Category:Caribbean

Wikipedia [1] notes that:

The Caribbean (Dutch: Cariben or Caraïben, or more commonly Antillen; French: Caraïbe or more commonly Antilles; Spanish: Caribe) is a region of the Americas consisting of the Caribbean Sea, its islands (most of which enclose the sea), and the surrounding coasts. The region is located southeast of North America, east of Central America, and to the north and west of South America.

For this category, we take the "Caribbean" to consist of the islands only, even those beyond the actual Caribbean Sea - and to exclude the coasts (of Central America and South America).

However this is more restrictive than the political definition as defined by entities such as CARICOM which typically have the former UK and Dutch colonies on the coasts as members.

See also Central America, regarded by us as a separate Continental region.

Note that all former components of the former Netherlands Antilles which are now "special municipalities" of the Netherlands (Saba etc) are still listed as if they were countries in the Caribbean - this is for ease of analysis especially by those not fully up to date with the complex changes in the last two years.

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