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Legacy
of War and
the difficulty of modern
classification
The status
quo of the world established at the end
of 15th Century by the divine decrees
(The Papal Bulls) of the Pope Alexander
VI ( Rodrigo Borgia) and the Treaty of
Tordesillas were not accepted by others
emerging European powers. They
looked with envy at Spain's New
World riches. Francis the First,
the king of France, echoed the feeling of
the other European monarchies when he
wondered aloud where there was any
divine writ that could cede an entire
hemisphere to Spain and Portugal.
Spain became, because of this massively
advantageous position, the prime target
of all the monarchies of Europe. The fight against the Spanish dominance
in the New World lasted more than 300
years. All means necessary were
used against the Spaniards. As early as
1521 French pirates had royal
commissions allowing them to sail in the
forbidden Spanish water beyond the 47
degree of longitudinal parallel.
The permanent harassment of the
Spanish settlements and the
Flotillas carrying gold to the
Spain had started. The
adventurers from the other empires gradually
gained a foot hole on the
Caribbean. Thus begin a long war
which ultimately destroyed the Spanish
dominance on the Caribbean.
One can have a sketchy view of the
Spanish defeat by realizing that Spain,
the superpower of the 16th, 17th and
18th century , possesses no colony in
the American Continent today.
On the European theater, the war was
done not only by bullets and cannon
balls but also by a very effective
propaganda campaign which portrayed the
Spaniards as avaricious and inhuman.
This propaganda war gave birth to the
black legend "la leyenda negra"
which even today continues to affect the
perception of the Spaniards by other
Europeans. One can give the
example of the French who say that
Africa starts with the Pyrenees
mountains.
The West Indies played a vital role in
this prolong conflict of interest
between the Europeans. They were
sometimes the prime area of battle but
most of the times they only suffered the
echoes of European
conflicts. Each
time war was declared between the
European empires, a new status belli
took effect in the West Indies.
Neighbors islands living sometimes in
perfect harmony with one another became
suddenly arch enemies. Town were
destroyed or had to pay a huge ransom to
the invaders. Maritime blockades were
set. Some islands of Greater and Lesser
Antilles were taken anyway by force and
became jewels in the Crown of their new
owners. Above all, the islands
were trophies of war for the victors
when a conflict was terminated usually
through a treaty.
Every time an island changed hands, the
new owner acted immediately to build a
fort, create a monopoly and put its
national mark on the name and
the social structure. For some islands,
in the Lesser Antilles, this process occurred on several
occasions because their ownership
changed more than 10 times. They
were easily conquerable because of their
small size. Sometimes, the name was changed
completely in its meaning and,
some other times, the transformation was
only a translation of the former name.
The study of the Lesser Antilles of
today is further complicated by
the political and administrative
divisions of the colonial territories.
An island could be situated in the
northern portion but its colonial
administration is in south. The
best example of this confusion is the
island of Saint Martin/Saint Marteen
whose northern half is french and
southern half Dutch. Saint martin
the French half is administered in The
French department of Guadeloupe and
Saint Marteen, the Dutch part, in
Curacao, the administrative center
of the six Netherlands Antilles.
The island of Saint Martin/Saint Marteen
changed hands 17 times
click on the picture
for the Caribbean basin map
Traditional
and Global Classification
of the Lesser
Antilles
1. The
traditional Leeward/Windward
classification
The lesser Antilles are traditionally
divided in two parts the Leeward Island
( view Leeward Islands page) to
the north and east, the Windward Island
to the South and west (view Windward
Islands page) . The Leeward
islands start with the US Virgin islands
and finishes with the island of Dominica
(not to be confused with the Dominican
Republic). The Windward starts
with the French colony of Martinique and
finishes in Grenada. Barbados
located on the east and Trinidad Tobago
to the south are not considered part of
the windward. Other islands
situated near South America like the
Venezuelan island of Margarita and
the Netherlands Antilles (also called
the ABCs, Aruba, Curacao, Bonaire)
are also not considered as part of the
Windward.
2.Global classification
This classification is more synthetic
than the one above. The Islands
are classified by groups which use the
geographic, the historical
and the administrative parameters which link them
to one another, the author of this text
has created it
for didactic reasons.
