Leeward Islands
The Leeward Islands are the northern islands of the Lesser Antilles. more...
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Name and confusing designations
They are called "leeward" because the prevailing winds in the area blow from east to west. Thus, the Leeward Islands are downwind, on the backside of, or leeward of, the easternmost Windward Islands, the group of islands that first meet the trade winds coming from the east.
The division between the Windward and Leeward Islands is different in English than it is in some other languages, notably French (Îles sous-le-vent), Spanish (Islas de Sotavento), German and Dutch (Benedenwindse Eilanden). In English, the conventional division is held to be between Dominica and Martinique; the Leeward Islands are not to be confused with the Leeward Antilles just north of Venezuela. In Spanish, the islands between the Virgin Islands south to, and including, Trinidad and Tobago are called the "Windward Islands", while only the islands off Venezuela are called the "Leeward Islands".
To add even more to the confusion, in the English spoken locally (for instance on the SSS Islands) the islands of the Leeward Islands from the Virgin Islands to Dominica are called the Windward Islands, just like the other Windward Islands.
List of the Leeward Islands
The Virgin Islands;
Anguilla;
St. Martin/Maarten (Guadeloupe (north part) and Netherlands Antilles (south part));
Saba (Netherlands Antilles);
Sint Eustatius (Netherlands Antilles);
Saint Barthélemy;
Antigua;
Barbuda;
Saint Kitts;
Nevis;
Montserrat;
Guadeloupe;
Dominica;
The tiny and remote Isla Aves may perhaps be included with this group for convenience.
However, the Netherlands Antilles are divided into the groups in the northeast and the southwest, with different naming conventions, see Netherlands Antilles.
British colonial entity
The name Leeward Islands also designates a British colony on several of these islands (analogous to one on the British Windward Islands), consisting of Antigua, Barbuda, the British Virgin Islands, Montserrat, Saint Kitts, Nevis, Anguilla and (to 1940) Dominica, from 1671 to 1816 and again from 1833 to 1960.
The colony was known as the Federal Colony of the Leeward Islands from 1871 to 1956 and the Territory of the Leeward Islands from 1956 to 1960.
The "Leeward Islands" is still the title of one of the Caribbean First-class cricket sides.
Postage stamps
The British Leeward Islands - Antigua, Dominica, Montserrat, Nevis, St. Christopher (St. Kitts), and the Virgin Islands all used postage stamps inscribed "LEEWARD ISLANDS" between 1890 and 1 July 1956, often concurrently with stamps inscribed with the colony's name.
Read more at Wikipedia.org
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