"island first or longest. The first permanent English colonies were founded at Saint Kitts (1624) and Barbados (1627). The English language is the third most established throughout the Caribbean; however, due to the relatively small populations of the English-speaking territories, only 14% of West Indians are English speakers. English is the official language of about 18 Caribbean territories inhabited by about 6 million people, though most inhabitants of these islands may more properly be described as speaking English creoles rather than local varieties of standard English. The Caribbean English speakers are outnumbered by Spanish speakers by a ratio of about"
"Saint Kitts Saint Kitts, also known more formally as Saint Christopher Island, is an island in the West Indies. The west side of the island borders the Caribbean Sea, and the eastern coast faces the Atlantic Ocean. Saint Kitts and the neighbouring island of Nevis constitute one country: the Federation of Saint Kitts and Nevis. Saint Kitts and Nevis are separated by a shallow channel known as ""The Narrows"". Saint Kitts became home to the first Caribbean British and French colonies in the mid-1620s. Along with the island nation of Nevis, Saint Kitts was a member of the British West"
"Saint Croix Saint Croix () is an island in the Caribbean Sea, and a county and constituent district of the United States Virgin Islands (USVI), an unincorporated territory of the United States. St. Croix is the largest of the islands in the territory. However, the territory's capital, Charlotte Amalie, is located on Saint Thomas. As of the 2010 United States Census, St. Croix's population was 50,601, its highest point is Mount Eagle, at . St. Croix's nickname is ""Twin City"", for its two towns, Frederiksted on the western end and Christiansted on the north-east part of the island. The island"
"The British dependency of Anguilla was historically also a part of this union, which was then known collectively as Saint Christopher-Nevis-Anguilla. To the north-northwest lie the islands of Sint Eustatius, and Saba, Saint Barthélemy, Saint-Martin/Sint Maarten and Anguilla. To the east and northeast are Antigua and Barbuda, and to the southeast is the small uninhabited island of Redonda, and the island of Montserrat, which currently has an active volcano (see Soufrière Hills). Saint Kitts and Nevis were among the first islands in the Caribbean to be settled by Europeans. Saint Kitts was home to the first British and French colonies"
"sea vessels, which they used to sail the Atlantic and Caribbean. As a result, the Arawak and Carib populated much of the South American and the Caribbean islands. Their descendants live throughout South America, particularly Brazil, Venezuela and Colombia. Christopher Columbus named the island ""Antigua"" in 1493 in honour of the ""Virgin of the Old Cathedral"" () found in Seville Cathedral in southern Spain. On his 1493 voyage, honouring a vow, he named many islands after different aspects of St. Mary, including Montserrat and Guadaloupe. In 1632, a group of English colonists left St. Kitts to settle on Antigua. Sir"
"to St. Kitts. For many years it was thought that he named the island ""San Cristóbal"", after Saint Christopher, his patron saint and the patron hallow of travellers. New studies suggest that Columbus named the island ""Sant Yago"" (Saint James). The name ""San Cristóbal"" was given by Columbus to the island now known as Saba, 20 mi northwest. It seems that ""San Cristóbal"" came to be applied to the island of St. Kitts only as the result of a mapping error. No matter the origin of the name, the island was well documented as ""San Cristóbal"" by the 17th century."
