CARIBBEAN ISLANDS

CARIBBEAN – NORTH to SOUTH

LUCAYAN ARCHIPELAGO
BAHAMAS – immediately north of eastern Cuba
Grand Bahama (Freeport), Bimini, Berry, Great Abaco
New Providence (Nassau), Andros, Exuma, Inagua

GREATER ANTILLES
CUBA
West (Havana, Pinar del Rio, Artemisa, Mayabeque
Isla de la Juventud
Central (Trinidad, Cienfuegos, Camaguey, Varadero
East (Holguin, Santiago de Cuba, Las Tunas)

JAMAICA – immediately south of eastern Cuba
Cornwall (Montego Bay, Negril)
Middlesex, Surrey (Kingston, Mandeville, Ocho Rios)

HAITI
North (Cap Haiten, Gonaives, Hinche)
South (Port of Prince, Jeremie, Jacmel, Les Cayes)

DOMINICAN REPUBLIC
North (Santiago, Pureto Plata, Samana, La Vega)
East, South (Santo Domingo, La Romana, Barahona)

LESSER ANTILLES
UNITED KINGDOM TERRITORIES
Bermuda – access from N Carolina
Cayman Islands – immediately south of Cuba
Turks and Caicos (Providenciales, Cockburn Town)
British Virgin Islands (Tortola, Anegada, Virgin Gorda) – immediately east of US Virgin Islands and Puerto Rico
Anguilla
Montserrat

US TERRITORIES 
Puerto Rico (San Juan, Bayamon, Ponce)
Virgin Islands (St Thomas, St Croix, Saint John) SE of Puerto Rico

SAINT KITTS and NEVIS

ANTIGUA and BARBUDA

FRANCE TERRITORIES 
Guadeloupe and Dependencies (Marie Galante)
Martinique (Fort-de-France)
Saint Martin
Saint-Barthelemy

DOMINICA

SAINT LUCIA

SAINT VINCENT and the GRENADINES

BARBADOS (Bridgetown)

GRENADA (St. George’s)

TRINIDAD and TOBAGO
Trinidad (Port of Spain)
Tobago

NETHERLAND TERRITORIES
Sint Martin 
Saba
Sint Eustatius
Aruba
Bonaire
Curaco

THE LESSER ANTILLES are an archipelago in the southeastern Caribbean, forming a barrier between the Caribbean Sea and the Atlantic Ocean.
These islands were the first part of the New World to be settled and colonized by Europeans. While some islands are independent nations (and among the world’s smallest by land area and population), others are associated with their master countries
Leeward Islands
The Leeward Islands are a vestige of the colonial era. Only Antigua and Barbuda and Saint Kitts and Nevis are sovereign nations; the other islands being dependencies of other countries. Their collective name was given as they are less exposed to the trade winds.
Do not confuse with Leeward Antilles in the southern Caribbean.
Anguilla, a dependency of the United Kingdom
Antigua and Barbuda
British Virgin Islands, a dependency of the United Kingdom
U.S. Virgin Islands, a dependency of the United States
Guadeloupe, an overseas department of France
Montserrat, a dependency of the United Kingdom
Saba, a municipality of the Netherlands
Saint-Barthélemy, an overseas department of France
Saint Martin, a French-Dutch dependency
Saint Kitts and Nevis
Sint Eustatius, a municipality of the Netherlands

Windward Islands
The Windward Islands got their name as they are more exposed to the trade winds from the east. Except French department Martinique, the islands are sovereign nations.
Barbados East of the archipelago, and not part of the Windward Islands proper
Dominica
Martinique An overseas department of France
Saint Lucia
Saint Vincent and the Grenadines
Grenada
Trinidad and Tobago South-east of the archipelago, and not part of the Windward Islands proper

