What are the west Indies called today?
Caribbean
Nowadays, the term West Indies is often interchangeable with the term Caribbean, although the latter may also include some Central and South American mainland countries which have Caribbean coastlines, such as Belize, Guyana, Suriname and French Guiana, and the Atlantic island nations of Trinidad and Tobago and Bermuda …
Why is the Caribbean called the west Indies?
The West Indies refers to a collection of islands in the Caribbean. These islands have nothing to do with India – they were named the West Indies because when Christopher Columbus arrived on the island of Hispanola (where the Dominican Republic and Haiti are), he thought that he was in India.
Is West Indies a country or not?
No country named West Indies exists in the world. The group of Caribbean countries together has been named West Indies. The West Indies Cricket Board represents 15 countries. There is no special flag of the West Indies.
Is Caribbean part of USA?
Is the Caribbean a Part of North America? Yes, the Caribbean is a part of North America. The Caribbean, also known as West Indies, includes a number of islands and archipelagos (more than 700 islands), stretched across the Caribbean sea.
What language do West Indies speak?
Of the 38 million West Indians (as of 2001), about 62% speak Spanish (a west Caribbean lingua franca). About 25% speak French, about 15% speak English, and 5% speak Dutch. Spanish and English are important second languages: 24 million and 9 million speak them as second languages.
What religion is West Indies?
Hinduism is the leading single religion of the Indo-Caribbean communities of the West Indies. Hindus are particularly well represented in Guyana, Suriname and Trinidad and Tobago, where they constituted 18 percent of the total population, as of 2011….Anguilla.
| Year | Percent | Population |
|---|---|---|
| 2010 | 0.42% | 58 |
Who discovered West Indies?
Christopher Columbus
Hispanic control of the West Indies began in 1492 with Christopher Columbus’s first landing in the New World and was followed by the partitioning of the region by the Spanish, French, British, Dutch, and Danish during the 17th and 18th centuries.
Is West Indies safe country?
Apart from a few isolated incidents in the press, tourists are rarely victims of violent crime while on vacation in the region, and most Caribbean islands are perfectly safe to visit as long as you follow common sense precautions.
What is the difference between Caribbean and West Indies?
Caribbean is the term most politically correct social scientists and historians would use to denote the 7,000-odd islands that lie in the Caribbean Sea area — West Indies was a term coined by colonising European powers.