Caribbean Sea

Located adjacent to the Atlantic Ocean, the Caribbean Sea covers the majority of the Caribbean Plate. With an area of approximately 1,710,000 square kilometers (1,063,000 square miles), the Caribbean Sea surrounds dozens of islands of different sizes, with Cuba being the largest. Cuba is part of a group of islands known as the Greater Antilles, along with the Dominican Republic, Haiti, Jamaica, and Puerto Rico. The Lesser Antilles includes two arcs of small islands known as the Windward and Leeward Islands. The Caribbean is a mix of independent states, such as Barbados and Trinidad and Tobago, as well as various dependent territories, such as Aruba, Martinique, and the Virgin Islands.

The Caribbean Sea borders a total of approximately 40 nations, depending on how its limits are defined. Mexico's Yucatan Peninsula and the eastern coasts of Belize, Costa Rica, Guatemala, Honduras, Nicaragua, and Panama border the sea on its western edge. South American coasts are found in Colombia, the Guianas (French Guiana, Guyana, and Suriname), and Venezuela. English, Spanish, French, and Dutch are spoken in the Greater Caribbean, as well as Amerindian languages.

The origin of the name Caribbean (pronounced kar-uh-bee-uhn) can be traced to the Carib Indians, [Page 217]skilled boat builders and sailors who navigated the sea. The Caribs once lived throughout the Lesser Antilles, but their numbers were greatly reduced in the colonial period. Starting in the late 1400s, the Caribbean islands served as ports for colonial expeditions from various European nations. With the arrival of Europeans, the indigenous populations, such as the Arawak and Caribs, were decimated by introduced diseases such as smallpox. Colonial empires then turned to African slaves to work in plantation agriculture for crops such as sugarcane and bananas until the end of slavery in the 1800s. In modern times, the Caribbean region makes up an important African diaspora.

Since the mid-1950s, there has been a transition from a primary focus on agricultural production to economies oriented around tourism, services, and manufacturing. There is currently an emphasis on the development of ecotourism and improvements to community involvement in existing tourism programs. Tourism in the Caribbean has historically been based from isolated resorts, beaches, or cruise ships, which limits benefit to local people.

Economic assistance from the United States to the Caribbean region was reduced after the Cold War, and European preferential purchases of bananas and sugar are being phased out. These products are central to the economies of several islands. Bilateral and multilateral trade pacts involving the Caribbean are increasingly common as leaders look to improve economic cooperation among the islands and strengthen ties with Latin American countries considered part of the Greater Caribbean. Although the creation of the Caribbean Community (Caricom) began over 30 years ago, with the aim to integrate states of the region, progress toward a Caribbean Single Market and Economy (CSME) has been slow. CSME finally entered into force on January 3, 2006. The Association of Caribbean States, created in 1994, covers a larger area than Caricom. Its goals are to strengthen economic cooperation, preserve the environmental integrity of the Caribbean Sea, and promote sustainable development throughout the region.

...