The Caribbean is a region of the Americas that consists of the Caribbean Sea, its islands (some surrounded by the Caribbean Sea^[4] and some bordering both the Caribbean Sea and the North Atlantic Ocean) and the surrounding coasts. The region is southeast of the Gulf of Mexico and the North American mainland, east of Central America, and north of South America.
Situated largely on the Caribbean Plate, the region has more than 700 islands, islets, reefs and cays (see the list of Caribbean islands). Island arcs delineate the eastern and northern edges of the Caribbean Sea:^[6] The Greater Antilles and the Lucayan Archipelago on the north and the Lesser Antilles and the on the south and east (which includes the Leeward Antilles). The Lucayan Archipelago (the Bahamas and Turks and Caicos Islands), do not border the Caribbean Sea, but are still within the boundaries of the Caribbean region. On the mainland, Belize, Nicaragua, the Caribbean region of Colombia, Cozumel, the Yucatán Peninsula, Margarita Island, and the Guyanas (Guyana, Suriname, French Guiana, Guayana Region in Venezuela, and Amapá in Brazil) are often included due to their political and cultural ties with the region.^[7]
Geopolitically, the islands of the Caribbean (the West Indies) are often regarded as a region of North America, though sometimes they are included in Central America or left as a region of their own.^[8][9] and are organized into 30 territories including sovereign states, overseas departments, and dependencies. From December 15, 1954, to October 10, 2010, there was a country known as the Netherlands Antilles composed of five states, all of which were Dutch dependencies.^[10] From January 3, 1958, to May 31, 1962, there was also a short-lived political union called the West Indies Federation composed of ten English-speaking Caribbean territories, all of which were then British dependencies. The West Indies cricket team continues to represent many of those nations.

ETYMOLOGY and PRONUNCIATION
The region takes its name from that of the Caribs, an ethnic group present in the Lesser Antilles and parts of adjacent South America at the time of the Spanish conquest of the Americas.
The two most prevalent pronunciations of “Caribbean” outside the Caribbean are /ˌkærɪˈbiːən/ (KARR-ə-BEE-ən), with the primary stress on the third syllable, and /kəˈrɪbiən/ (kə-RIB-ee-ən), with the stress on the second. Most authorities of the last century preferred the stress on the third syllable. This is the older of the two pronunciations, but the stressed-second-syllable variant has been established for over 75 years. It has been suggested that speakers of British English prefer /ˌkærɪˈbiːən/ (KARR-ə-BEE-ən) while North American speakers more typically use /kəˈrɪbiən/ (kə-RIB-ee-ən), but major American dictionaries and other sources list the stress on the third syllable as more common in American English too. According to the American version of Oxford Online Dictionaries, the stress on the second syllable is becoming more common in UK English and is increasingly considered “by some” to be more up to date and more “correct”.
The Oxford Online Dictionaries claim that the stress on the second syllable is the most common pronunciation in the Caribbean itself, but according to the Dictionary of Caribbean English Usage, the most common pronunciation in Caribbean English stresses the first syllable instead, /ˈkærɪbiæn/ (KARR-ih-bee-an). The word “Caribbean” has multiple uses. Its principal ones are geographical and political. The Caribbean can also be expanded to include territories with strong cultural and historical connections to Africa, slavery, European colonisation and the plantation system.

• The United Nations geoscheme for the Americas presents the Caribbean as a distinct region within the Americas.
• Physiographically, the Caribbean region is mainly a chain of islands surrounding the Caribbean Sea. To the north, the region is bordered by the Gulf of Mexico, the Straits of Florida and the Northern Atlantic Ocean, which lies to the east and northeast. To the south lies the coastline of the continent of South America.
• Politically, the “Caribbean” may be centred by considering narrower and wider socio-economic groupings:
  • At its core is the Caribbean Community (CARICOM), whose full members include the Commonwealth of the Bahamas in the Atlantic, the Co-operative Republic of Guyana and the Republic of Suriname in South America, and Belize in Central America; its associate members include Bermuda and the Turks and Caicos Islands in the Atlantic Ocean.
  • Most expansive is the Association of Caribbean States (ACS), which includes almost every nation in the region surrounding the Caribbean and also El Salvador on the Pacific Ocean. According to the ACS, the total population of its member states is 227 million people.
    
