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The Caribbean

The Caribbean. Geography 105. The Caribbean. Countries of the Caribbean. Cuba Dominican Republic Haiti The Bahamas Jamaica Dominica Saint Lucia Montserrat Martinique Barbados St. Vincent & the Grenadines. Grenada Saint Kitts and Nevis U.S. Virgin Islands Cayman Islands

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The Caribbean

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  1. The Caribbean Geography 105

  2. The Caribbean

  3. Countries of the Caribbean Cuba Dominican Republic Haiti The Bahamas Jamaica Dominica Saint Lucia Montserrat Martinique Barbados St. Vincent & the Grenadines Grenada Saint Kitts and Nevis U.S. Virgin Islands Cayman Islands British Virgin Islands Puerto Rico Anguilla Antigua Barbuda Guadalupe Turks and Caicos

  4. Countries of the Caribbean

  5. The Caribbean • Much of the Caribbean has a strong record of fostering human well-being. • Caribbean tourists are usually (and unnecessarily) isolated in hotel enclaves or on cruise ships, glimpsing only tiny swatches of island settlements. • Bananas, cocoa and coffee industry are also popular sources of income in these islands (like Jamaica), and in most smaller islands that do not boast natural resources, these are the major contributors to their economy, apart from tourism. • The Caribbean comprises more than 700 islands, islets, reefs and caves. • The islands are divided into different island groups. 

  6. The Lucayan Archipelago

  7. Leeward & Windward Islands

  8. Leeward Islands The Leeward Islands include the Virgin Islands, Dominica, Guadeloupe, Montserrat, Antigua, Barbuda, St. Kitts, Nevis, and Anguilla. They're called the Leeward Islands because they're away from the wind ("lee").

  9. Windward Islands • The Windward Islands are southeastern islands of the Caribbean and include Martinique, St. Lucia, St. Vincent, the Grenadines, and Grenada. • They're called the Windward Islands because they're exposed to the wind ("windward") of the northeast trade winds (northeasterlies).

  10. Political, Social, and Economic Change • Over the past half-century, most of the island societies have emerged from colonial status to become independent, self-governing states. • With the exception of Haiti and parts of the Dominican Republic, these islands are no longer the poverty-stricken places they were 30 years ago. • The overall rate of population increase for the Caribbean is the lowest in Middle and South America.

  11. Political, Social, and Economic Change • Instead of depending on specialized activities, such as tourism, islands have turned to producing “dessert” crops, processing their special resources, or assembling high tech products. • Most islands combine one or more of these strategies with tourism development. • Tourism and related activities contribute at least 60 percent of the gross national product in island countries.

  12. Cuba and Puerto Rico Compared • Cuba and Puerto Rico are interesting to compare because they shared a common history until the 1950s. • North American interests dominated both islands after the end of Spanish rule around 1900. • In 1959, Cuba went through a Communist revolution under the leadership of Fidel Castro. • Meanwhile, Puerto Rico experienced a more gradual capitalist meta­morphosis into a high-tech manufacturing center.

  13. Cuba

  14. Cuba is located 48  miles west of Haiti across the Windward Passage, 13  miles south of the Bahamas, 90 miles south of Florida, 130 mi east of Mexico, and 87  miles north of Jamaica.

  15. Cuba

  16. Cuba Cuban Flag

  17. Cuba • Capital: Havana • Population Growth Rate: -0.14 % (2014 est.) • Population: 11,047,251 (July 2014 est.) • Median Age:39.9years • Life Expectancy: 78.22(59th) • Ethnic Groups:White 64.1%, Mestizo 26.6%, Black 9.3% (2012 est.) • Religion: Nominally Roman Catholic 85%, Protestant, Jehovah's Witnesses, Jewish, Santeria • Birth Rate: 9.9  births/1,000 population (2014 est.) • Infant Mortality Rate:4.7 deaths/1,000 live births (2014 est.)

  18. Cuba Population Pyramid

  19. Cuba & U.S. Timeline • 1898 - US defeats Spain, which gives up all claims to Cuba and cedes it to the US. • 1902 - Cuba becomes independent with Tomas Estrada Palma as its president; however, the Platt Amendment keeps the island under US protection and gives the US the right to intervene in Cuban affairs. • 1956 – Fidel Castro lands in eastern Cuba from Mexico and takes to the Sierra Maestra mountains where, aided by Ernesto "Che" Guevara, he wages a guerrilla war. • 1959 - Castro leads a 9,000-strong guerrilla army into Havana, forcing Batista to flee. Castro becomes prime minister, his brother, Raul, becomes his deputy and Guevara becomes third in command.

