Caribbean Basin

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Caribbean Basin
Caribbean general map.png

The Caribbean Basin or Caribbean Proper (or the Caribbean Basin region [1] ) is a geopolitical term used to describe countries which generally border the Caribbean Sea. [2] As a geopolitical concept, the term often includes the country of El Salvador, which only touches the Pacific Ocean, for its similarities to neighbouring countries. The definition has also been taken literally at times[ according to whom? ] and can exclude areas such as Barbados and the Turks and Caicos Islands which also do not technically touch the Caribbean Sea. [3]

Contents

During the Cold War, the then US President Ronald Reagan coined the term to define the region benefiting from his administration's Caribbean Basin Initiative (CBI) economic program, approved in US law in 1983. Thus, the Caribbean basin included only the countries of the Caribbean insular and Central America that met the requirements of the CBI, and Cuba and Nicaragua, which the American government viewed as politically "repressive" and "economic failure" were excluded. [4] [5] [1] As a result of this US foreign policy initiative, the term "Caribbean Basin" began to be used as a geographic description in the 1980s. [6]

Canadian historians and academics, Professor Graeme S. Mount and Professor Stephen Randall, citing historian Bruce B. Solnick, posits that:

"...one area of the modern Caribbean basin owes its heritage to the legacy of the Spanish Empire; other segments were traditionally British preserve; a third area was French, and a final area, more diminutive, was dominated by the Netherlands in the colonial years. It is not surprising, therefore, as Solnick notes, that "often the history of the region is treated solely as a function of European colonial expansion." [7] [8]

In the latter part of the 20th century, following the collapse of European colonialism, the Caribbean became "an American lake" which American hegemony seek to provide a form of unity in the region, [9] though the USA never saw itself as a Caribbean nation, nor did Venezuela until the 1970s. [10] That view is supported by the America historian and author, Professor Robert Pastor who argues that: "...all the nations in and around the Caribbean Sea seemed to have in common was a view of the United States as the "colossus of the north" and the U.S. view of them as a "backyard." [10]

Geographical area

The geographical area runs from the north in the Greater Antilles (such as Cuba, Hispaniola, Jamaica, and Puerto Rico) to the west along the Caribbean coast of the Yucatan Peninsula, in Mexico and the Caribbean coasts of Central America, continuing towards the east by the arc formed by the Lesser Antilles and to the south by the Caribbean coasts of Panama, Colombia, and Venezuela.[ citation needed ] It is customary[ according to whom? ] to include Bermuda and the Bahamian Archipelago within this region, although they are located in the Atlantic Ocean outside the arc, since they share a cultural and historical legacy with other countries in the region. [11]