    

Climate
The climate of the area is tropical, varying from tropical rainforest in some areas to tropical monsoon and tropical savanna in others. There are also some locations that are arid climates with considerable drought in some years, and the peaks of mountains tend to have cooler temperate climates.
Rainfall varies with elevation, size and water currents, such as the cool upwellings that keep the ABC islands arid. Warm, moist trade winds blow consistently from the east, creating both rain forest and semi arid climates across the region. The tropical rainforest climates include lowland areas near the Caribbean Sea from Costa Rica north to Belize, as well as the Dominican Republic and Puerto Rico, while the more seasonal dry tropical savanna climates are found in Cuba, northern Colombia and Venezuela, and southern Yucatán, Mexico. Arid climates are found along the extreme northern coast of Venezuela out to the islands including Aruba and Curacao, as well as the northwestern tip of Yucatán.
While the region generally is sunny much of the year, the wet season from May through November sees more frequent cloud cover (both broken and overcast), while the dry season from December through April is more often clear to mostly sunny. Seasonal rainfall is divided into ‘dry’ and ‘wet’ seasons, with the latter six months of the year being wetter than the first half. The air temperature is hot much of the year, varying from 25 to 33 C (77 F to 90 F) between the wet and dry seasons. Seasonally, monthly mean temperatures vary from only about 5 C (7 F) in the northern most regions, to less than 3 C in the southernmost areas of the Caribbean.
Hurricane season is from June to November, but they occur more frequently in August and September and more common in the northern islands of the Caribbean. Hurricanes that sometimes batter the region usually strike northwards of Grenada and to the west of Barbados. The principal hurricane belt arcs to northwest of the island of Barbados in the Eastern Caribbean. A great example being recent events of Hurricane Irma devastating the island of Saint Martin during the 2017 hurricane season.
Sea surface temperatures change little annually, normally running from 30 °C (87 °F) in the warmest months to 26 °C (76 °F) in the coolest months. The air temperature is warm year round, in the 70s, 80s and 90s, and only varies from winter to summer about 2–5 degrees on the southern islands and about a 10–20 degrees difference on the northern islands of the Caribbean. The northern islands, like the Bahamas, Cuba, Puerto Rico and the Dominican Republic, may be influenced by continental masses during winter months, such as cold fronts.

ISLAND GROUPS
Lucayan Archipelago

•  The Bahamas
•  Turks and Caicos Islands (United Kingdom)

Greater Antilles

•  Cayman Islands (United Kingdom)
•  Cuba
• Hispaniola
  •  Haiti
  •  Dominican Republic
•  Jamaica
•  Puerto Rico (U.S. Commonwealth)
  • Spanish Virgin Islands

Lesser Antilles

• Leeward Islands
  •  United States Virgin Islands (U.S.)
    • Saint Croix
    • Saint Thomas
    • Saint John
    • Water Island
  •  British Virgin Islands (United Kingdom)
    • Tortola
    • Virgin Gorda
    • Anegada
    • Jost Van Dyke
  •  Anguilla (United Kingdom)
  •  Antigua and Barbuda
    • Antigua
    • Barbuda
    • Redonda
  • Saint Martin, politically divided between
    •  Saint Martin (France)
    •  Sint Maarten (Kingdom of the Netherlands)
  •  Saba (Caribbean Netherlands, Netherlands)
  •  Sint Eustatius (Caribbean Netherlands, Netherlands)
  •  Saint Barthélemy (French Antilles, France)
  •  Saint Kitts and Nevis
    • Saint Kitts
    • Nevis
  •  Montserrat (United Kingdom)
  •  Guadeloupe (French Antilles, France) including
    • Les Saintes
    • Marie-Galante
    • La Désirade
• Windward Islands
  •  Dominica
  •  Martinique (French Antilles, France)
  •  Saint Lucia
  •  Saint Vincent and the Grenadines
    • Saint Vincent
    • The Grenadines
  •  Grenada
    • Grenada
    • Carriacou and Petite Martinique
  •  Barbados
  •  Trinidad and Tobago
    • Tobago
    • Trinidad
• Leeward Antilles
  •  Aruba (Kingdom of the Netherlands)
  •  Curaçao (Kingdom of the Netherlands)
  •  Bonaire (Caribbean Netherlands, Netherlands)

HISTORICAL GROUPINGS
All islands at some point were, and a few still are, colonies of European nations; a few are overseas or dependent territories:

