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- This article is about the Caribbean island group. For the eastern Society Islands in French Polynesia, see Windward Islands (Society Islands). The southeastern Hawaiian Islands are also occasionally referred to as the Windward Islands.
The Windward Islands are the southern islands of the Lesser Antilles.
[edit] Name and geography
The Windward Islands are called such because they were more windward to sailing ships arriving in the New World than the Leeward Islands, given that the prevailing trade winds in the West Indies (the informal name for all of the Lesser Antilles) blow east to west. The trans-Atlantic currents and winds that provided the fastest route across the ocean brought these ships to the rough dividing line between the Windward and Leeward islands. Vessels in the Atlantic slave trade departing from the African Gold Coast and Gulf of Guinea would first encounter to southeasternmost islands of the Lesser Antilles in their west-northwesterly heading to final destinations in the Caribbean and North and Central America.
The Antillian Windward Islands are :
[edit] British colonial entity
The name Windward islands was also used to refer to a British colony on several of these islands, existing between 1833 and 1960 and consisting of the islands of Grenada, St Lucia, Saint Vincent, the Grenadines, Barbados (seat of the governor to 1885, when it became a separate colony), Tobago (to 1889 when it was joined to Trinidad), and Dominica (from 1940, when it was transferred from the Leeward Islands colony to the Windward Islands).
The colony was known as the Federal Colony of the Windward Islands from 1871 to June 1956, and then as the Territory of the Windward Islands to its dissolution in 1960.
Its capital was Saint George's on Grenada (originally Bridgetown on Barbados, 1871-1885). They were not a single colony, but a confederation of separate colonies with a common governor-in-chief, while each island retained its own institutions, and they had neither legislature, laws, revenue nor tariff in common. There was, however, a common court of appeal for the group as well as for Barbados, composed of the chief justices of the respective islands, and there was also a common audit system, while the islands unite in maintaining certain institutions of general utility.
Europe: |
Gibraltar (1713-) | Cyprus (1878-1960) | Malta (1800-1964) | Minorca (1708-1757, 1782-1802) |
Africa: |
Basutoland (1868-1966) | Bechuanaland (1884-1966) | Cameroons League of Nations Mandate (1919-1960) | British Central Africa (1891-1907) | British East Africa became Kenya (1895-1920) | Cape Colony (1795 - 1803, 1806-1910) | Egypt (1882-1922) | Gambia (1816-1965) | Gold Coast (1874-1957) | Kenya (1920-1963) | Lagos Protectorate (1887-1906) | Natal (1856-1910) | Northern Nigeria (1900-1914) | Southern Nigeria (1900-1914) | Northern Rhodesia (1911-1964) | Nyasaland (1891-1964) | Orange River Colony (1900-1910) | Southern Rhodesia (1890-1980) | Matabeleland (1888-1894) | South Africa (1910-1961) | Anglo-Egyptian Sudan (1899-1956) | Swaziland (1893-1968) | Tanganyika (1922-1961) | Zanzibar (1890-1963) | Zululand (1887-1897) |
North America: |
Canada now Commonwealth Realm (1764-1867) | Newfoundland (1907-1949) | Rupert's Land (1919-1960) | Quebec (1891-1907) | Thirteen Colonies (c.1600-1784) | Lower Canada (1791-1841) | Upper Canada (1791-1841 ) | Province of Canada (1840-1867) | Vancouver Island (1849-1866) | British Columbia (1858-1871) | North-Western Territory (1859-1870) | Stikine Territory (1862-1863) |
Latin America & the Caribbean: |
British Honduras (1871-1964), Belize now Commonwealth Realm | Anguilla (1650-) | West Indies Federation (1958-1962) | Antigua and Barbuda (1860-1981) now Commonwealth Realm | Leeward Islands (1671-1816, 1833-1960) | Windward Islands (1833-1960) | The Bahamas (1670-1973), now Commonwealth Realm | Barbados (1624-1966), now Commonwealth Realm | British Virgin Islands (1666-) | Cayman Islands (1670-) | Dominica (1763-1978) | Grenada (1762-1974), now Commonwealth Realm | Montserrat (1632-) | Saint Kitts and Nevis (1882-1983), now Commonwealth Realm | St. Lucia (1605-1979), now Commonwealth Realm | Saint Vincent and the Grenadines (1627-1979), now Commonwealth Realm | Trinidad and Tobago (1889-1962) | Jamaica (1655-1962), now Commonwealth Realm | Turks and Caicos Islands (1799-) | British Guiana (1831-1961) |
Asia: |
Aden (1839-1967) | India (1907-1949) | Bengal (1634-1947) | Hong Kong (1841-1997) | Palestine League of Nations Mandate (1923—1948) | Transjordan League of Nations Mandate (1921—1946) | Trucial States protectorate (1892-1971) |
Oceania & Pacific: |
Australia (1788-1942) now Commonwealth Realm | Swan River Colony (1907-1949) | New Zealand (1840-1907) now Commonwealth Realm | Territory of Papua (1884—1949) | Territory of Papua and New Guinea (1949 — 1975) now Commonwealth Realm | Van Diemen's Land (1803-1901) | British Solomon Islands (1893-1978) | British Western Pacific Territories | Gilbert and Ellice Islands ( - ) | Cook Islands ( - ) | Union Islands ( - ) | New Hebrides (1824-1980) | Niue ( - ) | Pitcairn Islands (1838-) | Sandwich Islands (1794-1843) | The Straits Settlements (1826-1946) | The Federated Malay States (1895-1946) | The Unfederated Malay States | Sultanate of Brunei (1888-1984) | Kingdom of Sarawak (1841-1941) | British North Borneo (1882-1963)
For a list of territories, see: Evolution of the British Empire
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[edit] See also
[edit] Sources and references