  20. Cuba & U.S. Timeline • 1960 - All US businesses in Cuba are nationalized without compensation. • 1961 - Washington breaks off all diplomatic relations with Havana. • 1962 - Cuban missile crisis ignites when, fearing a US invasion, Castro agrees to allow the USSR to deploy nuclear missiles on the island. • 1980 - Around 125,000 Cubans, many of them released convicts, flee to the US. • 1994 - Cuba signs an agreement with the US according to which the US agrees to admit 20,000 Cubans a year in return for Cuba halting the exodus of refugees.

  21. Cuba & U.S. Timeline • 2002- Prisoners taken during US-led action in Afghanistan are flown into Guantanamo Bay for interrogation as al-Qaeda suspects. • 2008 February - Raul Castro takes over as president, days after Fidel announces his retirement. • 2012 July - Cuban President Raul Castro states Cuba is ready to discuss issues with the United States. Fidel Castro Raul Castro Che Guevara

  22. Mariel Boatlift

  23. Mariel Boatlift • The Mariel Boatlift officially began April 15, 1980 and ended October 31, 1980, with the arrival of over 125,000 Cubans to Southern Florida from Port of Mariel, Cuba. • Fidel Castro permitted any person who wanted to leave Cuba free access to depart from the port of Mariel, Cuba. • Hundreds of small craft departed Miami and sailed to Mariel, where they loaded up with refugees and then attempted to return to Miami. • Approximately 124,000 undocumented Cuban migrants entered the United States by a flotilla of mostly US vessels in violation of US law.  • Some 800-900 Cuban criminals were pushed into the United States by Fidel Castro in 1980 and have been in detention ever since.

  24. Cuba Issues • Cuba has faced many hardships over the years. One of them being a short supply of food. • In 1981 there was a serious epidemic of dengue fever in Cuba. • Another recurring problem of Cuba is illicit migration. • Recently, President Raul Castro issued a stern warning to entrepreneurs pushing the boundaries of Cuba's economic reform. • The United States embargo on Cuba. • Human rights are a major issue in Cuba. • President Obama plans to close the prison at Guantánamo eventually.

  25. Cuba • Since Castro seized control, Cuba has dramatically im­proved the well-being of its general population in all physical categories of measurement. • By 1990, it had a solid human well-being record despite its persistently rather low GDP per capita. • Until 1991, the Soviet Union was Cuba’s chief sponsor. • With the demise of the Soviet Union, Cuba’s economy declined sharply during what became known as the Special Period.

  26. Puerto Rico

  27. Puerto Rico Puerto Rican Flag

  28. Puerto Rico • Capital: San Juan • Population Growth Rate: -0.65% (2014 est.) • Population: 3,620,897 (July 2014 est.) • Median Age:38.7 years • Life Expectancy: 79.09(48th) • Ethnic Groups:White 75.8%, black/African American 12.4%, other 8.5% (includes American Indian, Alaskan Native, Native Hawaiian, other Pacific Islander, and others), mixed 3.3% • Religion: Roman Catholic 85%, Protestant and other 15% • Birth Rate: 10.9  births/1,000 population (2014 est.) • Infant Mortality Rate:7.73 deaths/1,000 live births (2014 est.)

  29. Puerto Rico Population Pyramid

  30. Puerto Rico • In the 1950s, Puerto Rico began Operation Bootstrap, a government-aided program to transform the island’s economy from its traditional sugar plantation base to modern industrialism. • Since 1965, this industrial sector has shifted from light to heavy manufacturing. • The Puerto Rican seaboard is heavily polluted, partly as a consequence of the chemicals released by these more recent industries. • Because Puerto Rico is a commonwealth within the United States and its people are U.S. citizens, many Puerto Ricans migrate to work in the United States.

  31. Puerto Rico • Their remittances, as well as the manufacturing jobs in Puerto Rico, have greatly improved living conditions on the island. • Social investment by the U.S. government has also upgraded the standard of living. • Puerto Rico’s landscape reflects stagnation. • Puerto Ricans are split on how to improve their situation. • Complete independence would bring pride and facilitate the retention of the island’s Spanish linguistic and cultural heritage. • Statehood for Puerto Rico, which some favor, would mean higher status in the United States, but it would also mean the end of tax holidays for U.S. companies based there.