• British West Indies/Anglophone Caribbean – Anguilla, Antigua and Barbuda, Bahamas, Barbados, Bay Islands, Guyana, Belize, British Virgin Islands, Cayman Islands, Dominica, Grenada, Jamaica, Montserrat, Saint Croix (briefly), Saint Kitts and Nevis, Saint Lucia, Saint Vincent and the Grenadines, Trinidad and Tobago (from 1797) and the Turks and Caicos Islands
• Danish West Indies – Possession of Denmark-Norway before 1814, then Denmark, present-day United States Virgin Islands
• Dutch West Indies – Aruba, Bonaire, Curaçao, Saba, Sint Eustatius, Sint Maarten, Bay Islands (briefly), Saint Croix (briefly), Tobago, Surinam and Virgin Islands
• French West Indies – Anguilla (briefly), Antigua and Barbuda (briefly), Dominica, Dominican Republic (briefly), Grenada, Haiti (formerly Saint-Domingue), Montserrat (briefly), Saint Lucia, Saint Vincent and the Grenadines, Sint Eustatius (briefly), Sint Maarten, St. Kitts (briefly), Tobago (briefly), Saint Croix, the current French overseas départements of French Guiana, Martinique and Guadeloupe (including Marie-Galante, La Désirade and Les Saintes), the current French overseas collectivities of Saint Barthélemy and Saint Martin
• Portuguese West Indies – present-day Barbados, known as Os Barbados in the 16th century when the Portuguese claimed the island en route to Brazil. The Portuguese left Barbados abandoned years before the British arrived.
• Spanish West Indies – Cuba, Hispaniola (present-day Dominican Republic, Haiti (until 1659 to France), Puerto Rico, Jamaica (until 1655 to Great Britain), the Cayman Islands (until 1670 to Great Britain) Trinidad (until 1797 to Great Britain) and Bay Islands (until 1643 to Great Britain), coastal islands of Central America (except Belize), and some Caribbean coastal islands of Panama, Colombia, Mexico, and Venezuela.
• Swedish West Indies – present-day French Saint-Barthélemy, Guadeloupe (briefly) and Tobago (briefly).
• Courlander West Indies – Tobago (until 1691)

The British West Indies were united by the United Kingdom into a West Indies Federation between 1958 and 1962. The independent countries formerly part of the B.W.I. still have a joint cricket team that competes in Test matches, One Day Internationals and Twenty20 Internationals. The West Indian cricket team includes the South American nation of Guyana, the only former British colony on the mainland of that continent.
In addition, these countries share the University of the West Indies as a regional entity. The university consists of three main campuses in Jamaica, Barbados and Trinidad and Tobago, a smaller campus in the Bahamas and Resident Tutors in other contributing territories such as Trinidad.

