Back Antilles Cut ACE Klein-Antille Afrikaans Kleine Antillen ALS جزر الأنتيل الصغرى Arabic جزر الانتيل الصغرى ARZ Antilles Menores AST Kiçik Antil adaları Azerbaijani Малыя Антыльскія астравы Byelorussian Малки Антили Bulgarian Antilhez Bihanañ Breton

Lesser Antilles

Lesser Antilles
Region
Location within the Caribbean
Location within the Caribbean
Map of the Lesser Antilles
Map of the Lesser Antilles
Coordinates: 14°N 61°W / 14°N 61°W / 14; -61
RegionCaribbean
Island States
24
Area
 • Total
14,364 km2 (5,546 sq mi)
Population
 (2009)
 • Total
3,949,250
 • Density274.9/km2 (712/sq mi)
DemonymLesser Antillean
Time zoneUTC−4 (AST)
 • Summer (DST)UTC−3 (ADT)

The Lesser Antilles[1] is a group of islands in the Caribbean Sea, forming part of the West Indies in Caribbean region of the Americas. They are distinguished from the larger islands of the Greater Antilles to the west. They form an arc which begins east of Puerto Rico at the archipelago of the Virgin Islands, swings southeast through the Leeward and Windward Islands towards South America, and turns westward through the Leeward Antilles along the Venezuelan coast.

Most of them are part of a long, partially volcanic island arc between the Greater Antilles to the north-west and the continent of South America.[2] The islands of the Lesser Antilles form the eastern boundary of the Caribbean Sea where it meets the Atlantic Ocean. Together, the Lesser Antilles and the Greater Antilles make up the Antilles. The Lesser and Greater Antilles, together with the Lucayan Archipelago, are collectively known as the Caribbean islands or West Indies.

The islands were dominantly Kalinago compared to the Greater Antilles which was settled by the Taíno, the boundary set between them is known as the "poison arrow curtain" for the Kalinago's favoured weapon for fending off Europeans that came to conquer the islands in the 16th century.[3]

Map of the Lesser Antilles, 1780
  1. ^ (Spanish: Antillas Menores; French: Petites Antilles; Papiamento: Antias Menor; Dutch: Kleine Antillen)
  2. ^ "West Indies." Merriam-Webster's Geographical Dictionary, 3rd ed. 2001. (ISBN 0-87779-546-0) Springfield, MA: Merriam-Webster Inc., p. 1298.
  3. ^ Floyd, Troy S. (1973). The Columbus Dynasty in the Caribbean, 1492-1526. University of New Mexico Press. p. 135.

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