The countries of insular America are the Antilles or islands of the Caribbean, the great archipelago shaped like a crescent located in Central America. Most are located on the Caribbean Sea and part of the Atlantic Ocean.
Of the fifty countries of this type in the world are Australia, the United Kingdom, Japan, New Zealand and Madagascar, among others.
These can be made up of one or two main islands, as is the case of Australia and the United Kingdom; or they can be made up of hundreds and even thousands of small islands, as is the case in Indonesia.
There is also the case of Hispaniola, an island in the Caribbean that is home to two states, the Dominican Republic and Haiti.
In the specific case of America, the Antilles make up an archipelago made up of thirteen nations.
This archipelago goes from the Florida peninsula, in the United States, to the coasts of Venezuela. It is divided into three parts: Greater Antilles, Lesser Antilles, and The Bahamas.
greater Antilles
The Greater Antilles are made up of the largest islands in the archipelago, including Jamaica, Cuba, the Dominican Republic and Haiti. These last two are those that share the island of Hispaniola mentioned above.
The island of Puerto Rico is also one of the largest in the Caribbean, but it does not qualify as a country since it is a United States zone, although it is not incorporated into the United States either. Her situation is difficult to define: she does not qualify as dependent or independent.
Spanish is spoken in Cuba and the Dominican Republic, while English and French are spoken in Jamaica and Haiti, respectively.
Lesser Antilles
They are the eight smaller islands, among which are Trinidad and Tobago, Grenada, Antigua and Barbuda, Saint Lucia, Saint Kitts and Nevis, Dominica, Saint Vincent and the Grenadines and Barbados. In the Lesser Antilles, English is used as the official language.
The Bahamas
They are a group of seven hundred islands, most of them unpopulated, which have the official name of the Commonwealth of the Bahamas.
It is part of the British monarchy, currently represented by Queen Elizabeth II, although it has a prime minister who rules as a local political authority and has had one since it declared its independence in 1973. They also use English as their official language.
Dependencies
Dependencies are a set of territories, either islands or a set of islands, dependent on other nations.
These are territories that were colonized by European nations or extensions of countries in the region that to date have not declared their independence, so that they are officially part of the territories of Venezuela, the United Kingdom, the United States, France or the Netherlands..
Among the dependent islands we can list Puerto Rico, Aruba, Bonaire, Curaçao, Nueva Esparta, the Cayman Islands and the Virgin Islands. The official languages of each island vary depending on the country on which they are dependent.
In Guadeloupe, Martinique, San Bartolomé and San Martín French is spoken, as they are territories of France; while in Aruba, Bonaire, Curaçao, Saint Eustatius and Sint Maarten Dutch is spoken because it is or has been part of the Netherlands.
The Nueva Esparta state and the Federal Dependencies (Los Roques, La Tortuga, La Orchila and others) are part of Venezuela and use Spanish as their official language, as does the country on which they depend.
Finally, Sint Eustatius, Anguilla, Montserrat, and the Virgin Islands use English as their official language.
References
- Seterra - Caribbean Countries online.seterra.com
- Wikipedia - Island Country en.wikipedia.org
- Jet Travel - The countries of Insular America and their capitals viajesjet.com
- Viajar Full - Insular America viajesfull.com
- Wikipedia - Lesser Antilles en.wikipedia.org