COUNTRIES and TERRITORIES of the CARIBBEAN TODAY

Flag	Country or territory[27][28][29]	Sovereignty	Status	Area (km2)[30]	Population (2016 est.)[1]	Density (people per km2)	Capital
	Anguilla	United Kingdom	British overseas territory	91	14,764	164.8	The Valley
	Antigua and Barbuda	Independent	Constitutional monarchy	442	100,963	199.1	St. John’s
	Aruba	Kingdom of the Netherlands	Constituent kingdom	180	104,822	594.4	Oranjestad
	The Bahamas[31]	Independent	Constitutional monarchy	13,943	391,232	24.5	Nassau
	Barbados	Independent	Constitutional monarchy	430	284,996	595.3	Bridgetown
	Bonaire	Kingdom of the Netherlands	Special Municipality	294	12,093[32]	41.1	Kralendijk
	British Virgin Islands	United Kingdom	British overseas territory	151	30,661	152.3	Road Town
	Cayman Islands	United Kingdom	British overseas territory	264	60,765	212.1	George Town
	Cuba	Independent	Republic	109,886	11,475,982	102.0	Havana
	Curaçao	Kingdom of the Netherlands	Constituent kingdom	444	159,371	317.1	Willemstad
	Dominica	Independent	Republic	751	73,543	89.2	Roseau
	Dominican Republic	Independent	Republic	48,671	10,648,791	207.3	Santo Domingo
	Federal Dependencies of Venezuela	Venezuela	Territories	342	2,155	6.3	Gran Roque
	Grenada	Independent	Constitutional monarchy	344	107,317	302.3	St. George’s
	Guadeloupe	France	Overseas department	1,628	449,975	246.7	Basse-Terre
	Haiti	Independent	Republic	27,750	10,847,334	361.5	Port-au-Prince
	Jamaica	Independent	Constitutional monarchy	10,991	2,881,355	247.4	Kingston
	Martinique	France	Overseas department	1,128	385,103	352.6	Fort-de-France
	Montserrat	United Kingdom	British overseas territory	102	5,152	58.8	Plymouth (Brades)[33]
	Navassa Island	United States	Territory (uninhabited)	5	0	0.0
	Nueva Esparta	Venezuela	State	1,151	491,610		La Asunción
	Puerto Rico	United States	Commonwealth	8,870	3,667,903	448.9	San Juan
	Saba	Kingdom of the Netherlands	Special municipality	13	1,537[32]	118.2	The Bottom
	San Andrés and Providencia	Colombia	Department	52.5	75,167	1431	San Andrés
	Saint Barthélemy	France	Overseas collectivity	21	7,448	354.7	Gustavia
	Saint Kitts and Nevis	Independent	Constitutional monarchy	261	54,821	199.2	Basseterre
	Saint Lucia	Independent	Constitutional monarchy	539	178,015	319.1	Castries
	Saint Martin	France	Overseas collectivity	54	29,820	552.2	Marigot
	Saint Vincent and the Grenadines	Independent	Constitutional monarchy	389	109,643	280.2	Kingstown
	Sint Eustatius	Kingdom of the Netherlands	Special municipality	21	2,739[32]	130.4	Oranjestad
	Sint Maarten	Kingdom of the Netherlands	Constituent kingdom	34	39,537	1176.7	Philipsburg
	Trinidad and Tobago	Independent	Republic	5,130	1,364,962	261.0	Port of Spain
	Turks and Caicos Islands[34]	United Kingdom	British overseas territory	948	34,900	34.8	Cockburn Town
	United States Virgin Islands	United States	Territory	347	104,913	317.0	Charlotte Amalie
Total				235,667	44,199,389	187.6

CONTINENTAL COUNTRIES with CARIBBEAN COASTLINES and ISLANDS 

BIODIVERSITY
The Caribbean islands have one of the most diverse eco systems in the world. The animals, fungi and plants, and have been classified as one of Conservation International’s biodiversity hotspots because of their exceptionally diverse terrestrial and marine ecosystems, ranging from montane cloud forests, to tropical rainforest, to cactus scrublands. The region also contains about 8% (by surface area) of the world’s coral reefs along with extensive seagrass meadows, both of which are frequently found in the shallow marine waters bordering the island and continental coasts of the region.
Many of the ecosystems of the Caribbean islands have been devastated by deforestation, pollution, and human encroachment. The arrival of the first humans is correlated with extinction of giant owls and dwarf ground sloths. The hotspot contains dozens of highly threatened animals (ranging from birds, to mammals and reptiles), fungi and plants. Examples of threatened animals include the Puerto Rican amazon, two species of solenodon (giant shrews) in Cuba and the Hispaniola island, and the Cuban crocodile.
The region’s coral reefs, which contain about 70 species of hard corals and between 500–700 species of reef-associated fishes have undergone rapid decline in ecosystem integrity in recent years, and are considered particularly vulnerable to global warming and ocean acidification. According to a UNEP report, the Caribbean coral reefs might get extinct in next 20 years due to population explosion along the coast lines, overfishing, the pollution of coastal areas and global warming.
Some Caribbean islands have terrain that Europeans found suitable for cultivation for agriculture. Tobacco was an important early crop during the colonial era, but was eventually overtaken by sugarcane production as the region’s staple crop. Sugar was produced from sugarcane for export to Europe. Cuba and Barbados were historically the largest producers of sugar. The tropical plantation system thus came to dominate Caribbean settlement. Other islands were found to have terrain unsuited for agriculture, for example Dominica, which remains heavily forested. The islands in the southern Lesser Antilles, Aruba, Bonaire and Curaçao, are extremely arid, making them unsuitable for agriculture. However, they have salt pans that were exploited by the Dutch. Sea water was pumped into shallow ponds, producing coarse salt when the water evaporated.
The natural environmental diversity of the Caribbean islands has led to recent growth in eco-tourism. This type of tourism is growing on islands lacking sandy beaches and dense human populations.

