Lesser antilles

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The Lesser Antilles or Little Antilles (in English: Lesser Antilles, in French: Petites Antilles, Papiamento: Lesser Antias, Dutch: Kleine Antillen) is an archipelago located in the Caribbean Sea and made up of the Lesser Antilles, which form an island arc to the southeast of the Greater Antilles (or Greater Antilles). It extends from eastern Puerto Rico to the western coast of Venezuela.

The islands are part of a long arc of volcanic islands, most of which lie around the eastern Caribbean Sea on the western border with the Atlantic Ocean, and some of which lie on a southeastern fringe of that same sea, just north of South America. The Lesser Antilles roughly coincide with the outer edge of the Caribbean plate, and many of them formed as a result of subduction, when one or more Atlantic plates slid under the Caribbean plate.

Politically, the Lesser Antilles is divided into 8 independent island countries, 3 British Overseas Territories, 2 French overseas departments, 2 French overseas collectivities, 3 autonomous countries of the Kingdom of the Netherlands, 3 special municipalities of the Kingdom of the Netherlands, 1 insular area of the United States, and 2 federal entities of Venezuela.

The main languages, in order of importance, are English, French, Spanish, Papiamento and Dutch.

History

The Spanish were the first Europeans to land on the islands with the arrival of Christopher Columbus. In 1493, on his second voyage, Columbus reached the shores of the Caribbean Sea, where he sailed discovering several islands in the Lesser Antilles. The first island he discovered on this voyage he called the Desired. The Spanish claimed the island Dominica and took solemn possession on land of the island they called Marigalante. Then they anchored next to the island that he called Guadalupe. To later visit Montserrat, Antigua and San Cristóbal. Later he crosses the archipelago of the Eleven Thousand Virgins.

Over the following centuries, the Spanish, French, Dutch, Danish and English disputed several of the islands.

Pierre Belain d'Esnambuc was a French merchant and adventurer in the Caribbean, who established the first permanent French colony, Saint-Pierre, on the island of Martinique in 1635. Belain sailed to the Caribbean in 1625, hoping to establish a French settlement on the island of San Cristóbal (St. Kitts). In 1626 the French, under the leadership of Pierre Belain d'Esnambuc, began to take an interest in Guadeloupe and expelled the Spanish settlers.

Martinique was charted by Columbus in 1493, but Spain had little interest in the territory. Christopher Columbus landed on June 15, 1502, after 21 days of voyage in trade winds, his fastest ocean voyage. On September 15, 1635, Pierre Belain d'Esnambuc, French governor of the island of San Cristóbal, landed in the port of San Pedro with 80-150 French colonists after being expelled from San Cristóbal by the English. D'Esnambuc claimed Martinique for the French King Louis XIII and the 'Compagnie des Îles de l'Amérique'.

The island of Margarita in present-day Venezuela was discovered on August 15, 1498 during Columbus's third voyage. On that trip, the Admiral would also discover the mainland, Venezuela. That day in August, Columbus saw three islands, two of them small, low and arid (the current Coche and Cubagua),

The province of Trinidad was created in the 16th century by the Spanish, with its capital being San José de Oruña. But in the course of the Napoleonic wars, in February 1797, a British force began the occupation of the territory. And in 1802 Spain recognized British sovereignty.

In 1917, the United States purchased the Danish Virgin Islands. Most of the British colonies became independent States, the islands of the Lesser Antilles belonging to Venezuela were divided into 2 different entities: the Nueva Esparta State and the Federal Dependencies (1938). In 1986, Aruba became a self-governing country of the Netherlands, and in 2010 the rest of the Netherlands Antilles dissolved to form smaller entities.

On July 18, 1995, the Soufrière Hills volcano, in the southern part of the island of Montserrat, erupted. Pyroclastic flows and lahars destroyed Montserrat's Georgian-era capital Plymouth. As a result of this, two thirds of the island's population emigrated, between 1995 and 2000, mainly to the United Kingdom, leaving the population reduced to less than 1,200 people.

The two official French overseas departments are Guadeloupe and Martinique. San Martín and San Bartolomé, formerly attached to the department of Guadalupe, have had a separate statute as overseas collectivities since 2007.

Geography

La Tortuga Island, Federal Units of Venezuela

The highest peak is La Soufrière (1467 m) located on the island of Basse-Terre, in the archipelago of Guadalupe.
The deepest ocean pit is in the Atlantic (-8800 m) is Puerto Rico's pit along the U.S. Virgin Islands.
It extends for 14 307 square kilometers, of which more than half belong to the sovereignty of two countries: Trinidad and Tobago with more than 5 100 km2, and France (departments of Guadalupe and Martinique, and collectivities of San Martín and San Bartolomé) with more than 2 800 km2.
The total population of the Lesser Antilles would be around 3 970 000 inhabitants (by 2006), of which more than half live in Trinidad and Tobago (1.36 million) and in the French territories of Guadalupe, Martinique, San Martín and San Bartolomé (800 thousand), and in the state of Nueva Esparta de Venezuela about 400,000.
The Lesser Antilles politically belong to thirteen countries: 8 countries whose territory is entirely within the Sea of the Antilles (Antigua and Barbuda, Barbados, Dominica, Grenada, San Cristóbal and Nieves, Saint Vincent and the Grenadines, Saint Lucia, Trinidad and Tobago) and 5 other countries with the largest part of the territory outside the Caribbean Sea (United States, France, Netherlands, United Kingdom and Venezuela).