"The first English colonists kept the English translation of this name, and dubbed it ""St. Christopher's Island"". In the 17th century, a common nickname for Christopher was Kit, or Kitt. This is why the island was often informally referred to as ""Saint Kitt's Island"", further shortened to ""Saint Kitts"". Today the Constitution refers to the state as both ""Saint Kitts and Nevis"" and ""Saint Christopher and Nevis"", but the former is the one most commonly used. The name of the first inhabitants, pre-Arawakan peoples who settled the islands perhaps as early as 3000 years ago, is not known. They were"
"Saint Christopher-Nevis-Anguilla Saint Christopher-Nevis-Anguilla (or Saint Christopher, Nevis, and Anguilla) was a British colony in the West Indies from 1882 to 1983, consisting of the islands of Anguilla (until 1980), Nevis, and Saint Christopher (or Saint Kitts). From 1882 to 1951, and again from 1980, the colony was known simply as Saint Christopher and Nevis. It gained independence in 1983 as the Federation of Saint Kitts and Nevis. The islands of Saint Christopher and Nevis had been British colonies since the 17th century, though were always administered separately. A union of Saint Christopher and Nevis had been proposed as early"
"of the mission of the Evangelical Brethren on the Caribbean islands of St. Tomas, St. Croix, and St. John. Edited and translated by A.R. Highfield and Vladimir Barac. Ann Arbor: Karoma. Putley, Julian. “A Glimpse of BVI History”. The British Virgin Island Tourism Directory 2007: 9. ""Christopher Columbus,"" Microsoft Encarta Online Encyclopedia 2007 Scrub Island (British Virgin Islands) Scrub Island of the British Virgin Islands in the Caribbean is a part of the Lesser Antilles, a group of islands that are young volcanic or coral islands. It is home to the Scrub Island Resort Marina and Spa. In late 2013"
"island was hit by Category 5 Hurricane Irma, which caused widespread and significant damage to buildings and infrastructure. Sint Maarten has the 14th largest GDP per capita in the world (including territories) when measured by purchasing power parity, over three times as high as its French counterpart. In 1493, during Christopher Columbus' second voyage to the West Indies, upon first sighting the island he named it ""Isla de San Martín"" after Saint Martin of Tours because it was 11 November, St. Martin's Day. However, though he claimed it as a Spanish territory, Columbus never landed there, and Spain made the"
"Montserrat Montserrat () is a Caribbean island in the Leeward Islands, which is part of the chain known as the Lesser Antilles, in the West Indies. It is a British Overseas Territory (BOT). Montserrat measures approximately in length and in width, with approximately of coastline. Montserrat is nicknamed ""The Emerald Isle of the Caribbean"" both for its resemblance to coastal Ireland and for the Irish ancestry of many of its inhabitants. On 18 July 1995, the previously dormant Soufrière Hills volcano, in the southern part of the island, became active. Eruptions destroyed Montserrat's Georgian era capital city of Plymouth. Between"
"Hispaniola Hispaniola (; Latin and ; ; ) is an island in the Caribbean island group known as the Greater Antilles. It is the second largest island in the Caribbean after Cuba, and the most populous island in the Caribbean; it is also the eleventh most populous island in the world. The island is divided between two separate, sovereign nations: the Spanish-speaking Dominican Republic (48,445 km, 18,705 sq mi) to the east, and French Creole-speaking Haiti (27,750 km, 10,710 sq mi) to the west. The only other shared island in the Caribbean is Saint Martin, which is shared between France"
"in the Caribbean, and thus has also been titled ""The Mother Colony of the West Indies"". Saint Kitts was named ""Liamuiga"", which roughly translates as ""fertile land"", by the Kalinago who originally inhabited the island. The name is preserved via St. Kitts's western peak, Mount Liamuiga. Nevis's pre-Columbian name was ""Oualie"", meaning ""land of beautiful waters"". Christopher Columbus upon sighting what is now Nevis in 1493 gave that island the name ""San Martín"". The current name ""Nevis"" is derived from a Spanish name ""Nuestra Señora de las Nieves"". This Spanish name means Our Lady of the Snows. It is not"
"landing point was Dry Harbour, called Discovery Bay, and St. Ann's Bay was named ""Saint Gloria"" by Columbus, as the first sighting of the land. One and a half kilometres west of St. Ann's Bay is the site of the first Spanish settlement on the island, Sevilla, which was established in 1509 and abandoned around 1524 because it was deemed unhealthy. The capital was moved to Spanish Town, then called ""St. Jago de la Vega"", around 1534 (at present-day St. Catherine). Spanish Town has the oldest cathedral of the British colonies in the Caribbean. The Spanish were forcibly evicted by"
"Christopher Columbus on his second voyage in 1493 for Saint Ursula and her virgin followers. Over the next two hundred years, the islands were held by many European powers, including Spain, Great Britain, the Netherlands, France, and Denmark–Norway. In 1927, the inhabitants of the U.S. Virgin Islands were granted American citizenship. The Danish West India Company settled on St. Thomas in 1672, settled on St. John in 1694, and purchased St. Croix from France in 1733. The islands became royal Danish colonies in 1754, named the Danish West Indian Islands (). Sugarcane, produced by slave labor, drove the islands' economy"