DEMOGRAPHICS
Indigenous groups

• Arawak peoples
  • Igneri
  • Taíno
• Caquetio people
• Ciboney
• Ciguayo
• Garifuna
• Kalina
• Kalinago
• Lucayan
• Macorix
• Raizal

At the time of European contact, the dominant ethnic groups in the Caribbean included the Taíno of the Greater Antilles and northern Lesser Antilles, the Island Caribs of the southern Lesser Antilles, and smaller distinct groups such as the Guanajatabey of western Cuba and the Ciguayo of eastern Hispaniola. The population of the Caribbean is estimated to have been around 750,000 immediately before European contact, although lower and higher figures are given. After contact, social disruption and epidemic diseases such as smallpox and measles (to which they had no natural immunity) led to a decline in the Amerindian population. From 1500 to 1800 the population rose as slaves arrived from West Africa such as the Kongo, Igbo, Akan, Fon and Yoruba as well as military prisoners from Ireland, who were deported during the Cromwellian reign in England. Immigrants from Britain, Italy, France, Spain, the Netherlands, Portugal and Denmark also arrived, although the mortality rate was high for both groups.
The population is estimated to have reached 2.2 million by 1800. Immigrants from India, China, Indonesia, and other countries arrived in the mid-19th century as indentured servants. After the ending of the Atlantic slave trade, the population increased naturally. The total regional population was estimated at 37.5 million by 2000.
In Haiti and most of the French, Anglophone and Dutch Caribbean, the population is predominantly of African origin; on many islands there are also significant populations of mixed racial origin (including Mulatto-Creole, Dougla, Mestizo, Quadroon, Cholo, Castizo, Criollo, Zambo, Pardo, Asian Latin Americans, Chindian, Cocoa panyols, and Eurasian), as well as populations of European ancestry: Dutch, English, French, Italian, Portuguese and Spanish ancestry. Asians, especially those of Chinese, Indian descent, and Javanese Indonesians, form a significant minority in parts of the region. Indians form a plurality of the population in Trinidad and Tobago, Guyana, and Suriname. Most of their ancestors arrived in the 19th century as indentured laborers.
The Spanish-speaking Caribbean populations are primarily of European, African, or racially mixed origins. Puerto Rico has a European majority with a mixture of European-African-Native American (tri-racial), and a large Mulatto (European-West African) and West African minority. Cuba also has a European majority, along with a significant population of African ancestry. The Dominican Republic has the largest mixed-race population, primarily descended from Europeans, West Africans, and Amerindians.
Jamaica has a large African majority, in addition to a significant population of mixed racial background, and has minorities of Chinese, Europeans, Indians, Latinos, Jews, and Arabs. This is a result of years of importation of slaves and indentured laborers, and migration. Most multi-racial Jamaicans refer to themselves as either mixed race or brown. Similar populations can be found in the Caricom states of Belize, Guyana and Trinidad and Tobago. Trinidad and Tobago has a multi-racial cosmopolitan society due to the arrivals of Africans, Indians, Chinese, Arabs, Jews, Spanish, Portuguese, and Europeans along with the Native Amerindians population. This multi-racial mix has created sub-ethnicities that often straddle the boundaries of major ethnicities and include Dougla, Chindian, Mulatto-Creole, Afro-Asians, Eurasian, Cocoa panyols, and Asian Latin Americans
Language
Spanish (64%), French (25%), English (14%), Dutch, Haitian Creole, and Papiamento are the predominant official languages of various countries in the region, although a handful of unique creole languages or dialects can also be found in virtually every Caribbean country. Other languages such as Caribbean Hindustani, Chinese, Indonesian, Amerindian languages, other African languages, other European languages, other Indian languages, and other Indonesian languages can also be found.
Religion 
Christianity is the predominant religion in the Caribbean (84.7%). Other religious groups in the region are Hinduism, Islam, Judaism, Rastafarianism, Buddhism, Chinese folk religion (Taoism and Confucianism), Bahá’í, Jainism, Sikhism, Zorastrianism, Kebatinan, Traditional African religions, Afro-American religions, Yoruba (Santería, Trinidad Orisha, Palo, Umbanda, Brujería, Hoodoo, Candomblé, Quimbanda, Orisha, Xangô de Recife, Xangô do Nordeste, Comfa, Espiritismo, Santo Daime, Obeah, Candomblé, Abakuá, Kumina, Winti, Sanse, Cuban Vodú, Dominican Vudú, Louisiana Voodoo, Haitian Vodou, and Vodun).

