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Caribbean Basin
The region of the world known as the Caribbean basin is a body of
land and water situated in the Atlantic Ocean between North and South America.
Viewed from high above the Caribbean
looks like a tub whose long axis has a NORTHWEST/SOUTHEAST direction. The rim of this tub which could be better described as a basin has an eastern and a western part.
The eastern rim from the northeast to the southeast.
From the most northern of the the 700 island or Cays( pronounced keys) of the Bahamas the eastern rim form a curve which extends all the way down to south America. It is known as the west Indies.
The western rim starts from the northern part of central America in Mexico and finishes with the Northern portion of South America in Venezuela. It is the western limit of the Caribbean sea which communicates with the Golf of Mexico Through the passage between western point of Cuba and
Acapulco in Mexico.
Caribbean Basin Map
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The West Indies / Eastern rim of the basin
Called
INDIAS OCCIDENTALES in Spanish, INDES OCCIDENTALES in French and WEST-INDIË in Dutch, the West Indies is a crescent-shaped group of islands more than 2,000 miles (3,200 km) long separating the Gulf of Mexico and the Caribbean Sea
on the west and south from the Atlantic Ocean on the east and north.
From the North American mainland peninsula of Florida in the north, the islands stretch 1,200 miles (1,930 km) southeastward, then 500 miles (800 km) south, then west along the north coast of Venezuela on the South American mainland.
The land area of the islands is nearly 91,000 square miles (236,000 square km). The
total population of the West Indies in 1990 was estimated at 33,640,000
The islands of the West Indies are formed by two main chains of mountains. One chain runs west-east and forms the islands of the Greater Antilles( Cuba, Hispagnola/Kyskeya(Haiti and the Dominican Republic) Jamaica and Puerto Rico. The other chain trends north-south and forms the Lesser Antilles which runs from the
Virgin Islands to the coast of Venezuela. These mountain chains are now mostly submerged by the Atlantic Ocean and Caribbean Sea, with only the higher peaks visible above the water. Besides interior mountain peaks, each Greater Antillean island has an encircling coastal plain.
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The western rim (west caribbean) countries from Mexico to Venezuela
The western/southern border of the Caribbean basin is formed by the countries of
Central America and South America that surround the Caribbean Sea.
Mexico
Mexico is the most northern country of the Caribbean basin but it is seen by most people as the most southern part of North America. Geopolitically and economically, it is the transition between the more industrialized northern portion of the American continent and the less industrialized southern region. Mexico is the border of the two
bodies of water in the region, the Gulf of Mexico to the north and the Caribbean Sea to the South. Those two bodies of water are linked by a passage between Cancun Mexico and the western tip of Cuba.
Central America
Central America is the piece of land situated between Mexico and South America. Geologists and physical geographers sometimes extend the northern boundary of Central America to the Isthmus of Tehuantepec in Mexico. Within the region are the
countries of Belize, Guatemala, El Salvador, Honduras, Nicaragua, Costa Rica and Panama.
Southern rim upper portion of South America
This border of the Caribbean basin is formed by two countries: Columbia and Venezuela. Venezuela is not only part of southern border of the Caribbean Sea but it also has an island, the Margarita Island , which is part of the Caribbean.
Western border picture
Mexico, Central America and Upper South America
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