3/ Our first pick today is Saint Kitts and Nevis 🇰🇳,...

3/ Our first pick today is Saint Kitts and Nevis 🇰🇳, a two-island nation in the Leeward Islands.

The islands used to be part of the three-island British 🇬🇧 colony Saint Christopher-Nevis-Anguilla which, as the name suggests, included Anguilla 🇦🇮

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Saint_Christopher-Nevis-Anguilla

Due to governance disputes, Anguilla opposed their move towards independence. In 1983, Saint Kitts and Nevis became independent, while Anguilla remained a British overseas territory.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Saint_Kitts_and_Nevis

#geoweirdness

Like 12 July at 13:16 | Open on en.osm.town

10 comments

OpenCage 👉🌍

4/ Another nearby 🇬🇧 British overseas territory is the island of Montserrat 🇲🇸

Technically the capital is the town of Plymouth. In practice though it and the southern half of the island have been covered by lava since 1995.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Montserrat

The new capital, Little Bay, is currently under construction
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Little_Bay,_Montserrat

#geoweirdness

12 July at 13:19 | Open on en.osm.town

OpenCage 👉🌍

5/ in the late 1950s-early 1960s there was a short-lived effort to unite all the various 🇬🇧 British Caribbean territories into the "West Indies Federation" which it was hoped would become independent as a single state

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/West_Indies_Federation

However the group could not agree how it would be governed or function viably and was eventually abandoned

#geoweirdness

12 July at 13:22 | Open on en.osm.town

OpenCage 👉🌍

6/ Moving on we have the case of Saint-Martin/Sint Maarten.

Saint-Martin is part of France 🇫🇷. Sint Maarten 🇸🇽 is a "constituent country" of the the Kingdom of the Netherlands 🇳🇱, as are Aruba 🇦🇼 and Curaçao 🇨🇼 in the Leeward Antilles.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Collectivity_of_Saint_Martin
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sint_Maarten

#geoweirdness

12 July at 13:29 | Open on en.osm.town

OpenCage 👉🌍

7/ Not far away is the French 🇫🇷 territory of Saint Barthélemy 🇧🇱, purchased from Sweden 🇸🇪 in 1878 as we covered in our #geoweirdness thread about Sweden.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Saint_Barth%C3%A9lemy

https://en.osm.town/@opencage/110722966500726890

12 July at 13:31 | Open on en.osm.town

OpenCage 👉🌍

8/ Saint Martin unlike Saint Barthélemy 🇧🇱, but like the other 🇫🇷 French Caribbean territories of Guadeloupe 🇬🇵, Martinique 🇲🇶, and French Guiana 🇬🇫 - is part of the European Union 🇪🇺 and is on the maps on the Euro notes 💶

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Special_territories_of_members_of_the_European_Economic_Area

#geoweirdness

12 July at 13:36 | Open on en.osm.town

OpenCage 👉🌍

9/ Nearby we have the tiny islands of Saba and Sint Eustatius, which are part of the Netherlands 🇳🇱 (though they use the US dollar 💵).

They are municipalities of the Netherlands, NOT constituent countries of the Kingdom of the Netherlands.

Saba is famous for being home to Mount Scenery, the highest point in the Kingdom of the Netherlands at 887 meters.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Saba_(island)

#geoweirdness

12 July at 13:41 | Open on en.osm.town

OpenCage 👉🌍

10/ Moving Windward now, let’s start with Grenada 🇬🇩.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Grenada

Its main islands are Grenada and two dependencies, Carriacou (the largest) and Petite Martinique. It gained independence from the United Kingdom 🇬🇧 in 1974 and has an active underwater volcano called Kick ‘em Jenny. How about that for a name?

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kick_%27em_Jenny

Grenada is most famous for being invaded by the US 🇺🇸 in 1983
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/United_States_invasion_of_Grenada

#geoweirdness

10/ Moving Windward now, let’s start with Grenada 🇬🇩.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Grenada

Expand text...

12 July at 13:45 | Open on en.osm.town

OpenCage 👉🌍

11/ Last up is Barbados 🇧🇧.

The easternmost island in the Caribbean is a continental island that is grouped culturally and politically with the Windward Islands despite not being a part of the volcanic arc.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Barbados

in 2021 Barbados removed the Queen of England 🇬🇧 as head of state and became a republic

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/President_of_Barbados

#geoweirdness

12 July at 13:47 | Open on en.osm.town

OpenCage 👉🌍 replied to OpenCage

12/ Of course, we could go on - there are dozens more islands worth writing about - but we had to stop somewhere.

We’ll share the link to the Caribmap archive we used to find some of the wonderful old maps shared in this thread and in the Greater Antilles thread (be prepared to lose a few hours browsing)

http://www.caribmap.org/index.php?id=gada&link=1851-gre-philip

12 July at 13:49 | Open on en.osm.town

OpenCage 👉🌍 replied to OpenCage

13/ Thanks for reading and sharing. What did we miss in our look at the #geoweirdness of the Lesser Antilles?

We’ll be back soon with more geoweirdness! Don’t forget to check out our previous threads (including threads about the Greater Antilles and British Overseas Territories) over on the blog:

https://blog.opencagedata.com/geothreads

Enjoy the weekend!

12 July at 13:52 | Open on en.osm.town