Greater Antilles
| Greater Antilles Grandes Antilles (in French) Antillas Mayores (in Spanish) | |
|---|---|
| Region of the Caribbean | |
 Location within the Caribbean. | |
| Island States | |
| Area | |
| • Total | 207,411 km2 (80,081 sq mi) |
| Population (2014) | |
| • Total | 38,400,500 |
| • Density | 171.45/km2 (444.1/sq mi) |
| Demonym(s) | Greater Antillean |
| Time zones | EST: UTC-5/EDT: UTC-4 |
| AST: UTC-4/ADT: UTC-3 | |
The Greater Antilles is a grouping of the larger islands in the Caribbean Sea: Cuba, Hispaniola (containing Haiti and the Dominican Republic), Puerto Rico, Jamaica, and the Cayman Islands.
The Greater Antilles constitute nearly 90% of the land mass of the entire West Indies,[1] as well as over 90% of its population. The remainder of the land belongs to the archipelago of the Lesser Antilles, which is a chain of islands to the east (running north-south and encompassing the eastern edge of the Caribbean Sea where it meets the Atlantic Ocean) and south (running east-west off the northern coast of South America).
The word Antilles originated in the period before the European conquest of the New World - Europeans used the term Antilia as one of the mysterious lands featured on medieval charts, sometimes as an archipelago, sometimes as continuous land of greater or lesser extent, its location fluctuating in mid-ocean between the Canary Islands and Eurasia.
The Lucayan Archipelago is not considered to be a part of the Antilles archipelagoes but rather of the North Atlantic.
Countries
| Name | Area (km²) |
Population (1 July 2005 est.) |
Population density (per km²) |
Capital |
|---|---|---|---|---|
 Cayman Islands (UK) |
264 | 54,878 | 207.9 | George Town |
 Cuba |
110,860 | 11,346,670 | 102.4 | Havana |
 Dominican Republic |
48,442 | 8,950,034 | 183.7 | Santo Domingo |
 Haiti |
27,750 | 8,121,622 | 292.7 | Port-au-Prince |
 Jamaica |
10,991 | 2,731,832 | 248.6 | Kingston |
 Puerto Rico (US) |
9,104 | 3,916,632 | 430.2 | San Juan |
| Total | 207,411 | 35,066,790 | 169.05 | |
References
- ↑ "Greater Antilles". Encyclopædia Britannica. Retrieved 28 May 2015.
Further reading
- Cohen, S.; Groene, J.; Werner, L.; Vladimir, U.; Williams, D.; Walter, C.; Hiller, H.L. (1997). Caribbean: The Greater Antilles, Bermuda, Bahamas. Explore the world Nelles guide. Nelles Verlag. ISBN 978-3-88618-403-3. 254 pages.
- University, J.R.P.B.S.S. (1995). Anolis Lizards of the Caribbean : Ecology, Evolution, and Plate Tectonics: Ecology, Evolution, and Plate Tectonics. Oxford Series in Ecology and Evolution. Oxford University Press, USA. p. 88. ISBN 978-0-19-536191-9.
- Rogozinski, Jan. A Brief History of the Caribbean. New York: Facts on File, 1992.
External links
Media related to Greater Antilles at Wikimedia Commons
Coordinates: 21°59′N 79°02′W / 21.983°N 79.033°W