What is the Caribbean? How is the Caribbean geographically defined? Indigenous populations of the Caribbean

Definition of the Caribbean The Caribbean area comprises the islands extending from Trinidad in the south, to Jamaica, Cuba, Hispaniola (the Republic of Haiti and the Dominican Republic) in the north. The main groupings are the four Greater Antilles, the Lesser Antilles (composed of the island arc (about forty inhabited islands) that extends from the Virgin Islands in the northeast to Grenada and Trinidad and Tobago in the south.

Major strength of these definitions We are able to locate (on a map) the general area known as the Caribbean

Weaknesses of the definition It is very general. It includes territories like the Bahamas which are not considered Caribbean

Linguistic Definition of the Caribbean Any effective definition of the Caribbean will consider the following Indigenous peoples (the Caribs and the Arawaks) Contact with Europeans and Colonization Slavery Immigrant peoples from India, China etc…

Pre-Columbian Peoples What were the groups which were present in the Caribbean before Christopher Columbus? When C.Columbus first arrived in 1492, he found: The Caribs who lived in the Greater Antilles and the Arawaks who settled in the Lesser Antilles.

What happened with the coming of the Europeans? The indigenous populations and their languages disappeared but there are some groups of Caribs in Dominica, St.Vincent and Trinidad. The end