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@opencage@en.osm.townWe close out the week with the second part of our #geoweirdness series on the Caribbean, this time focusing on the Lesser Antilles
If you missed our thread on the Greater Antilles a few weeks back, check it out here: https://en.osm.town/@opencage/112655562329583675
Without further ado, #geoweirdness of the Lesser Antilles.
1/
2/ The Lesser Antilles form the distinctive arc of islands that extends from Puerto Rico 
south and is divided into three island groups.
1. The Leeward Islands
2. The Windward Islands
3. The Leeward Antilles (confusing!)
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lesser_Antilles
In total there are 8 independent nations and many dependent territories.
It's complicated, as we shall see.
3/ Our first pick today is Saint Kitts and Nevis 
, a two-island nation in the Leeward Islands.
The islands used to be part of the three-island British 
colony Saint Christopher-Nevis-Anguilla which, as the name suggests, included Anguilla 
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Saint_Christopher-Nevis-Anguilla
Due to governance disputes, Anguilla opposed their move towards independence. In 1983, Saint Kitts and Nevis became independent, while Anguilla remained a British overseas territory.
4/ Another nearby British overseas territory is the island of Montserrat 
Technically the capital is the town of Plymouth. In practice though it and the southern half of the island have been covered by lava since 1995.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Montserrat
The new capital, Little Bay, is currently under construction
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Little_Bay,_Montserrat
5/ in the late 1950s-early 1960s there was a short-lived effort to unite all the various British Caribbean territories into the "West Indies Federation" which it was hoped would become independent as a single state
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/West_Indies_Federation
However the group could not agree how it would be governed or function viably and was eventually abandoned
6/ Moving on we have the case of Saint-Martin/Sint Maarten.
Saint-Martin is part of France 
. Sint Maarten 
is a "constituent country" of the the Kingdom of the Netherlands 
, as are Aruba 
and Curaçao 
in the Leeward Antilles.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Collectivity_of_Saint_Martin
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sint_Maarten
7/ Not far away is the French territory of Saint Barthélemy 
, purchased from Sweden 
in 1878 as we covered in our #geoweirdness thread about Sweden.
8/ Saint Martin unlike Saint Barthélemy , but like the other French Caribbean territories of Guadeloupe 
, Martinique 
, and French Guiana 
- is part of the European Union 
and is on the maps on the Euro notes 
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Special_territories_of_members_of_the_European_Economic_Area
9/ Nearby we have the tiny islands of Saba and Sint Eustatius, which are part of the Netherlands (though they use the US dollar 
).
They are municipalities of the Netherlands, NOT constituent countries of the Kingdom of the Netherlands.
Saba is famous for being home to Mount Scenery, the highest point in the Kingdom of the Netherlands at 887 meters.
10/ Moving Windward now, let’s start with Grenada 
.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Grenada
Its main islands are Grenada and two dependencies, Carriacou (the largest) and Petite Martinique. It gained independence from the United Kingdom in 1974 and has an active underwater volcano called Kick ‘em Jenny. How about that for a name?
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kick_%27em_Jenny
Grenada is most famous for being invaded by the US 
in 1983
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/United_States_invasion_of_Grenada
11/ Last up is Barbados 
.
The easternmost island in the Caribbean is a continental island that is grouped culturally and politically with the Windward Islands despite not being a part of the volcanic arc.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Barbados
in 2021 Barbados removed the Queen of England as head of state and became a republic
12/ Of course, we could go on - there are dozens more islands worth writing about - but we had to stop somewhere.
We’ll share the link to the Caribmap archive we used to find some of the wonderful old maps shared in this thread and in the Greater Antilles thread (be prepared to lose a few hours browsing)
http://www.caribmap.org/index.php?id=gada&link=1851-gre-philip
13/ Thanks for reading and sharing. What did we miss in our look at the #geoweirdness of the Lesser Antilles?
We’ll be back soon with more geoweirdness! Don’t forget to check out our previous threads (including threads about the Greater Antilles and British Overseas Territories) over on the blog:
https://blog.opencagedata.com/geothreads
Enjoy the weekend!