Modern Caribbean Basin countries

  1. Flag of Anguilla.svg  Anguilla (Flag of the United Kingdom.svg  United Kingdom)
  2. Flag of Antigua and Barbuda.svg  Antigua and Barbuda
  3. Flag of Aruba.svg  Aruba (Flag of the Netherlands.svg  Netherlands)
  4. Bajo Nuevo Bank Flag of Colombia.svg  Colombia (Disputed by Flag of Jamaica.svg  Jamaica, Flag of Nicaragua.svg  Nicaragua and Flag of the United States (23px).png  United States)
  5. Flag of Belize.svg  Belize
  6. Flag of the British Virgin Islands.svg  British Virgin Islands (Flag of the United Kingdom.svg  United Kingdom)
  7. Flag of the Netherlands.svg  Caribbean Netherlands (Flag of the Netherlands.svg  Netherlands)
    1. Flag of Bonaire.svg  Bonaire
    2. Flag of Sint Eustatius.svg  Sint Eustatius
    3. Flag of Saba.svg  Saba
  8. Flag of Colombia.svg  Colombia
    1. Caribbean region of Colombia
      1. Flag of Antioquia Department.svg  Antioquia
      2. Flag of Atlantico.svg  Atlántico
      3. Flag of Bolivar Department.svg  Bolívar
      4. Flag of Cesar.svg  Cesar (Does not border the Caribbean Sea)
      5. Flag of Choco.svg  Chocó
      6. Flag of Cordoba.svg  Córdoba
      7. Flag of La Guajira.svg  La Guajira
      8. Flag of Magdalena.svg  Magdalena
      9. Flag of San Andres y Providencia.svg  San Andrés y Providencia
      10. Flag of Sucre Department.svg  Sucre
  9. Flag of the Cayman Islands.svg  Cayman Islands (Flag of the United Kingdom.svg  United Kingdom)
  10. Flag of Costa Rica.svg  Costa Rica
    1. Bandera de la Provincia de Limon.svg  Limón
  11. Flag of Cuba.svg  Cuba
  12. Flag of Curacao.svg  Curaçao (Flag of the Netherlands.svg  Netherlands)
  13. Flag of Dominica.svg  Dominica
  14. Flag of the Dominican Republic.svg  Dominican Republic
  15. Flag of El Salvador.svg  El Salvador
  16. Flag of France.svg  France
    1. Flag of France.svg  Guadeloupe
    2. Flag-of-Martinique.svg  Martinique
  17. Flag of Grenada.svg  Grenada
  18. Flag of Haiti.svg  Haiti
  19. Flag of Honduras.svg  Honduras
    1. Atlántida
    2. Bay Islands
    3. Colón
    4. Cortés
    5. Gracias a Dios
  20. Flag of Guatemala.svg  Guatemala
    1. ..Izabal Flag(GUATEMALA).png  Izabal
  21. Flag of Jamaica.svg  Jamaica
  22. Flag of Mexico.svg  Mexico
    1. Flag of Quintana Roo.svg  Quintana Roo
  23. Flag of Montserrat.svg  Montserrat (Flag of the United Kingdom.svg  United Kingdom)
  24. Flag of the United States.svg  Navassa Island (Disputed by Flag of Haiti.svg  Haiti)
  25. Flag of Nicaragua.svg  Nicaragua
    1. Bandera Atlantic Nord.png  North Caribbean Coast Autonomous Region
    2. Flag of San Carlos, Nicaragua.svg  Río San Juan
    3. Flag of Region Autonoma Atlantico Sur.svg  South Caribbean Coast Autonomous Region
  26. Flag of Panama.svg  Panama
    1. Bandera de la Provincia de Bocas del Toro.svg  Bocas del Toro
    2. Colón Province
    3. Bandera de la Comarca Guna Yala.svg  Guna Yala
    4. Bandera de la Comarca Ngabe-Bugle.svg  Ngäbe-Buglé Comarca
    5. Bandera de la Provincia de Veraguas.svg  Veraguas
  27. Flag of Puerto Rico.svg  Puerto Rico (Flag of the United States (23px).png  United States)
  28. Flag of France.svg  Saint Barthélemy (Flag of France.svg  France)
  29. Flag of Saint Kitts and Nevis.svg  Saint Kitts and Nevis
  30. Flag of Saint Lucia.svg  Saint Lucia
  31. Flag of France.svg  Saint Martin (Flag of France.svg  France)
  32. Flag of Saint Vincent and the Grenadines.svg  Saint Vincent and the Grenadines
  33. Serranilla Bank Flag of Colombia.svg  Colombia (Disputed by Flag of Honduras.svg  Honduras, Flag of Jamaica.svg  Jamaica, and Flag of the United States (23px).png  United States)
  34. Flag of Sint Maarten.svg  Sint Maarten (Flag of the Netherlands.svg  Netherlands)
  35. Flag of Trinidad and Tobago.svg  Trinidad and Tobago
  36. Flag of the United States Virgin Islands.svg  United States Virgin Islands (Flag of the United States (23px).png  United States)
  37. Flag of Venezuela.svg  Venezuela
    1. Venezuelan Caribbean
      1. Flag of Anzoategui State.svg  Anzoátegui
      2. Flag of Aragua State.svg  Aragua
      3. Flag of Carabobo State.svg  Carabobo
      4. Flag of Falcon State.svg  Falcón
      5. Federal dependencies of Venezuela's Flag.svg  Federal Dependencies of Venezuela
      6. Flag of Miranda state.svg  Miranda
      7. Flag of Nueva Esparta.svg  Nueva Esparta
      8. Flag of Sucre State.svg  Sucre
      9. Flag of Vargas State.svg  Vargas
      10. Flag of Zulia State.svg  Zulia

See also

Further reading

Related Research Articles

References

  1. 1 2 United States. Congress. Senate. Committee on Finance, "Caribbean Basin Initiative--1983: Hearing Before the Committee on Finance, United States Senate, Ninety-eighth Congress, First Session, on S. 544, April 13, 1983." Volume 98, Issue 277 of S. hrg, United States Congress. U.S. Government Printing Office (1983), pp. 53-55 (retrieved 26 April 2024)
  2. Stephen J. Randall; Graeme S. Mount (1998). The Caribbean Basin: An International History. p. 1.
  3. Williams, Ernest H.; Bunkley-Williams, Lucy (24 May 2021). "What and Where is the Caribbean? A Modern Definition". The Florida Geographer. 52 (1): 3–28.
  4. Barca, Alessandro, "EE. UU. y la cuenca del Caribe. Crónica de un fracaso anunciado." [in] Nueva Sociedad NRO. 64 Enero-Febrero (1983), pp. 110-115. (retrieved 26 April 2024)
  5. Mendoza, María de Lourdes Sánchez, "Un acercamiento a la región del Caribe: su importancia estratégica y económica." UNAM (Relaciones Internacionales). (2006) [in] Catalogo Revistas UNAM
  6. Grugel, Jean (1995). Politics and Development in the Caribbean Basin. Macmillan Press. p. 2.
  7. Mount, Graeme, and Randall, Stephen; "The Caribbean Basin: An International History." The New International History. Routledge (2013), p. 1, ISBN   9781136141164 (retrieved 26 April 2024)
  8. Solnick, Bruce B., "The West Indies and Central America to 1898." New York: Knopf (1970), pp. ix, 188-9
  9. Mount, Graeme; Randall, Stephen; "The Caribbean Basin: An International History." The New International History. Routledge (2013), p. 1, ISBN   9781136141164 (retrieved 26 April 2024)
  10. 1 2 Pastor, Robert, "Sinking in the Caribbean Basin." [in] United States. Congress. Senate. Committee on Finance, "Caribbean Basin Initiative--1983: Hearing Before the Committee on Finance, United States Senate, Ninety-eighth Congress, First Session, on S. 544, April 13, 1983." Volume 98, Issue 277 of S. hrg, United States Congress. U.S. Government Printing Office (1983), p. 203 (retrieved 26 April 2024)
  11. Thomas J. Anderson (2019). "8". In Alfonzo Gonzalez; Jim Norwine (eds.). The New Third World (2 ed.). Taylor & Francis.