maritime outreach began with the Portuguese voyages south along the Atlantic coat of Africa, but for three centuries the Caribbean was a vital part of European power struggles. America was discovered at about the same time that the Reformation began in Europe. The Spanish and Portuguese managed to keep the other Europeans for the most part out of South and Central America, but the Caribbean was different. For three centuries the struggle for these islands was a major part of European power struggles. The resilt was a colorful if tumultous history, comple with conquistadores, Spamish treasure ships, English sea dogs, slave traders, and pirates. This only ended with Industrial Revolution and the French Revolution. Since this time, the Caribbean has become a historical backwater. The Caribbean was the last vestage of the spamish Empire and slavery in the New World. The Caribbean only emerged from historical obbsurity with the Panama Canal (1914) and the Cuban Missle Crisis (1962)--the most dangerous point of the Cold War. Most of the Caribbean achieved independence peacefully (1960s). A few islands retain European connections. Puero Rico is part of the United States.

Economics

Native Ameicans in the Caribbean practice subsistece agriculture along with hunting and fishing. European colonialism began with the Spanish in the Caribbean which is where Columbus landed on his first voyage (1492). The Spanish quickly lost interest in the Caribbean (the Spanish Main) when the native population which they could enslave began dying from European diseases and did not have what the Spanish most wanted--gold and silver. The Spanish couss shifted to the mainland. They did not even bother settling many of the islands. Other European countries (Denmark, England, France, and the Netherlands) began settling the islands. Gold and silver from the America would have a huge impact on Rurope. It would not come from the Caribbea, but had to be ranported though the Caribbean. As a result of the sugar and the African slave trade, these islands became some of the most valuable possessions on earth. Only the plantation owners benefitted amd the mother countries benefitted. The plantations were essentially brutal death camps for the captive Africans working there. After emancipation and the decline of the sugar industry, the Caribbean became an economic backwater with the largely black populations living in poverty. The economic situation on most of the islands have improved since independence, but income levels tend to be far below that of Europe and North America. The Caribbean economies continue to depend largesly on agriculture and now the tourism industries. A few islands have valuable mineral resources: Cuba (nickle), Jamaica (bauxite), and Trinidad (oil). The larger islands have tried to encourage the industrial development with with mixed results. Average income varies greatly from island to island. The Bahamas had the highest annual per capita income, largely because of tourism. Trinidad and Tobago has relatively high income, in part because of the oil sector. Haiti and Cuba have the lowest per capita income. What is not clear is if the Caribbean islands are capable of developing modern economies with European/North American income levels. An if not, what are the impediments. Fidel Castro believed that capitalism and America imperialism were the imediments. And in breaking with the United States and adopting a socialist economy, he only suceeded in turning the prosperous Cuban economy into one of the poorest countries in the region.

Ethnicity

The Caribbean has a very diverse ethnic composition, a creation of the region's colonial history. Almost all Caribbean ethnic groups originated outside the Caribbean. Each island has its own destinct ethnic mix, but the primary ethnic group is Africans--people brought to the Caribbean as slaves during the 15-18th centuries to work on sugar and other plantations. There are also Asians, Europeans, and Hispanics. Almost all the original Native American population perished during the early colonial period because of disease and mistreatment. Few Caribbean people are full Native Americans, but uite a number claim a degree of Native American ancestry. The Native Americans were the Arawaks, Caribs, and Tainos. The Arawaks were not the original population, but they at the time of the arrival of the Spanish being replaced by the more war-like Caribs. The Tains inhabited western Cuba. The Africans were a vast mixture of African tribes, but the Akan, Igbo, Fon, Kongo, and Yoruba were especially important. Most Afro-Caribbeans have lost their tribal idebtity, but it can now be traded through DNA. The Spanish at first dominated the Caribbean which came to be called the Spanish Main. Other Europeans eventually arrived including the Dutch, English, and French. The Europeans are concentrated on the islands of their former colonial possessions. There are also Asians, both Chinese and Indians. The Indians arrived after emancipation (1830s). The freed slaves did not want to work on sugar plantations, especially at the wages offered. So the British imported indentured workers from South Aasia. Indians are particularly important on Trinidad. Hispanics are mostly concentrated in the Greater Antilles (Cuba, Doiminican Republic, and Puerto Rico. And many Caribbean people are increasingly a mix of these various peoples.

Countries

Most of the Caribbean islands are located in a sweeping arc streaching from easten Venezuela to Floria/Yucatan. The ilands are divided into the Greater Antilles (Cuba, Hispaniola, Jamica, and Puerto Rico) and the many smaller islands of the Lesser Antilles. Generall included in the Cribbean is the Bahama, although it is located just outside the Caribbean, north of Cuba. It was here Columbus labded and European volonization began by the Spanish. The Caribbean became known as the Spanish Maine. The Spanish attracted by reports of rich Native American empires on the mainland, turned their attention from the Caribbean. Most of the Greater Antilles remained Spanish, except Jamaica taken from the Spanish by the British. Other European powers seized the small islands of the Lesser Antilles, most of which were not even settled by the Spanish. Spain showed so little interest in the smaller islands so the Dutch, English, and French developed navies string enough to contest control of the region with the spanish. As a result, the Caribbean today is a patch-work quilt of Europwean settlement. These islands may not seem to be of great importance, but the of sugar plantations, but in the development of sugar plantations turned small islands into some of the most vluble realestate in the world (17th century). Captive Africans were brought into worl the plantations in horific conditions, dramatically changing the ethnic map of the region. The colonia powers included Denmark, England, France, the Netherlands, and ultimateky the United States. Only the Portuguese did not enter the Caribben, because a Papal Bull decreed that it was llocated toSpain. Haiti on Hipaniola became the first country to achieve indepemdence, ollowed by the neighboring Dominican Republic . They were followed by Cuba which was liberared from Spanish rule by the United States. After World War II, most of the islanded were granted independence, although several od he smaller islnds continue theie Europwean ties. Puerto Rico became an American Commonwealth. Most of the islands have continued to struggle with economic debelopment.









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Created: 11:38 PM 5/20/2014
Last updated: 12:25 AM 4/13/2019