Geology

The Lesser Antilles roughly coincide with the outer cliff of the Caribbean Plate. Many of the islands were formed as a result of the subduction of the oceanic crust of the Atlantic Plate under the Caribbean Plate in the subduction zone of the Lesser Antilles. This process continues and is responsible not only for many of the islands, but also for the volcanic and seismic activity in the region. The islands off the South American coast are largely the result of the interaction between the South American plate and the Caribbean plate, which is mainly slip, but includes a compression component.

Geologically, the island arc of the Lesser Antilles stretches from Grenada in the south to Anguilla in the north. The Virgin Islands and Sombrero Island are geologically part of the Greater Antilles, while Trinidad is part of South America and Tobago is the remainder of an independent island arc. The Leeward Antilles are also a separate island arc, which is related to South America.

Climate

Gustavia, the capital of the French island of San Bartolomé

The warm tropical climate is pleasantly tempered by more or less constant trade winds throughout the year. These winds are only interrupted by a few storms over the Atlantic Ocean. Inland, the climate is slightly hotter, and cooler, with altitude, and as humidity increases as well.

There are two seasons:

The cold and dry season (December to June), period known as Lent.
Wet and hot (June-December) called hurricane season.

Islands

**Political-administrative organization of the Lesser Antilles**
Independent country			Area	Population
Country	Dependent Territory	Islands	(km2)	(inhabitants)	Official language
Sovereign Nations
Antigua and Barbuda		Antigua — Barbuda — Redonda	443	68 722 (2005)	English
Barbados		-	431	279 912 (2007)	English
Dominica		-	754	69 278 (2004)	English
Grenada		Granada — Ronde — Carriacou — Little Martinique	344	89 502 (2005)	English
San Cristóbal y Nieves		San Cristobal — Snow	261	38 958 (2005)	English
Saint Vincent and the Grenadines		Baliceaux — Bequia — Canouan — Mayreau — Mustique — Palm Island — Small Saint Vincent — Cayos de Tobago — Union — Saint Vincent	389	117 534 (2005)	English
Saint Lucia		-	616	160 145 (2002)	English
Trinidad and Tobago		Trinidad — Tobago — Chacachacare — Gaspar Grande — Gasparillo — Huevo Island — Monkeys — Small Tobago	5128	1 075 066 (2005)	English
Dependent Territories
United States	United States Virgin Islands	St. Thomas — St. John — Santa Cruz — Water Island	352	124 778 (2003)	English
France	Guadalupe	Basse-Terre — La Desirade — Grande-Terre — Petite Terre — Les Saintes — Marie-Galante	1628	408 000 (2007)	French
	Martinique	-	1100	432 900	French
	San Martín	North of San Martín Island — Tintamarre	53.2	33 102 (2004)	French
	San Bartolomé	-	25	8450 (2007)	French
NetherlandsNetherlands	Aruba	Palm Island - Renaissance Island	193	110 000 (2010)	Dutch, Daddy
	Bonaire	Klein Bonaire	288	13 389 (2010)	Dutch, Papiamento
	Curacao	Klein Curacao - Penso Island	444	142 180 (2010)	Dutch, Daddy
	Saba	Green Island	13	1737 (2010)	Dutch
	San Eustaquio	-	21	2886 (2010)	Dutch
	Sint Maarten	Mal Aborder	34	37 429 (2007)	Dutch, English
United KingdomUnited Kingdom	Anguilla	Anguilla — Anguilla — Dog — Little Scrub — Prickly Pear — Sandy — Scrub — Seal — Hat	91	13 477 (2006)	English
	British Virgin Islands	Tortola — Virgin Gorda — Anegada — Jost Van Dyke	153	23 098 (2006)	English
	Montserrat	-	102.	4819 (2007)	English
Venezuela Venezuela	State New Sparta	Margarita — Car — Cubagua	1150	436 944 (2007)	Spanish
Venezuela Venezuela	Federal Venezuelan Units	Los Monjes — Las Aves — Los Roques (Gran Roque, Francisquí, Isla Larga, Nordisquí, Madrisquí, Crasquí, Cayo Espenquí, Cayo Carenero, Cayo de Agua, Dos Mosquises, Cayo Sal, Cayo Grande) — Los Hermanos — Los Frailes — Birds — La Sola — La Tortuga (Cayo Herradura — Los Tortuguchiillo Islands)	342,25	1765 (2001)	Spanish