As a matter
of fact, placing the
islands in groups should
facilitate the learning process for the
students or any person interested in
acquiring knowledge about the Caribbean.
The prime goal of this
didactic classification is to give the
learner a global point of view
that excludes none of the islands.
It starts with the US Virgin Islands and
finishes with the Netherlands Antilles
near South America.
There are four groups which are the
following :
A) The Virgin Islands group
B) The Anguilla group
C) The Dominica group
D) The Trinidad /Tobago group.
A) The Virgin Island
This group starts almost directly east
to Puerto Rico. This group which
is customarily called a chain starts
with the islands of Saint Thomas and
Saint John on north and St Croix on the
south. The British Virgin Islands
are on the north east. They are
Tortola, Virgin Gorda, Jost Van Dyke,
Anegada and Sombrero. The riff
encrusted Anegada passage separate
Sombrero from the other four British
islands.
The US Virgin islands were the only West
Indian islands held by the Danish
monarchy.
B) The Anguilla Group
This group starts with the island of
Anguilla also called the eel because of
its shape. This group has the
general shape of a C which rest on
top of a butterfly. the C starts
with a southern direction and curve
up to the north east.. In
the southern direction, we encounter
right below Anguilla the half
French, half Dutch Saint Martin/Saint
Marteen. This island is followed
St.Barts (Saint Barthelemy), Saba, St
Estacius (Estasia) , St.Kitts (Saint
Christopher) Nevis and tiny Monserrat.
From Monserrat the C curves up to the
north east to lead us to the
island of Antigua and Barbuda.
The butterfly shape Guadeloupe with its
three dependent islands of Maria Galante,
Desirade and the Iles des Saints rest
below the C of the Anguilla group.
Guadeloupe is the last of the Leeward
islands. This fact allow us to
consider the Groups A and B as
formed by the Leeward islands.
Saint Martin is administered in the
French Department of Guadeloupe. Saint
Marteen is administered in Curacao the
administrative center of the 6
Netherlands Antilles.
C) The Dominica group
This group follows a strict parabolic
direction from North to South. The
only exception to this rule is Barbados
which seats on the back of the parabolic
figure, strait across to the East from
the island of Saint Vincent. The
group starts with Dominica and ends with
Grenada. From north to south the
islands are Dominica, Martinique,
St Lucia, St Vincent, the Grenadines
islands and Grenada. The
Grenadines islands are Bequia, Moustique
Canouan, Mayreau, Prune, Union,
Carriacou, Kick-em-Jenny and Ronde. The
Group C or Dominica group coincide with
the traditional Windward with the
exception of Barbados which is always
kept separated from them.
D) The Trinidad/Tobago and
Netherlands group
This group comprises Tobago and
Trinidad. The island of
Trinidad is a spin-off from South
America. It is separated from the
coast of the main land or the Firm Coast, as
the Dutch called it , by a small
channel. West of Trinidad we meet
the island of Margarita (Isla de
Margarita) and Tortuga (Isla de
Tortuga) which belong to Venezuela.
By continuing to the west, we meet
the ABC, the three Netherlands Antilles.
They are from East to West Bonaire,
Curacao and Aruba.
The administrative center of the 6
Netherlands Antilles is in Willemstad, a
town of Curacao. Formerly called
the Dutch West Indies, the Netherlands
Antilles have a total land mass of 400
square miles. The total population
is about 220.000 people. The six
Netherlands Antilles are Aruba, Bonaire,
Curacao, Saint Marteen, Saba and St.
Estatius (Statia).
Commentaries on
the expansion of this classification
to
the rest of the Islands
This classification can be expanded by
including the rest of the Islands.
This expansion will facilitate the
teaching by offering a simple schematic
presentation which will allow not only a
better digestion of the general plan but
also a faster retention of the details..
We can for instance place The Bahamas,
Turcs Island, Caicos Islands and Bermuda
in one group called: Northern British
dependencies and Commonwealth.
In the same vain, Cuba, Hispagnola,
Jamaica and Puerto Rico can be
classified as the Greater Antilles
Group.
The Eastern Caribbean island would, in
this new global classification, have 6
groups. The mastery of the
knowledge of this six groups
classification will be easier than the
current system which is based only on
geography and does not use the
administrative and political links
between some of the islands.
Back
to the Lesser Antilles:
historical background
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