West Indies
West Indies names 4 different subjects across the 6 encyclopedias on this shelf. Each is set out below.
West Indies DANISH ly hot
Collier's New Encyclopedia (1921)
DANISH ly hot, and the islands abound in tropical productions, as sugar, cotton, coffee, cacao, tobacco, maize, etc.; oranges, lemons, limes, pomegranates, citrous pineapples, manioc, yams, potatoes, etc. Except Cuba, Haiti (in which there are two republics); Porto Rico and other islands acquired by the United States from Spain, Virgin Islands acquired by the United States from Denmark, and a few islands off the coast of South America, the West Indian Islands are in the possession of European powers. The chief British possessions are: Jamaica, Barbadoes, St. Lucia, St. Vincent, Trinidad, Tobago, Antigua, St. Kitt's, Dominica, Virgin Islands, and the Bahamas; Dutch St. Eustatius, Saba, St. Martin (partly French), Bonaire or Buen Ayre, Curaçao, and Oruba or Aruba; and French, Martinique, Deseada, Guade loupe, Marie Galante, St. Martin (partly Dutch), St. Bartholomew, and Les Saintes. Two-thirds of the inhabitants are negroes. Total pop. about 6,000,000.
West Indies west in'dez, an archipelago between North and South America
Aiton's Encyclopedia (1910)
west in'dez, an archipelago between North and South America . The islands extend in a long curve from a point midway between Yucatan and Florida to a point near the South American mainland. They inclose the Caribbean Sea , separating it from the Gulf of Mexico and from the Atlantic. When first reached by Columbus they were supposed to be outlying islands of southeastern Asia. As they were reached by sailing westward they were called the West Indies and their inhabitants were called Indians. The climate is tropical. The chief products are sugar, tobacco, and coffee. From June to October the entire region is subject to sweeping hurricanes. See articles on CUBA; HAITI; PORTO RICO ; JAMAICA; BAHAMAS; CARIBBEAN, etc.
West Indies or the ANTILLES
Collier's New Encyclopedia (1921)
or the ANTILLES, an extensive archipelago lying between North and South America, stretching from Florida to the shores of Venezuela. It is divided into the Bahamas, the group stretching from near the coast of Florida in a S. E. direction; the Greater Antilles, comprising the four largest islands of Porto Rico, and the group, Cuba, Haiti, iti, Jamaica; and the Lesser Antilles, stretching like a great bow, with its convexity toward the E., from Porto Rico to Trinidad, near the coast of Venezuela. Almost the whole archipelago lies within The total area does not the torrid zone. exceed 95,000 square miles, of which the Greater Antilles occupy nearly 83,000 square miles. The climate is extreme-
West Indies DANISH. See VIR- GIN ISLAND
Collier's New Encyclopedia (1921)
DANISH. See VIR- GIN ISLAND.
What Has Changed in the Last Century
When Collier's wrote in 1921 that "the West Indian Islands are in the possession of European powers," it was still broadly true; today it is not. Cuba's revolution in 1959 and a wave of independence beginning with Jamaica and Trinidad and Tobago in 1962 — followed by Barbados, the Bahamas, Grenada, Dominica, St Lucia, St Vincent, Antigua and Barbuda, and St Kitts and Nevis by 1983 — produced a dozen sovereign states where the entry lists colonies; Barbados dropped the British monarch and became a republic in 2021. Puerto Rico and the Virgin Islands remain United States territories, Martinique and Guadeloupe are French departments inside the European Union, and Aruba, Curaçao and Sint Maarten are self-governing partners of the Netherlands. The "total pop. about 6,000,000" has grown to roughly 44 million, and sugar, tobacco and coffee have been overtaken as earners by tourism, offshore finance and remittances — though the hurricanes Aiton's noted for June to October still dominate the region's calendar.
Written for this edition, 2026.