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103-536: The national park was established to provide protection to the biodiversity of the bank. The marine life there consists of humpback whales, sea turtles, over 200 species of fish, and many kinds of sea birds. The bank is highly valued to other close reefs, acting as a source of coral larvae and fish that then spread throughout nearby coral reefs in the region. In the past, the bank has been damaged by anchors from ships and tankers while loading oil, and began to deteriorate in color and size. The Saba Bank, several kilometers to

206-472: A UNEP report, the Caribbean coral reefs might get extinct in next 20 years due to population explosion along the coast lines, overfishing, the pollution of coastal areas and global warming. Some Caribbean islands have terrain that Europeans found suitable for cultivation for agriculture. Tobacco was an important early crop during the colonial era, but was eventually overtaken by sugarcane production as

309-578: A devastating impact on the population, so starting in 1503, slaves from Africa were imported to the colony. While early slave traders were Portuguese and Spanish, known as the First Atlantic System, by the 17th century the trade became dominated by British, French, and Dutch merchants. This was known as the Second Atlantic System. 5 million African slaves would be taken to the Caribbean, and around half would be traded to

412-541: A few still are, colonies of European nations; a few are overseas or dependent territories : The British West Indies were united by the United Kingdom into a West Indies Federation between 1958 and 1962. The independent countries formerly part of the B.W.I. still have a joint cricket team that competes in Test matches , One Day Internationals and Twenty20 Internationals . The West Indian cricket team includes

515-597: A purported hot-spring in one of the sinkholes that could have possibly seeped methane. About one-third of Saba Bank lies within the Saba territorial waters, a 12-nautical-mile (22 km) zone. Around it is an Exclusive Economic Zone of the Netherlands of 200 nautical miles (370 km) outside the coastal baseline , which replaced the Economic Fisheries Zone established before the dissolution of

618-574: A road on Saba, drastically improving transport on the island, which had been carried out only by foot or by mule previously. An airport followed in 1963, and a larger pier geared for tourist boats in 1972. As a result, tourism increased, gradually becoming a major part of the Saban economy. In 1978, Venezuela and the Kingdom of the Netherlands signed the maritime limits treaty that defined

721-746: Is St. Paul's Conversion Church in Windward, which dates back to 1860. Missionary activity, the arrival of immigrants from other parts of the Netherlands and other territories in the Caribbean and Europe made the Catholic Church the most popular denomination in the present day, as it represents nearly half of the population. Caribbean The Caribbean ( / ˌ k ær ɪ ˈ b iː ən , k ə ˈ r ɪ b i ən / KARR -ib- EE -ən, kə- RIB -ee-ən , locally / ˈ k ær ɪ b i æ n / KARR -ib-ee-an ; Spanish : el Caribe ; French : les Caraïbes ; Dutch : de Caraïben ),

824-617: Is a 35 hectares (86 acres) national park located on the north coast of Saba. Formerly owned by the Sulphur Mining Company, the park was established in January 1998 and the property was officially turned over to the Saba Conservation Foundation in 1999. It stretches from the coastline all the way up to the cloud forest, and encompasses all vegetation zones present on Saba. The coastline of Saba

927-822: Is a subregion in the middle of the Americas centered around the Caribbean Sea in the North Atlantic Ocean . Bordered by North America to the north, Central America to the west, and South America to the south, it comprises numerous islands , cays, islets, reefs, and banks. It includes the Lucayan Archipelago , Greater Antilles , and Lesser Antilles of the West Indies ; the Quintana Roo islands and Belizean islands of

1030-461: Is found on the island at lower levels, the small-leaved mahogany ( Swietenia mahagoni ). In the underbrush of the mahogany trees, the Sierran palm ( Prestoea montana ) and tree ferns dominate, with a large variety of epiphytes and Orchids growing on the trunks and branches of all the trees. Wild raspberries and plantain trees can also be found growing on most of the mountain. All seven of

1133-402: Is mostly rubble and rocky cliffs that are 100 metres (330 ft) or taller with mostly cobble and boulder permanent beaches. The steep terrain and sheer bluffs dropping almost straight down to the ocean's edge prevents the formation of mangrove swamps or much vegetation. There are eight bays tucked into the cliffs around the island; Cove Bay , Spring Bay, Core Gut Bay, Fort Bay (location of

