Title: The Caribbean
Headings: 
English in the Caribbean
Geography
History
English the Caribbean
Slavery in the Caribbean
Transportation of Indians to the Caribbean
Jamaica
Barbados
The settlement of Barbados
The Caribbean Rim
Literature on Carribean English
Maps of the Caribbean

Content: The Caribbean
English in the Caribbean
Geography
History
English in the Caribbean
Slavery in the Caribbean
Transportation of Indians
Jamaica
Barbados
The Caribbean Rim
Literature
Maps of the Caribbean
Geography
The Caribbean is a large area extending from the southern coast of the United States to the northern coast of South America, bounded on the west by Mexico and the Central American states and facing out to the Atlantic on the east. The section between the east of Mexico and the south of the United States is the Gulf of Mexico and does not contain any islands; the Caribbean islands begin in the north with Cuba and the Bahamas and extend southwards to South America. From the point of view of English the Caribbean can be seen as consisting of the following islands: 1) Jamaica, Cayman Islands
2) Leeward Islands (St. Kitts Nevis, Montserrat, Antigua, Virgin Islands)
3) Windward Islands (St Lucia, St Vincent, Barbados, Grenada)
4) Trinidad and Tobago
The following sections of the Caribbean periphery were settled to varying degrees by the British as of the 17th century. 1) The southern United States
2) The Bahamas
3) Belize (former British Honduras)
4) Costa Rica
5) Nicaragua (the Miskito Coast)
6) Providencia (Providence Island)
7) Guyana (former British Guyana)
8) Suriname (former Dutch Guyana)
Apart from English the two other main European languages are French and Spanish spoken on Haiti on the one hand and the Dominican Republic, Cuba and Puerto Rico on the other. Dutch was also present on the southern rim of the Caribbean. History
The islands of the Caribbean were discovered by the Italian explorer Christopher Columbus, working for the then Spanish monarchy. In 1492 he made a first landing on Hispaniola and claimed it for the Spanish crown as he did on Cuba. This meant that the major islands of the Caribbean – the Greater Antilles – were already Spanish possessions when the British began their involvement with the Caribbean in the early 17th century.