CIA World FactBook

Carib Indians occupied the islands of the West Indies for hundreds of years before the...

In 1493, Christopher COLUMBUS named Saint Barthelemy for his brother Bartolomeo, but the island was...

Populated for centuries by aboriginal peoples, Puerto Rico was claimed by the Spanish Crown in...

Explored and settled by the Spanish in the 16th century, Panama broke with Spain in...

The Pacific coast of Nicaragua was settled as a Spanish colony in the early 16th...

The US claimed uninhabited Navassa Island in 1857 for its guano. Mining took place between...

English and Irish colonists from St. Kitts first settled on Montserrat in 1632; the first...

Europeans first saw Jamaica when Christopher COLUMBUS arrived in 1494, and the Spanish settled the...

Once part of Spain's vast empire in the New World, Honduras became an independent nation...

The native Taino -- who inhabited the island of Hispaniola when Christopher COLUMBUS first landed...

The Maya civilization flourished in Guatemala and surrounding regions during the first millennium A.D. After...