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1236-419: Is now, flowing freshwater dissolved the limestone and created large holes. This first led to the formation of caves, which subsequently collapsed. Interestingly enough, these sinkholes that developed on land were subsequently submerged after the last ice age (20,000 years ago), when the sea level rose again. Later, researchers discovered that the sinkhole seemed to seep gas. Researchers then obtained coordinates of

1339-522: Is often used to describe a pirate operating in this region. The Caribbean region was war-torn throughout much of its colonial history, but the wars were often based in Europe, with only minor battles fought in the Caribbean. Some wars, however, were born of political turmoil in the Caribbean itself. In 1791, a slave rebellion in the French colony of Saint-Domingue led to the establishment in 1804 of Haiti ,

1442-667: Is questioned. Consistent dates of 3100 BC appear in Cuba . The earliest dates in the Lesser Antilles are from 2000 BC in Antigua . A lack of pre-ceramic sites in the Windward Islands and differences in technology suggest that these Archaic settlers may have Central American origins. Whether an Ortoiroid colonization of the islands took place is uncertain, but there is little evidence of one. DNA studies changed some of

1545-549: Is said to have sighted the island on 13   November 1493, however, he did not land, being deterred by the island's perilous rocky shores. In 1632, a group of shipwrecked Englishmen landed upon Saba. In the 1640s, the Dutch governor of the neighbouring island of Sint Eustatius sent several Dutch families over to colonise the island for the Dutch West India Company . In 1664, refusing to swear allegiance to

1648-700: Is the Christuskerk (Christ Church), of the Anglican denomination, which was renovated in 1777 after being damaged by a hurricane , and whose exact date of construction is unknown. In the same year, Pastor Kirkpatrick also requested permission from the Dutch commander Johannes de Graaff to officially establish the Anglican Church in Saba before that some locals used the Reformed Church of the Netherlands to celebrate their baptisms. Although

1751-497: Is the medium of instruction in Saba schools. Dutch government policy towards Saba and other SSS islands promotes English-medium education. English can therefore be used in communications of and to the government. Saban English is the local English vernacular spoken on the island. It has previously been described as a decreolized variety of Virgin Islands Creole English . The first dictionary of Saban English

1854-667: Is the top of a sea mount and it is a prime fishing ground, particularly for lobster. Saba became a special municipality within the country of the Netherlands after the dissolution of the Netherlands Antilles on 10 October 2010 and is not part of a Dutch province. The island's constitutional status, as well as those of Sint Eustatius and Bonaire , is set out in the Law on the Public Entities BES (Dutch: Wet op de Openbare Lichamen BES). Sabans vote for members of

1957-689: Is warm year round, in the 70s, 80s and 90s, and only varies from winter to summer about 2–5 degrees on the southern islands and about a 10–20 degrees difference on the northern islands of the Caribbean. The northern islands, like the Bahamas, Cuba, Puerto Rico and the Dominican Republic, may be influenced by continental masses during winter months, such as cold fronts. Aruba: Latitude 12°N Puerto Rico: Latitude 18°N Cuba: at Latitude 22°N Lucayan Archipelago Greater Antilles Lesser Antilles All islands at some point were, and

2060-469: The 2004 Haitian coup d'état , the US were accused by CARICOM of arranging it to remove elected Haitian leader Jean-Bertrand Aristide. In 1965, 23,000 US troops were sent to the Dominican Republic to quash a local uprising against military rule (see Dominican Civil War ). President Lyndon Johnson had ordered the invasion to stem what he deemed to be a "Communist threat." However, the mission appeared ambiguous and

2163-676: The Caribbean . The Caribbean is sometimes considered alongside Latin America as a region. Generally, the Caribbean region is organized into 33 political entities , including 13 sovereign states , 12 dependencies , 7 overseas territories , and various disputed territories . From 15 December 1954 to 10 October 2010, there was a territory known as the Netherlands Antilles composed of five islands, all of which were Dutch dependencies. From 3 January 1958 to 31 May 1962, there

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2266-825: The Caribbean Community . On the continental mainland of the Americas , the Caribbean coasts of Mexico , Central America, and South America, including the Yucatán Peninsula of Mexico, Bay Islands Department of Honduras, the North and South Caribbean Autonomous Regions of Nicaragua, the Limón Province of Costa Rica, Cartagena and Barranquilla in Colombia, Maracaibo and Cumaná in Venezuela, are considered part of Caribbean. As with

