An island nation located in the eastern Caribbean Sea on the boundary with the Atlantic Ocean with two major islands. Columbus landed on his second voyage here in 1493 and named one of the islands after a church in Seville, Spain.
Antigua and Barbuda
An English-speaking nation consisting of two thousand keys and cays that form an archipelago with Andros Island considered the single largest. Name is thought to derive from the Spanish for "shallow seas" but there are other origin stories.
The Bahamas
The city of Saint-Pierre on this island was called the "Paris of the Lesser Antilles" before it was destroyed by the eruption of Mount Pelée in 1902. Napoleon's wife Joséphine was born here to a family of the wealthy Creole elite.
Martinique
The Amerindian name for one of the islands is usually translated as "The Land of the Hummingbird". Birthplace of calypso music and the steelpan, which is claimed to be the only acoustic musical instrument invented during the 20th century. Home of Nobel Prize-winning author V.S. Naipaul.
Trinidad and Tobago
It is the third most populous anglophone country in the Americas (after Canada and the US). Its indigenous Arawakan-speaking Taíno people named it to mean either the "Land of Springs" or the "Land of Wood and Water". Formerly a Spanish possession known as Santiago, it later became a British colony. The musical genres reggae, ska, mento, rocksteady, dub, and more recently, dancehall and reggae all originated here.
Jamaica
The most populous country in the Caribbean and is known as "Pearl of the Antilles".
Cuba
Nicknamed "Butterfly Island", it is one of the twenty-six regions of France and the largest and most populous European territory in North America. It was also home to poet Saint-John Perse (pseudonym of Alexis Léger), winner of the 1960 Nobel Prize in Literature.
Guadeloupe
Its two main islands, Grand Turk and Salt Cay are the only inhabited ones of the group. A great many of the tourists who visit the islands are Canadian. Owing to this, the islands' status as a British colony, and historic trade links, some politicians in Canada and here have suggested some form of union.
Turks and Caicos Islands
Consist of the four main islands of St. Croix, St. John, St. Thomas, and Water Island, and many smaller islands. It is the only part of the United States where traffic drives on the left.
United States Virgin Islands
The photogenic Handelskade with colorful buildings is the waterfront attraction in Willemstad, the capital of this "liquerish" island.
Curacao
It is one of the Windward Islands and its twin peaks are called Pitons (Gros Piton and Petit Piton). The island switched between British and French control so often it was likened to the mythical Helen of Troy. Home to two Nobel laureates - Arthur Wallace for Economics and Derek Walcott for Literature.
Saint Lucia
A 32 km-long island of the Lesser Antilles just north of Venezuela. It is in the realm of Kingdom of the Netherlands and the predominant language is Papiamento.
Aruba
The smallest nation in the Americas in both area and population. Historically the British dependency of Anguilla was also a part of this union. Alexander Hamilton, the first United States Secretary of the Treasury, was born here. One part of this nation was named by Columbus for his patron saint and the other part got its name when he thought the clouds around its peak to be snow.
Saint Kitts and Nevis
The islands form an autonomous part of the Kingdom of the Netherlands. The island of Aruba was part of this group until 1986, when it was granted a "status aparte", and became a separate part of the kingdom. Since 2006 the islands have given rise to diplomatic disputes between Venezuela and the Netherlands.
Netherlands Antilles
The second-largest island of the Antilles, lying between Cuba to the west and Puerto Rico to the east. Haiti occupies the western third of the island and the eastern two-thirds are The Dominican Republic.
Hispaniola
Occupies one-third of the Caribbean island of Hispaniola. A former French colony, it became the first independent black republic and the only nation ever to form from a successful slave rebellion.
Haiti
The only Caribbean island that was a Swedish colony for any significant length of time. Gustavia, the main town and capital was named after King Gustav III of Sweden. Part of the French West Indies group along with Guadeloupe, Martinique, and Saint Martin, it is home to several high end resorts like Eden Rock and Cheval Blanc.
Saint-Barthelemy
Nicknamed the "Nature Isle", its actual name of this country means "Sunday" in Latin, which was the day on which it was discovered by Columbus. The indigenous Sisserou parrot (or imperial amazon) is its national bird and features on its flag.
Dominica
British overseas territory that is a global offshore financial services center and one of the leading tourist scuba diving destinations in the world. Columbus named them "Las Tortugas" after the numerous sea turtles there. Because of its location, it has the unfortunate distinction of getting the most hurricane strikes in history.
Cayman Islands
Has its capital at Kingstown and Bequia is the largest island and one of the few places in the world where limited whaling is still allowed by the International Whaling Commission.
Saint Vincent and the Grenadines
Comprise around sixty semi-tropical islands including the largest Tortola, Virgin Gorda, Anegada, and Jost Van Dyke. Capital is Road Town.
British Virgin Islands
El Yunque, the only tropical rainforest in the United States National Forest System is on this island.
Puerto Rico
Occupies the eastern portion of Hispaniola and was the site of the first permanent European settlement in the Americas after Greenland. Merengue and Bachata are its music and dance traditions.
The Dominican Republic
Island divided between the French and the Dutch since 1648.
Saint Martin
Is the second-smallest independent country in the western hemisphere after Saint Kitts and Nevis. Operation Urgent Fury in 1983 was an invasion by the US and several other nations in response to a coup. Reputed for nutmeg which is called "black gold" and which is even featured on its flag.
Grenada
A British overseas territory that is the most northerly of the Leeward Islands in the Lesser Antilles. The name derives from the word for "eel" in various Romance languages, likely because of the island's shape. It was the premier naval base for Britain during the Napoleonic Wars.
Anguilla
Was given its name by Columbus meaning "saw-toothed mountain" after its namesake located in Catalonia. Often called the "Emerald Isle of the Caribbean" due to its resemblance to coastal Ireland and to the Irish descent of most of its early settlers. The 1995 eruption of the Soufrière Hills volcano caused much of the population to be evacuated to the UK.
Montserrat
The most easterly island in the Caribbean and the only island completely surrounded by the Atlantic Ocean. As early as 1511, the island was referred to as the island of the bearded ones in an official Spanish document.
Barbados