THE ANTILLES. — This name designates the long island chain that stretches between the two Americas from Florida to Venezuela, enclosing the American Mediterranean and separating the Gulf of Mexico (north of the Yucatán Peninsula and Cuba, which continues it) from the Caribbean Sea. Tradition distinguishes between the Greater and Lesser Antilles. The former—Cuba (q.v.), Jamaica (q.v.), Haiti (q.v.) or Hispaniola, and Puerto Rico (q.v.), with their dependencies—form the western and central part of the great archipelago; the latter, far more numerous but generally small or very small, are arranged between Puerto Rico and the Venezuelan coast in two series: an inner one of markedly volcanic character, and an outer one, calcareous and discontinuous. To this outer series are also connected the Bahamas, which, lying outside the Greater Antilles, are the northernmost of all and have partly distinctive features; they may be considered as a separate group.
The Lesser Antilles include the group of the Virgin Islands immediately east of Puerto Rico, the Windward Islands (from Anguilla to Grenada), and the Leeward Islands (the rest, from Trinidad to Aruba). It should be noted, however, that the English designate the sector from Anguilla to Dominica as the Leeward Islands (also called the Northern Caribbean Islands) and the remainder, up to and including Grenada, as the Windward Islands (also called the Southern Caribbean Islands).
The Antilles have an oceanic tropical climate with abundant rainfall, lush vegetation, great fertility, and a variety of products, but they are frequently afflicted by cyclones, earthquakes, or volcanic eruptions. The population, relatively dense and sometimes very dense, consists mainly of Creoles and Blacks; the former are descendants of the old European colonists, the latter of slaves imported from Africa for plantation work.
Of the Antilles, only Cuba and Haiti are independent states (the latter divided between the Republic of Haiti and the Dominican Republic; q.V. DOMINICAN REPUBLIC); the others are divided into several dependent colonies: those of Great Britain—which possesses the majority: the Bahamas (q.v.), the Leeward Islands (or Lesser Antilles), the Windward Islands (or More Antilles), Barbados (q.v.), Trinidad and Tobago (q.v.)—; those of France: Guadeloupe and dependencies (q.v.), Martinique (q.v.)—; those of the United States—which holds part of the Virgin Islands (q.v.)—; and those of the Netherlands: Curaçao (q.v.), Aruba, Bonaire, St. Martin, and St. Eustatius. Meanwhile, some of the islands closest to the South American coast (Margarita, Coche, the Archipelago of Los Roques, Crasquí, Los Testigos, La Tortuga, Blanquilla, Orchilla, and others now uninhabited) belong to Venezuela. For the ecclesiastical division, see the individual entries.