Commonwealth Caribbean


The Commonwealth Caribbean is the region of the Caribbean with English-speaking nations and territories, which once constituted the Caribbean portion of the British Empire and are now part of the Commonwealth of Nations. The term includes many independent island nations, British Overseas Territories and some mainland nations. It is also known as the Anglo-Caribbean, Anglophone Caribbean or English-speaking Caribbean. The term is now used in preference over the older term British West Indies, which was used to describe the British colonies in the West Indies during decolonisation and following independence from the United Kingdom. Anglo-Caribbean and British Commonwealth Caribbean also became preferred replacement terms to British West Indies.

Nations and Territories

The Commonwealth Caribbean consists of nations and territories, which include Caribbean islands or parts of the mainland surrounding the Caribbean Sea of North and South Americas.

Independent island nations

There are 10 independent island nations within the Commonwealth Caribbean:
Sovereign stateNotes

Independent mainland nations

There are two independent "mainland Caribbean" nations:

British Overseas Territories

The term may also be applied to British Overseas Territories in the Caribbean, as they are also English-speaking and the United Kingdom is a member of the Commonwealth. However, other terms may also be used to specifically refer to these territories, such as "British overseas territories in the Caribbean", "British Caribbean territories" or the older term "British West Indies". There are 6 territories which are sometimes described as Commonwealth Caribbean:
British Overseas TerritoryNotes
Bermuda is sometimes not considered a part of the Caribbean, due to its geographic location in the North Atlantic Ocean and not the Caribbean sea.

Other non-Commonwealth Anglophone">English-speaking world">Anglophone territories

U.S. Virgin Islands and Puerto Rico

The United States Virgin Islands is another English-speaking territory in the Caribbean, and Puerto Rico has English as an official language, but they're part of the United States, which isn't part of the Commonwealth.

Sint Maarten

a constituent country of the Kingdom of the Netherlands, is also a majority English-speaking country in the Caribbean. However, as with the Kingdom of the Netherlands, it isn't a part of the Commonwealth. English is the day-to-day administrative language and language of communication in Sint Maarten, and the first language of the majority of the population.

West Indies Federation

Between 1958 and 1962, there was a short-lived federation between several English-speaking Caribbean countries, called the West Indies Federation, which consisted of all the island nations, and the territories. British Guiana and British Honduras held observer status within the federation.
, whose members are considered to be in the Commonwealth Caribbean
The Commonwealth Caribbean makes up a composite cricket team. The West Indies cricket team also includes Guyana, as another former British colony. Bermuda, the U.S. and British Virgin Islands, and the Dutch Caribbean also participate in Anglophone Caribbean-related sports activities such as Twenty20 cricket.

Caribbean Community

The English-speaking parts of the Caribbean established the Caribbean Community in 1973, and it currently includes all the independent English-speaking island countries plus Belize, Guyana and Montserrat, as well as all other British Caribbean territories and Bermuda as associate members. English was its sole official language until 1995, following the addition of Dutch-speaking Suriname.

Informal Anglophone communities in Central America

In addition to these formally recognised countries, there are substantial communities of Anglo-Caribbean origin along the Atlantic or Caribbean coast of Central America, as a part of the western Caribbean zone. These communities, which began forming in the seventeenth century, include areas of Nicaragua and Honduras that made up the Miskito Kingdom, the Garifuna community, the Archipelago of San Andrés, Providencia and Santa Catalina, and the many and numerous Anglophone Caribbean people who were brought to Central America by the canal companies, railroad companies, and particularly the fruit companies, such as United Fruit after the 1870s and particularly in the first decades of the twentieth century. Many have never fully integrated into the otherwise Spanish-speaking communities in which they reside, such as the Caracoles of Honduras.

Other parts of the Caribbean