2369-455: The Caribbean Sea ). At that time, the six islands were part of an administrative entity called the Netherlands Antilles . The treaty recognizes an equidistant or median line between the Island of Aves and the Island of Saba as a maritime boundary . A status referendum was held in Saba on 5   November 2004, and 86.05% of the population voted for closer links to the Netherlands. This

2472-922: The Common Ground Dove , the Brown Noddy, the Least Sandpiper , and the Yellow-billed Tropicbird . The Audubon's Shearwater ( Puffinus lherminieri ) is another common bird, and is the national bird of Saba as well as being featured on their coat of arms . Being an island, Saba is home to a number of endemic species including the Saban black iguana ( Iguana iguana melanoderma ), Red-bellied racer ( Alsophis rufiventris ), Saban anole ( Anolis sabanus ), and Lesser Antillean funnel-eared bat ( Natalus stramineus stramineus ). However, several non-native species have settled on

2575-711: The Cuban Revolution of 1959, relations deteriorated rapidly leading to the Bay of Pigs Invasion , the Cuban Missile Crisis , and successive US attempts to destabilize the island, based upon Cold War fears of the Soviet threat. The US invaded and occupied Hispaniola for 19 years (1915–34), subsequently dominating the Haitian economy through aid and loan repayments. The US invaded Haiti again in 1994 . After

2678-468: The Dominican Republic and Puerto Rico , while the more seasonal dry tropical savanna climates are found in Cuba , northern Colombia and Venezuela , and southern Yucatán, Mexico . Arid climates are found along the extreme northern coast of Venezuela out to the islands including Aruba and Curacao , as well as the northwestern tip of Yucatán. While the region generally is sunny much of

2781-530: The Dutch House of Representatives , the members of which are elected on a party-list proportional method . During the 2017 Dutch general election , a majority of Sabans voted for Democrats 66 . Of the island's 2,000 residents, 900 were eligible to vote, and of those, 42.8% (or 385 people) voted. Sabans with Dutch nationality are allowed to vote in elections for the Electoral College to elect

2884-642: The Indian subcontinent and Asia ; as well as modern immigration from around the world. The region takes its name from the Caribs , an ethnic group present in the Lesser Antilles and parts of adjacent South America at the time of the Spanish conquest of the Americas . The two most prevalent pronunciations of "Caribbean" outside the Caribbean are / ˌ k ær ɪ ˈ b iː ə n / ( KARR -ə- BEE -ən ), with

2987-661: The Lesser Antilles Endemic Bird Area restricted-range birds occur in the Elfin Forest Reserve . Below the cloud forest is a sub-montane forest , and the variety and average number of species are considerably less. Redwood and Mountain fuchsia tree trees grow wild in this zone, as well as cactus species such as the prickly pear , and Seagrape trees . On the lowest southern and eastern slopes of Saba are grassy meadows and scattered shrubs. Saba National Land Park  [ nl ]

3090-784: The Monroe Doctrine , the United States gained a major influence on most Caribbean nations. In the early part of the 20th century this influence was extended by participation in the Banana Wars . Victory in the Spanish–American War and the signing of the Platt Amendment in 1901 ensured that the United States would have the right to interfere in Cuban political and economic affairs, militarily if necessary. After

3193-621: The Roman Catholic Church is currently very active on Saba, it did not establish itself on the island until quite late. One of the earliest contacts includes the visit of Père Labat in 1701. The island was also visited by the Prefect Apostolic of the Catholic Church for the Dutch Colonies in the Caribbean in 1836 Monsignor Martinus Niewindt, according to his report there was no Catholic priest to attend

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3296-620: The Saba University School of Medicine . Both English and Dutch are spoken on the island and taught in schools, and both languages are official. Despite the island's Dutch affiliation, English is the principal language spoken on the island and has been used in its school system since the 19th century. Dutch is spoken by 34% of the population, while English is spoken by over 96% of the population. The majority (67%) of Sabans speak more than one language, including English, Dutch, Spanish, Papiamento, and many others. English

3399-787: The Yucatán Peninsula ; and the Bay Islands , Miskito Cays , Archipelago of San Andrés, Providencia, and Santa Catalina , and Corn Islands of Central America. It also includes the coastal areas on the continental mainland of the Americas bordering the region from the Yucatán Peninsula in North America through Central America to the Guianas in South America. Situated largely on the Caribbean Plate ,