"(Saint-Martin) and the Netherlands (Sint Maarten). Hispaniola is the site of the first permanent European settlement in the Americas, founded by Christopher Columbus on his voyages in 1492 and 1493. The island was called by various names by its native people, the Taíno Amerindians. No known Taíno texts exist, hence, historical evidence for those names comes to us through three European historians: the Italian Pietro Martyr d‘Anghiera, and the Spaniards Bartolomé de las Casas and Gonzalo Fernández de Oviedo. Fernández de Oviedo and de las Casas both recorded that the island was called ""Quizqueia"" (supposedly ""Mother of all Lands"") by"
"the island on 5 December 1492 during the first voyage of Christopher Columbus across the Atlantic. When Columbus initially landed in Haiti, he had thought he had found India or China. On Christmas Day 1492, Columbus' flagship the ""Santa Maria"" ran aground north of what is now Limonade. As a consequence, Columbus ordered his men to salvage what they could from the ship, and he created the first European settlement in the Americas, naming it La Navidad after the day the ship was destroyed. The island was named ""La Española"" and claimed by Spain, which ruled until the early 17th"
"The islands fall into three different political jurisdictions: Christopher Columbus named the islands after Saint Ursula and the 11,000 Virgins (), shortened to the Virgins (""las Vírgenes""). The official name of the British territory is the Virgin Islands, and the official name of the U.S. territory is the Virgin Islands of the United States. In practice, the two island groups are almost universally referred to as the British Virgin Islands and the U.S. Virgin Islands. The Virgin Islands were originally inhabited by the Arawak, Carib, and Cermic, almost all of whom are thought to have perished during the colonial period"
"several million to a few thousand. But even the Caribs were no match for the Europeans who came. Blown off course during his 1493–1496 voyage, Christopher Columbus landed on Saint Croix, then continued his explorations on Saint Thomas and Saint John. He gave the islands their original Spanish names (Santa Cruz, San Tomas, and San Juan), focusing on religious themes. The collection of tiny islets, cays, and rocks dotting the sea around them reminded Columbus of Saint Ursula and her 11,000 virgin martyrs, inspiring the name Las Once Mil Virgenes. The first encounter Columbus had with the Caribs quickly erupted"
"as 1867, when Captain James George Mackenzie was appointed Lieutenant-Governor of Saint Christopher with a mandate to seek an amalgamation of the administrations of the two islands. This proposal met with strong opposition, however, and was withdrawn the following year. In 1871, Saint Christopher and Nevis became presidencies within the Federal Colony of the Leeward Islands, with Anguilla being attached to Saint Christopher as a dependency in the same year. However, in 1882, the legislature of the Leeward Islands passed legislation merging the two presidencies, forming a combined Presidency of Saint Christopher and Nevis. In 1951, the name of the"
"Guadeloupe. In 1665, the Knights sold the islands that they had acquired to the Compagnie des Indes occidentales, formed one year earlier. Dominica is a former French and British colony in the Eastern Caribbean, about halfway between the French islands of Guadeloupe (to the north) and Martinique (to the south). Christopher Columbus named the island after the day of the week on which he spotted it, a Sunday (""dies Dominica"" in Latin), on 3 November 1493. In the 100 years after Columbus's landing, Dominica remained isolated. At the time, it was inhabited by the Island Caribs, or Kalinago people. Over"
"the islands they had acquired to the newly formed (1664) Compagnie des Indes occidentales. Dominica is a former French and British colony in the Eastern Caribbean, located about halfway between the French islands of Guadeloupe (to the north) and Martinique (to the south). Christopher Columbus named the island after the day of the week on which he spotted it, a Sunday (""domingo"" in Latin), 3 November 1493. In the hundred years after Columbus's landing, Dominica remained isolated. At the time it was inhabited by the Island Caribs, or Kalinago people, and over time more settled there after being driven from"
"young widow of a plantation-owner. The majority of the approximately 12,000 citizens of Nevis are of primarily African descent, with notable British, Portuguese and Lebanese minority communities. English is the official language, and the literacy rate, 98 percent, is one of the highest in the Western Hemisphere. In 1498, Christopher Columbus gave the island the name ""San Martín"" (Saint Martin). However, the confusion of numerous poorly-charted small islands in the Leeward Island chain meant that this name ended up being accidentally transferred to another island, which is still known as Saint-Martin/Sint Maarten. The current name ""Nevis"" was derived from a"
"leagues. Sint Eustatius Sint Eustatius (), also known affectionately to the locals as Statia (), is an island in the Caribbean. It is a special municipality (officially “public body”) of the Netherlands. The island lies in the northern Leeward Islands portion of the West Indies, southeast of the Virgin Islands. Sint Eustatius is immediately to the northwest of Saint Kitts, and to the southeast of Saba. The regional capital is Oranjestad. The island has an area of . In the 2001 census, the population was recorded as 3,543 inhabitants, with a population density of 169 inhabitants per square kilometre. ,"
