Caribbean Studies Notes
CARIBBEAN STUDIES UNIT ONE TERRITORIAL UNITS IN THE CARIBBEAN
• WHAT IS THE CARIBBEAN Greenwood and Hamber (2003) defines the Caribbean as, “all the countries in and around the Caribbean sea that lie within an area that stretches from Grand Bahama Island in the north to Curacao in the south and from French Guiana in the east to Belize in the West.
The Wikipedia Encyclopedia defines the Caribbean as, “a region of the Americas consisting of the Caribbean Sea, its islands (most of which enclose the sea) and the surrounding coasts. The region is located South East of North America (United States and Canada), East of Central America (Honduras, Nicaragua, Guatemela and El Salvador) and to the North and West of South America (Colombia, Venezuela, and Brazil)
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Brown (2000) suggests the we consider the Caribbean from the geographical, historical and the political perspectives while Reid (2002) adds the social and cultural perspectives.
WHAT DOES ALL OF THIS MEAN? Put simply, being a member of the Caribbean society does not merely mean that we live in one of the islands or territories, but that our personalities, our ways of life and even our ethnicity are explained by the various factors that have affected the region.
• GEOGRAPHICAL FEATURES The history of the Caribbean region is varied and complex, it contains so many different countries that in order to fully comprehend its diversity and at the same time some of its commonalities we must have some knowledge of the common geographical features. Common geographical features can be classified under four distinctive headings. These include Topography, Climate, Winds and Currents and the Caribbean Sea.
• Topography
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The most obvious feature of the Caribbean is that it is shaped in the form of an archipelago (some of the islands including the Bahamas, Turks and Caicos, the Cayman Islands, Barbados are formed mainly from coral and these are known as the coral islands, a distinct feature of
• WHAT IS THE CARIBBEAN Greenwood and Hamber (2003) defines the Caribbean as, “all the countries in and around the Caribbean sea that lie within an area that stretches from Grand Bahama Island in the north to Curacao in the south and from French Guiana in the east to Belize in the West.
The Wikipedia Encyclopedia defines the Caribbean as, “a region of the Americas consisting of the Caribbean Sea, its islands (most of which enclose the sea) and the surrounding coasts. The region is located South East of North America (United States and Canada), East of Central America (Honduras, Nicaragua, Guatemela and El Salvador) and to the North and West of South America (Colombia, Venezuela, and Brazil)
1
2
Brown (2000) suggests the we consider the Caribbean from the geographical, historical and the political perspectives while Reid (2002) adds the social and cultural perspectives.
WHAT DOES ALL OF THIS MEAN? Put simply, being a member of the Caribbean society does not merely mean that we live in one of the islands or territories, but that our personalities, our ways of life and even our ethnicity are explained by the various factors that have affected the region.
• GEOGRAPHICAL FEATURES The history of the Caribbean region is varied and complex, it contains so many different countries that in order to fully comprehend its diversity and at the same time some of its commonalities we must have some knowledge of the common geographical features. Common geographical features can be classified under four distinctive headings. These include Topography, Climate, Winds and Currents and the Caribbean Sea.
• Topography
3
The most obvious feature of the Caribbean is that it is shaped in the form of an archipelago (some of the islands including the Bahamas, Turks and Caicos, the Cayman Islands, Barbados are formed mainly from coral and these are known as the coral islands, a distinct feature of