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2011-08-11T15:56:23Z

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The ''Antilles'' islands ('''Antilles''' in French; '''Antillas''' in Spanish; '''Antillen''' in Dutch and '''Antilhas''' in Portuguese) form the greater part of the West Indies in the Caribbean.

== Details ==
(sourced from http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Antilles)

The Antilles are divided into two major groups:

* the [[Greater Antilles]] to the north and west, including the larger islands of [[Cuba]], [[Jamaica]], [[Hispaniola]] ([[Haiti]] and the [[Dominican Republic]]), and [[Puerto Rico]]
* the smaller [[Lesser Antilles]] on the southeast - comprising
** the northerly [[Leeward Islands]]
** the southeasterly [[Windward Islands]]
** the [[Leeward Antilles]] just north of [[Venezuela]].

The [[Bahamas]], though part of the West Indies, are generally not included among the Antillean islands.

Geographically, the Antilles are generally considered part of North America or Central America.

Culturally speaking, the Antillean countries of [[Cuba]], [[Haiti]], the [[Dominican Republic]], and [[Puerto Rico]] are included in Latin America.

In terms of geology, the Greater Antilles are made up of continental rock, as distinct from the Lesser Antilles, which are mostly young volcanic or coral islands.

The word "Antilles" originated in the period before the European conquest of the New World - '''Antilia''' being one of those mysterious lands which figured on the 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 India.

After the 1492 arrival of Christopher Columbus's expedition in what was later called the West Indies, the European powers realized that the dispersed lands comprised an extensive archipelago enclosing the Caribbean and the Gulf of Mexico.
Thereafter, the term Antilles was commonly assigned to the formation, and "Sea of the Antilles" became a common alternate name for the Caribbean Sea in various European languages.

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[[Category:Caribbean|*Antilles]]

Antilles - Revision history

Pbacsich: entry