Southern Caribbean

The Southern Caribbean is a group of islands that neighbor mainland South America in the West Indies. St. Lucia lies to the north of the region, Barbados in the east, Trinidad & Tobago at its southernmost point, and Aruba at the most westerly section.

Geologically, the islands are referred to as being a sub-continent of North America, although most islands sit on the South American continental plate. All of the Southern Caribbean islands are small, and are either volcanic or made of limestone coral, as they form at the ridge of the Caribbean and South American tectonic plates. Due to the close proximity of the equator, the Southern Caribbean has all year around tropical weather. Islands such as Aruba and Barbados occasionally suffer droughts, while Grenada receives a great deal of rainfall. Dry seasons on Aruba and Barbados may occur even while Grenada is receiving rain.

The Southern Caribbean has the Caribbean to the north and west, the Atlantic Ocean on the east, and the Gulf of Paria to the south. Most of the islands are in the windward islands chain and the (former) Netherlands Antilles. The majority of the islands are covered in tropical rainforests and swamps; the densest of these are in Grenada, St Lucia, and Tobago. Various other islands' rainforests have decreased in size over the last century due to deforestation.

The Caribbean had been inhabited for about 7000 years by the Arawaks, Caribs, Taínos and their ancestors, who came to the Southern Caribbean on canoes from South America (primarily Venezuela). In the late 15th and early 16th centuries, European explorers and colonizers arrived. The Europeans replaced virtually the entire population of the native tribes through various means. The natives disappeared due to various reasons, including diseases brought in by Europeans to which they had no immunity, warring, enslavement and the removal of the natural resources upon which these tribes. European countries then made the Caribbean islands part of their respective empires. Most of these islands were disputed and fought over by European empires, such as Britain, France, Spain, Portugal, and The Netherlands:

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