Island countries of the Caribbean basin

The West Indies are the islands where the Caribbean Sea and Gulf of Mexico meet the Atlantic. On his 1492 expedition Christopher Columbus reached them and called them “the Western Indies”, believing he had reached India; the name has stayed. There are three archipelagoes: the Greater Antilles (Cuba, Hispaniola with Haiti and the Dominican Republic, Jamaica, Puerto Rico), the Lesser Antilles and the Bahamas. The subregion has 13 independent states; the rest are dependent territories of other states (for example, Puerto Rico is a US territory). The islands lie on the boundary of the Caribbean and North American plates, so earthquakes and volcanoes are frequent; the climate is tropical, softened by trade winds, but hurricanes are dangerous. Cuba, Haiti and the Dominican Republic have the most people. Tourism, sugarcane, nickel, bauxite, oil refining and banking matter in the economy. Differences between states are large: the Bahamas and Barbados are relatively wealthy, while Haiti is the poorest state of the region.