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''See also West Indies, Caribbean'' The Antilles (; ''Antilles'' (:ɑ̃.tij) in French; ''Antillas'' in Spanish; ''Antillen'' in Dutch and ''Antilhas'' in Portuguese) are an archipelago bordered by the Caribbean Sea to the south and west, the Gulf of Mexico to the northwest, and the Atlantic Ocean to the north and east. The Antillean islands are divided into two smaller groupings: the Greater Antilles, which includes the larger islands of Cuba, Jamaica, Puerto Rico, Hispaniola (subdivided into Haiti and the Dominican Republic) and the Cayman Islands; and the Lesser Antilles, which contains the northerly Leeward Islands, the southeasterly Windward Islands, and the Leeward Antilles just north of Venezuela. The Lucayan Archipelago (consisting of the Bahamas and Turks and Caicos Islands), though part of the West Indies, are generally not included among the Antillean islands.〔Some sources, such as Encarta in Spanish, include the Bahamas in the Antilles. () . (Archived ) 2009-10-31.〕 Geographically, the Antillean islands are generally considered a subregion of North America. Culturally speaking, Cuba, the Dominican Republic, and Puerto Rico – and sometimes the whole of the Antilles – are included in Latin America, although some sources avoid this socio-economic oversimplification by using the phrase "Latin America and the Caribbean" instead (see Latin America#Etymology and definitions, "In Contemporary Usage"). In terms of geology, the Greater Antilles are made up of continental rock, as distinct from the Lesser Antilles, which are mostly young volcanic or coral islands. == Background == The word ''Antilles'' originated in the period before the European conquest of the New World, ''Antilia'' being one of those mysterious lands which figured on the medieval charts, sometimes as an archipelago, sometimes as continuous land of greater or lesser extent, its location fluctuating in mid-ocean between the Canary Islands and India. After the 1492 arrival of Christopher Columbus's expedition in what was later called the West Indies, the European powers realized that the dispersed lands constituted an extensive archipelago inhabiting the Caribbean Sea and the Gulf of Mexico. The Antilles were called multiple names before their current name became the norm. Early Spanish visitors called them the ''Windward Islands''. They were also called the ''Forward Islands'' by 18th century British. Thereafter, the term ''Antilles'' was commonly assigned to the formation, and "Sea of the Antilles" became a common alternative name for the Caribbean Sea in various European languages. ==Demographics== The Antilles were described in 1778 by Thomas Kitchin as once being called the ''Caribbee Isles'' in homage to the Carib people who were the islands' first inhabitants. 抄文引用元・出典: フリー百科事典『 ウィキペディア（Wikipedia）』 ■ウィキペディアで「Antilles」の詳細全文を読む スポンサード リンク
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