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Stretching in an arc from the bottom of Florida to the top of South America, the Caribbean archipelago is as varied as it is beautiful. Islands range in size from Cuba (4,124 square miles) to tiny Saba (3 square miles); mountains soar to over 2 miles high in the Dominican Republic, and flat sand-spits barely reach sea level. There are extensive rain forests in Puerto Rico and Dominica, and barren cactus-filled wildernesses in Haiti and Aruba. The landscape may change around each corner, as mangrove swamp gives way to pasture land and pine forests replace palm trees. Intensive agriculture and tourist development are gradually altering the Caribbean's contours and climate. Blessed with warm weather all the year round and cooled by the Trade Winds, the region is also occasionally cursed by violent rainstorms and hurricanes.
Humans have left indelible impression on the Caribbean landscape. Many of the islands that were once covered in virgin rain forest are now scared by deforestation and erosion. In Haiti, the island described by Columbus as the most beautiful he had ever seen, tree-felling, and over farming created virtual deserts in some areas, where drought and famine are constant threats. Strangely, little of the flora and fauna that make up the typical Caribbean landscape is indigenous to the region. Sugar cane, which still flourishes on many islands, was introduced from the Mediterranean by Spanish colonists. Other crops (bananas, citrus fruits, coffee beans) and animals (cattle, dogs, horses) came from Asia and Europe.
Differing histories have also molded the countryside itself. In the formerly Spanish colonies of Cuba, Puerto Rico, and the Dominican Republic, sugar plantations stretch to the horizon as they have for 500 years. In Haiti, however, where a slave revolution expelled the French at the beginning of the 19th century, precarious smallholdings have replaced the hated plantations. Despite the proximity of the U.S., European influence is still keenly felt. In the French d4artements d'outre-mer of Martinique and Guadeloupe you can buy baguettes, drink pastis and see policemen in kepis. There is no mistaking the Dutch style of CuraSao or Aruba, where gabled pastel warehouses lining the canal and port conjure up a tropical Amsterdam. And Britain has left the paraphernalia of colonial rule in its former possessions: red mailboxes, English place names, and cricket fields. |
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The past has shaped the look of the Caribbean through a variety of influences.
Cities, towns, and villages bear the unmistakable imprint of former colo nial
powers. Spanish-built Havana, with its colonnades and plazas, a seems a
different world from British built Bridgetown, with its statue of Admiral Nelson
in Trafalgar Square and its "tropical Anglican" cathedral. The
Caribbean is one of the last bastions of colonialism. Martin ique,Guadeloupe,
St. Baits and St. Martin are technically French regions; Aruba. Bonaire and
Curacao remain tied to the Netherlands; Britain still maintains Montserrat,
Anguilla, and the Cayman Islands as dependent territories and the B.V.I. as a
crown colony. Puerto Rico is a "free and associated state" of the
U.S.A., but may one day become the 51st State.