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General
Background
The lesser Antilles is the portion of
the West Indies which begins with the
Virgin Island and ends with the
Margarita Island and the Netherlands ABC
(Aruba, Bonaire, Curacao) near Venezuela
in South America.
They are geographically very different
from the Greater Antilles (Cuba,
Hispagnola_Haiti / Dominican
Republic_, Jamaica and Puerto Rico).
As a matter of fact once one leaves
Puerto Rico, there is a dramatic change
of scenery. The islands become a
multitude of shapes rising out of the
sea. Some spewn from extinct
volcanic cauldrons, others still rising
constantly above the sea level as tips
of active volcanoes. A large
percentage of the Lesser Antilles
islands is also made of accumulated
coral skeleton of living sea communities
that are still building their habitat.
Sometimes, the violent destructive
forces of the volcanoes and the habitat
forming process of the coral riffs
combine themselves to create a wonderful
mixture. Such is the case in the
island of Grenada where black volcanic
sand is found, in some places, side by
side with the white coral sand.
The
lesser Antilles have a geologic
uniformity which can help simplify their
study. They are made of one
mountain chain that spreads from north
to south. The islands are the tips
of this mountain chain. The
confusion starts however once a person
try to learn about the different islands
or to orient herself during a visit.
There are so many names that are similar
or almost similar. Visitors for
business, pleasure or learning have
difficulty orienting themselves without
constantly referring to a map telling
them what island is near their location.
The myriad of St this, St. that can give
a headache to school children and adult
alike who are trying to study the
Caribbean.
This confusion is the legacy of the
fierce competition between the European
powers for colonial dominance of the
Islands since the 16th century. They had
a tremendous strategic value in the
projection of maritime power and an
astronomic economic importance for the
empires that owned them.
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click on the picture
for the Caribbean basin map
Historical
Considerations
Spain came first with Christopher
Columbus in 1492. The papal bulls
of the Spanish Pope Alexander VI,
notably The Inter caetera bulls,
established the legal foundation of the
right of possession of Spain on the
western portion of the non Christian world and
gave the eastern portion to Portugal.
The Papal Bulls encountered the
objection of the Portuguese because they
were bot given enough space to maneuver.
Through the treaty of Tordesillas in
1494 Spain and Portugal arrived at an
arrangement which was satisfactory for both
parties.
Those two European
monarchies became then the two
superpower of the western world with
Spain assuming the greatest position of
power because of its huge and lucrative
empire in the New World. Portugal gained
control of Africa and the territories of
the Eastern hemisphere. In the
American continent Brazil became part of
its territory.
The geographic position of the Lesser Antilles
placed them in the
Spanish controlled area.
However, they did not give lots
of value to most of the islands because
they had no gold. For them,
those island were "Terra
inutile", useless land with no
gold. Never the less, they
did not want to concede the islands
to other European empires because doing so would
give them a foot hold in the New World.
From there, they could challenge
Spain hegemony on the region and
snatched away some of its most valued
possessions in the main land. The Spaniards did not
want that to happen.
However, the immensity of the territory
rendered the task of retaining
territorial control a military
impossibility. The other Europeans
saw the opportunity and they took it.
The Spanish hegemony will be heavily
challenged for several centuries by the
English, the French, Dutch and the Danes
who fought with the Spaniards and among
themselves for the islands of the West
Indies
continue
with the Lesser Antilles:
historical background and
classification
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