Caribbean Sea

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The Caribbean Sea is a tropical body of water adjacent to the Atlantic Ocean and southeast of the Gulf of Mexico. It covers most of the Caribbean Plate and is bounded on the south by Venezuela, Colombia, and Panama, to the west by Costa Rica, Nicaragua, Honduras, Guatemala, Belize, and the Yucatan peninsula of Mexico, to the north by the Greater Antilles islands of Cuba, Hispaniola (Dominican Republic, Haiti), Jamaica, and Puerto Rico, and to the east by the Lesser Antilles.

The Caribbean Sea is one of the largest salt water seas and has an area of about 2,754,000 km² (1,063,000 square miles). The sea's deepest point is the Cayman Trench, between Cuba and Jamaica, at 7500 m (25,000 feet) below sea level.

The entire area of the Caribbean Sea, especially the numerous islands (Also referred to as the Antilles), is known as the Caribbean.

During the Haitian Revolution, the fighters for independence had little capacity in terms of sea vessels, even though they had to fight at one point or another the armies of France, Great Britain and Spain, all of them naval powers at the time.

Windward Passage

The Windward Passage is a strait in the Caribbean Sea, between the islands of Cuba and Hispaniola (Haiti and Dominican Republic). 80km wide, the Windward Passage has a threshold depth of 1,700m.
It connects the Atlantic Ocean to the Caribbean Sea, and is in the direct path of shipping between the Panama Canal and the eastern seaboard of the United States. From either the eastern tip of the Guantánamo Province of Cuba, or the western tip of Haiti's Nord-Ouest Department, it is possible to see lights on the other side of the Windward Passage.

See also

  • The Haitian Revolution at Sea - Notes by Stuart Maxwell of 2004 presentation by Julius Scott, University of Michigan.
  • Quasi War - Naval battles between the U.S. and France, largely fought in the Caribbean Sea.


Reference

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