POLITICS 
Caribbean societies are very different from other Western societies in terms of size, culture, and degree of mobility of their citizens. The current economic and political problems the states face individually are common to all Caribbean states. Regional development has contributed to attempts to subdue current problems and avoid projected problems. From a political and economic perspective, regionalism serves to make Caribbean states active participants in current international affairs through collective coalitions. In 1973, the first political regionalism in the Caribbean Basin was created by advances of the English-speaking Caribbean nations through the institution known as the Caribbean Common Market and Community (CARICOM) which is located in Guyana.
Certain scholars have argued both for and against generalizing the political structures of the Caribbean. On the one hand the Caribbean states are politically diverse, ranging from communist systems such as Cuba toward more capitalist Westminster-style parliamentary systems as in the Commonwealth Caribbean. Other scholars argue that these differences are superficial, and that they tend to undermine commonalities in the various Caribbean states. Contemporary Caribbean systems seem to reflect a “blending of traditional and modern patterns, yielding hybrid systems that exhibit significant structural variations and divergent constitutional traditions yet ultimately appear to function in similar ways. The political systems of the Caribbean states share similar practices.
The influence of regionalism in the Caribbean is often marginalized. Some scholars believe that regionalism cannot exist in the Caribbean because each small state is unique. On the other hand, scholars also suggest that there are commonalities amongst the Caribbean nations that suggest regionalism exists. “Proximity as well as historical ties among the Caribbean nations has led to cooperation as well as a desire for collective action.” These attempts at regionalization reflect the nations’ desires to compete in the international economic system.Furthermore, a lack of interest from other major states promoted regionalism in the region. In recent years the Caribbean has suffered from a lack of U.S. interest. “With the end of the Cold War, U.S. security and economic interests have been focused on other areas. As a result there has been a significant reduction in U.S. aid and investment to the Caribbean.” The lack of international support for these small, relatively poor states, helped regionalism prosper.
Following the Cold War another issue of importance in the Caribbean has been the reduced economic growth of some Caribbean States due to the United States and European Union’s allegations of special treatment toward the region by each other.

The United States under President Bill Clinton launched a challenge in the World Trade Organization against the EU over Europe’s preferential program, known as the Lomé Convention, which allowed banana exports from the former colonies of the Group of African, Caribbean and Pacific states (ACP) to enter Europe cheaply. The World Trade Organization sided in the United States’ favour and the beneficial elements of the convention to African, Caribbean and Pacific states has been partially dismantled and replaced by the Cotonou Agreement.
During the US/EU dispute, the United States imposed large tariffs on European Union goods (up to 100%) to pressure Europe to change the agreement with the Caribbean nations in favour of the Cotonou Agreement.
Farmers in the Caribbean have complained of falling profits and rising costs as the Lomé Convention weakens. Some farmers have faced increased pressure to turn towards the cultivation of illegal drugs, which has a higher profit margin and fills the sizable demand for these illegal drugs in North America and Europe.
Caribbean nations have also started to more closely cooperate in the Caribbean Financial Action Task Force and other instruments to add oversight of the offshore industry. One of the most important associations that deal with regionalism amongst the nations of the Caribbean Basin has been the Association of Caribbean States (ACS). Proposed by CARICOM in 1992, the ACS soon won the support of the other countries of the region. It was founded in July 1994. The ACS maintains regionalism within the Caribbean on issues unique to the Caribbean Basin. Through coalition building, like the ACS and CARICOM, regionalism has become an undeniable part of the politics and economics of the Caribbean. The successes of region-building initiatives are still debated by scholars, yet regionalism remains prevalent throughout the Caribbean.
Bolivarian Alliance. The President of Venezuela, Hugo Chavez launched an economic group called the Bolivarian Alliance for the Americas (ALBA), which several eastern Caribbean islands joined. In 2012, the nation of Haiti, with 9 million people, became the largest CARICOM nation that sought to join the union.