5 Themes of Geography in the

Caribbean

By: Group 2

Location

Location

• Relative– South of Florida, East of Mexico, and

surrounded by the Caribbean Sea, Gulf of Mexico, and Atlantic Ocean

• Exact– 59 degrees West–88 degrees West– 11 degrees North–26 degrees North

Regions

Physical Regions• The entire area is called the Caribbean

• Used to be called “the Indies” or “the Spanish Main”

• Other regions– The Rimland-

• Includes Belize, Guyana, Suriname, and French Giuana

– Greater Antilles• Cuba Jamaica, Hispaniola (Haiti and the

Dominican Republic), and Puerto Rico

Physical Regions (cont.)

– Lesser Antilles• Double arc small islands Virgin Islands

to Trinidad

– Antillean Islands• arc of islands that starts with Cuba and

ends with Trinidad

Political Regions

Cultural Regions

• Plantation America– Extends from midway up the coast of Brazil

through the Guianas and the Caribbean into the southeastern United States.

• Creolization– Blending of African, European, and

Amerindian culture elements.

Economic Regions

• Offshore banking– offers specialized services to foreign banks and

corporations – confidentail and tax-exempt– attracts money tied to drug trade

• CARICOM– Caribbean Community and Common Market– proposed regional industrialization plan– proposed formation of Caribbean Development

Bank • help poorer states

Economic Regions

• Free Trade Zones (FTZs)– duty free and tax-exempt industrial parks for foreign

corporations– make foreign ownership legal– direct foreign investment– cheap labor

• "zero option"– in cuba– no subsidized food or fuel from Soviet Union– no guarenteed ,arket for Cuban citrus and sugar– economic rules changed

Place

Human Charastics

• A high amount of housing is squatter settlements• Languages include Spanish, French, English, and Dutch• The music of reggae, calypso, merengue, rumba, and zouk are influenced by their African and European roots• Caribbean cruise ships and scuba diving contribute to the abundant amount of tourism• Average life expectancy is roughly 70 years

Human Charastics

• • In Haiti, bamboo trumpets, saxophones, and percussion make up the ra-ra music type• Papiamento is a language that blends Dutch, Spanish, Portuguese, English, and African language is the lingua franca• Most Haitians speak patois, which is influenced by African culture and spoken mainly in homes, the streets and oral traditions• The blend of European and African cultures is called Creolization• The Garifuna people are decendents of the African slaves• The Garifuna people now speak Amerindian

Physical Features:

• • Average temperature is in the 70s year round• Most of rain fall occurs from July to October• Typically, about 6 hurricanes occur during the season causing limited damage• Tropical Rainforests mainly in the Rimlands, Guiana and Belize

Physical Features:

• The Guiana’s’ are not affected by the hurricanes• Tropical coconut trees• In Aruba, Bonaire, and Curacao, Anguilla and the Cayman Islands, they have world class resorts because of the arid lands • The Pico Duarte in the Cordillera Central of the Dominican Republic is higher than 10,000 ft tall

Interaction between Humans and the

Environment

Interaction between Humans and the Environment

• Change– built national parks to increas wildlife

and awaremess– several dams were built on islands to

help supply water to people– Europeans cut down Caribean's forests

to make room for sugarcane fields– mangrove swamps were made to make

beaches

Interaction between Humans and the Environment

• Adapt• Since the soil easily eroded and didn't produce good

harvest, they developed two strategies, clear new land, and abondon old land conserve soil and maintain fertility.

• Residents of Montserrant had to evactuate at certain times due to volcanic activity.

• They had to adapt with climate to support agriculture, and the colonial economy hobbled along by producing salt and raising goats.

• Savanas have fertile soil which are good for farming.• Limestones base in Cuba results in fertile red clay soil.• They have to be careful when drinking water because

of how contaminated it is.

Movement

Movement of People• 1. Former slaves left because of limited economic

opportunity and went to England, France, Netherlands, US, and Canada for jobs in cities.

• 2. Caribbean diaspora: the economic flight of Caribbean peoples across the globe ex. Barabadians to England, Surinamese to Netherlands, Puerto Ricans, Cubans, Jamaicans to US.

• 3. Circular Migration - Parents leave, work hard, save money and return home

• 4. Chain Migration – Families move to a new country one member at a time

• 5. Rural to urban migration occurred in large quantities because of mechanized agriculture offshore industrialization, and rapid population growth in which 60% of Caribbeans lived in cities.

• 6. Citizens from overpopulated cities moved to Caribbean looking for farm work.

Movement of People (cont.)

• 7. African Diaspora – forced removal of Africans from their native area

• 8. Maroons- Runaway slaves created their own communities with their own traditions.

• 9. Most Asian immigrants immigrated to the Caribbean to be indentured laborers who were workers that were contracted to work on estates for a set period of time after slavery ended.

• 10. Poor families moved to houseyards which were cheap and allowed large living space with the protection of a fence.

• 11. People who had no job or income gathered together to form squatter settlements which grew out through the Caribbean.

Movement of Ideas

• 1. Creolization – process in which African and European cultures are blended in the Caribbean such as music and languages.

• 2. Plantation systems brought from rich European plantation owners eradicated indigenous systems and replaced them with different social systems and cultures

• 3. Maroons brought there traditions such as farming practices, house designs, community organization, language, religion with them to the Caribbean.

• 4. Many Caribbean cities underwent city morphology because of the large Spanish influence such as Paramaribo, Suriname which is called a “tulipless Holland” because of its colonization by the Dutch.

Movement of Ideas

• 5. Plantation America - extended up the coast of Brazil, through the Guianas and the Caribbean, and into the southeastern U.S that endangered ecological, social, and economic relations; and gave the rich control of the land which caused rigid class lines and the formation of a multi-racial society that privlidged lighter-skinned people.

• 6. Western African religions such as Voodoo, Santeria, Obeah were brought to the Caribbean.

• 7. European languages are spoken throughout the Caribbean.

Movement of Goods

• Africans brought farming tools to make their jobs in the farming industry faster and easier.

• There are many shuddered cottages in the Caribbean that reflect the design of those in Europe.

• Cubans mainly use bicycles as their main mode of transportation which were brought over from Europe.