  32. Haiti and Barbados Compared • Haiti and Barbados present another study in contrasts. • During the colonial era, both were European possessions with plantation economies. • Haiti a colony of France and Barbados a colony of Britain. • Yet they have had very different experiences, and today they are far apart in economic and social well-being. • Haiti, is the poorest nation in the Americas. • Barbados, by contrast, has the highest HDI ranking in the entire region.

  33. Haiti

  34. Haiti Haitian Flag

  35. Haiti • Capital: Port-au-Prince • Population Growth Rate: 1.08% (2014 est.) • Population: 9,996,731 (July 2014 est.) • Median Age:22.2 years • Life Expectancy: 63.18(186th) • Ethnic Groups:Black 95%, Mulatto and White 5% • Religion: Roman Catholic 80%, Protestant 16% (Baptist 10%, Pentecostal 4%, Adventist 1%, other 1%), none 1%, other 3% Note:Roughly half of the population practices voodoo. • Birth Rate: 22.83  births/1,000 population (2014 est.) • Infant Mortality Rate:49.43 deaths/1,000 live births (2014 est.)

  36. Haiti Population Pyramid

  37. Haiti Physical Map

  38. Haiti Haiti: Before and After 2010 Earthquake

  39. Haiti • Haiti occupies the western part of the island of Hispaniola; the Dominican Republic occupies the eastern two-thirds of the island. • At the end of the eighteenth century, Haiti had the richest plantation economy in the Caribbean. • When Haitian slaves revolted against the brutality of the French planters in 1804, Haiti became the first colony in Middle and South America to achieve independence. • Haiti’s early promise was lost, however, when the former-slave reformist leaders were overthrown by other former slaves who were violent and corrupt militarists. • They neither reformed the ex­ploitative plantation economy nor sought a new economic base.

  40. Haiti • Today, Haiti remains overwhelmingly rural, with widespread illiteracy, an infant mortality rate of 57 per 1000 births, and painfully few jobs. • Haiti’s lands are deforested and eroded and subject to disastrous flooding. • Traditional agriculture, potentially quite productive, has been defeated by extreme environmental deterioration. • Efforts to establish democracy have repeatedly devolved into violence.

  41. Barbados

  42. Barbados Barbadian/ Bajan Flag

  43. Capital: Bridgetown • Population Growth Rate: 0.33% (2014 est.) • Population: 289,680 (July 2014 est.) • Median Age:37.6 years • Life Expectancy: 74.99(102nd) • Ethnic Groups:Black 92.4%, White 2.7%, Mixed 3.1%, East Indian 1.3%, other 0.2%, unspecified 0.2% (2010 est.) • Religion: Protestant 66.3% (includes Anglican 23.9%, other Pentecostal 19.5%, Adventist 5.9%, Methodist 4.2%, Wesleyan 3.4%, Nazarene 3.2%, Church of God 2.4%, Baptist 1.8%, Moravian 1.2%, other Protestant .8%), Roman Catholic 3.8%, other Christian 5.4% (includes Jehovah's Witness 2.0%, other 3.4%), Rastafarian 1%, other 1.5%, none 20.6%, unspecified 1.2% (2010 est.) • Birth Rate: 11.97  births/1,000 population (2014 est.) • Infant Mortality Rate:10.93 deaths/1,000 live births (2014 est.) Barbados

  44. Barbados Population Pyramid

  45. Barbados

  46. Barbados • Barbados is a Caribbean island to the north of Trinidad and Tobago and east of St Lucia, St. Vincent and the Grenadines and Grenada. • Barbadians hold jobs requiring sophisticated skills; they are well educated and well fed, and most are homeowners. • In 1961 Barbados was given full internal self-government and in 1966 the country gained independence. • Links with Britain continued through membership of the Commonwealth.

  47. Barbados • Barbados has fewer natural resources and is more than twice as crowded as Haiti. • Although both Haiti and Barbados entered the twentieth century with large, illiterate, agricultural populations, their development paths have diverged sharply. • Barbados now has 99 percent literacy, a diversified economy that includes tourism, sugar production, remittances from migrants, information processing, offshore financial services, and modern industries that sell products throughout the Caribbean. • Barbados’s present prosperity is explained by the fact that its citizens successfully pressured the British government to invest in the people and infrastructure of its colony before giving it independence in 1966.

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