The Caribbean is a geo-political region situated in the middle of the Americas, centered around the Caribbean Sea in the North Atlantic Ocean. As a geographic subregion of North America, it largely overlaps with the area historically known as the West Indies, a term still used to describe many of its constituent islands and cultures.
Location and Geography
The Caribbean occupies a unique position within the Americas, bordered by North America to the north, Central America to the west, and South America to the south. This central location has made the region a crossroads of trade, migration, and culture for centuries.
The region is not defined by a single landmass but rather by an extensive collection of geographic features scattered across the Caribbean Sea. These include:
- Numerous islands of varying sizes
- Cays (small, low-elevation sandy islands)
- Islets
- Reefs
- Banks (shallow areas of the seabed)
A Region Defined by the Sea
At the heart of the Caribbean's identity is the Caribbean Sea itself, part of the North Atlantic Ocean. The sea does more than separate the region's landmasses—it connects them, linking island communities to one another and to the surrounding continental coastlines of North, Central, and South America.
Because the Caribbean spans such a wide array of islands and maritime features, it is best understood not as a single unified territory but as an archipelagic region woven together by shared waters, historical ties, and overlapping cultural influences with the broader West Indies.