The Caribbean (Dutch: Caraïben; French: Caraïbe or more commonly Antilles; Spanish: Caribe) is a region consisting of the Caribbean Sea, its islands and the surrounding coasts. The region comprises more than 7,000 islands, islets, reefs and cays located southeast of the Gulf of Mexico and North America, east of Central America and north of South America. Situated largely on the Caribbean plate, the region consists of the Antilles -- divided into the larger Greater Antilles, which bound the sea on the north, and the Lesser Antilles (including the Leeward Antilles) on the south and east -- and the Bahamas and Turks Caicos Islands (or the Lucayan Archipelago), which are actually in the Atlantic Ocean north of Cuba, not in the Caribbean Sea.

The region takes its name from that of the Carib, an ethnic group present in the Lesser Antilles and parts of adjacent South America at the time of European contact. These islands are also called the West Indies, because when Christopher Columbus landed in 1492, he believed he had reached the Indies (in Asia). Geo-politically, the West Indies are usually regarded as a subregion of North America and are organized into 27 territories including sovereign states, overseas departments and dependencies.

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