"island that was first described to Europeans by Christopher Columbus. Môle-Saint-Nicolas Môle-Saint-Nicolas () is a commune in the north-western coast of Haiti. It is the chief town of the Môle-Saint-Nicolas Arrondissement in the department of Nord-Ouest. Christopher Columbus' first voyage to the Americas landed at the site of what is now Môle-Saint-Nicolas on December 6, 1492. The town received its present name after France gained control of the western part of Hispaniola in 1697. Môle-Saint-Nicolas has a population of about 4,000 people, with another 20,000 spread throughout the rural areas nearby. The road network of Haiti is in general decrepit,"
"Sint Eustatius Sint Eustatius (), also known affectionately to the locals as Statia (), is an island in the Caribbean. It is a special municipality (officially “public body”) of the Netherlands. The island lies in the northern Leeward Islands portion of the West Indies, southeast of the Virgin Islands. Sint Eustatius is immediately to the northwest of Saint Kitts, and to the southeast of Saba. The regional capital is Oranjestad. The island has an area of . In the 2001 census, the population was recorded as 3,543 inhabitants, with a population density of 169 inhabitants per square kilometre. , the"
"to the newly formed (1664) Compagnie des Indes occidentales. Dominica is a former French and British colony in the Eastern Caribbean, located about halfway between the French islands of Guadeloupe (to the north) and Martinique (to the south). Christopher Columbus named the island after the day of the week on which he spotted it, a Sunday (""domingo"" in Latin), 3 November 1493. In the hundred years after Columbus's landing, Dominica remained isolated. At the time it was inhabited by the Island Caribs, or Kalinago people, and over time more settled there after being driven from surrounding islands, as European powers"
"Leeward Caribbean Creole English Leeward Caribbean Creole English, also known by the names of the various islands on which it is spoken (Antiguan Creole, Saint Kitts Creole, etc.), is an English-based creole language spoken in the Leeward Islands of the Caribbean, namely the countries of Antigua and Barbuda, Montserrat, Saint Kitts, and Nevis. It is part of a wider English Creole Language spoken throughout the Caribbean region in the countries of Antigua ad Barbuda, Belize, Montserrat, and Jamaica Saint Kitts and Nevis There are subtle differences in the language's usage by different speakers, and islanders often use it in combination"
"Sint Maarten Sint Maarten () is an island country in the Caribbean. It is a constituent country of the Kingdom of the Netherlands. With a population of 40,120 on an area of , it encompasses the southern 40% of the divided island of Saint Martin, while the northern 60% of the island constitutes the French overseas collectivity of Saint-Martin. Sint Maarten's capital is Philipsburg. Before 10 October 2010, Sint Maarten was known as the Island Territory of Sint Maarten (), and was one of five island territories (""eilandgebieden"") that constituted the Netherlands Antilles. On 6 and 7 September 2017 the"
"San Cristóbal Island San Cristóbal (""Chatham"") is the easternmost island in the Galápagos archipelago, as well as one of the oldest geologically. It is administratively part of San Cristóbal Canton, Ecuador. Its Spanish (and official Ecuadorian) name ""San Cristóbal"" comes from the patron saint of seafarers, St. Christopher. English speakers increasingly use that name in preference to the traditional English name of Chatham Island, derived from William Pitt, 1st Earl of Chatham. San Cristobal Island is composed of three or four fused volcanoes, all extinct. It is home to the oldest permanent settlement of the islands and is the island"
"by the Kalinago and later colonised by Europeans, predominantly by the French from the 1690s to 1763. Columbus is said to have passed the island on Sunday 3 November 1493, and the island's name is derived from the Latin for ""Sunday"". Great Britain took possession in 1763 after the Seven Years' War, and it gradually established English as its official language. The island republic gained independence in 1978. Its name is pronounced with emphasis on the third syllable, related to its French name of ""Dominique"". Dominica has been nicknamed the ""Nature Isle of the Caribbean"" for its natural environment. It"
"Saint Martin Saint Martin (; ) is an island in the northeast Caribbean Sea, approximately east of Puerto Rico. The island is divided roughly 60/40 between the French Republic () and the Kingdom of the Netherlands (), but the two parts are roughly equal in population. The division dates to 1648. The southern Dutch part comprises Sint Maarten and is one of four constituent countries that form the Kingdom of the Netherlands. The northern French part comprises the Collectivity of Saint Martin and is an overseas collectivity of France. On 1 January 2009, the population of the whole island was"
"do business worldwide. Financial services are a major part of the country's economy. On 6 September 2017, the British Virgin Islands were extensively damaged by Hurricane Irma. The most severe destruction was on Tortola. News reports over the next day or two described the situation as ""devastation"". Local tradition recounts that Christopher Columbus named the island ""Tórtola"", meaning ""turtle dove"" in Spanish. In fact, Columbus named the island ""Santa Ana"". Dutch colonists called it Ter Tholen, after a coastal island that is part of the Netherlands. When the British took over, the name evolved to Tortola. On his second voyage"