3502-538: The plantation system . [REDACTED] The oldest evidence of humans in the Caribbean is in southern Trinidad at Banwari Trace , where remains have been found from 7,000 years ago. These pre-ceramic sites, which belong to the Archaic (pre-ceramic) age, have been termed Ortoiroid . The earliest archaeological evidence of human settlement in Hispaniola dates to about 3600 BC, but the reliability of these finds

3605-417: The 17th century, Saba was believed to be a favourite hideout for Jamaican pirates . England also deported its "undesirable" people to live in the Caribbean colonies, and some of them also became pirates, a few taking haven on Saba. As the island's coast is forbidding and steep, the island became a private sanctuary for the families of smugglers and pirates. One notable Saban pirate was Hiram Beakes , son of

3708-954: The Bahamas and the Leeward Islands ; the Island Caribs and Galibi in the Windward Islands; and the Ciboney in western Cuba. The Taínos are subdivided into Classic Taínos, who occupied Puerto Rico and part of Hispaniola; Western Taínos, who occupied the Bahamian archipelago, Cuba, Jamaica , and part of Hispaniola; and the Eastern Taínos, who occupied the northern Lesser Antilles . The southern Lesser Antilles, including Guadeloupe , Dominica , and Trinidad, were inhabited by both Carib-speaking and Arawak-speaking groups. Soon after Christopher Columbus came to

3811-644: The British Caribbean islands. Slavery was abolished first in the Dutch Empire in 1814. Spain abolished slavery in its empire in 1811, with the exceptions of Cuba, Puerto Rico, and Santo Domingo. Slavery was not abolished in Cuba until 1886. Britain abolished the slave trade in 1807 , and slavery proper in 1833 . France abolished slavery in its colonies in 1848. The Caribbean was known for pirates , especially between 1640 and 1680. The term " buccaneer "

3914-419: The Caribbean in an effort to quell a rebellion after he had forcibly procured their lands for his Scottish noble supporters. Historically, Saba was traded among the many European nations that fought for power in the region. Slaves from Africa were also imported to work on Saba. In recent years Saba has become home to a large group of expatriates , and around 250 immigrants who are either students or teachers at

4017-608: The Caribbean itself, but according to the Dictionary of Caribbean English Usage , the most common pronunciation in Caribbean English stresses the first syllable instead, / ˈ k ær ɪ b i æ n / ( KARR -ih-bee-an ). The word "Caribbean" has multiple uses. Its principal ones are geographical and political. The Caribbean can also be expanded to include territories with strong cultural and historical connections to Africa, slavery , European colonisation and

4120-629: The Caribbean region varies: Some islands in the region have relatively flat terrain of non-volcanic origin. These islands include Aruba (which has minor volcanic features), Curaçao , Barbados , Bonaire , the Cayman Islands , Saint Croix , the Bahamas , and Antigua . Others possess rugged towering mountain-ranges like the islands of Saint Martin , Cuba , Hispaniola , Puerto Rico , Jamaica , Dominica , Montserrat , Saba , Sint Eustatius , Saint Kitts , Saint Lucia , Saint Thomas , Saint John , Tortola , Grenada , Saint Vincent , Guadeloupe , Martinique and Trinidad and Tobago . Definitions of

4223-421: The Caribbean, both Portuguese and Spanish explorers began claiming territories in Central and South America. These early colonies brought gold to Europe; most specifically England, the Netherlands, and France. These nations hoped to establish profitable colonies in the Caribbean. Colonial rivalries made the Caribbean a cockpit for European wars for centuries. Columbus, and the early colonists of Hispaniola, treated

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4326-426: The Dutch councillor of the island. In August 1857 Venezuela and The Netherlands submitted a dispute over the possession of Isla de Aves to arbitration by the Queen of Spain , because the Netherlands considered the island linked to its colony of Saba by a sand bank , and fishermen from St. Eustatius and Saba had used the place to harvest turtles and birds' eggs, while Venezuela argued that it had inherited

4429-425: The Dutch. Sea water was pumped into shallow ponds, producing coarse salt when the water evaporated. The natural environmental diversity of the Caribbean islands has led to recent growth in eco-tourism . This type of tourism is growing on islands lacking sandy beaches and dense human populations. Life expectancy in some countries of the Caribbean in 2022, according to estimation of the World Bank Group : At

4532-517: The English crown, these original Dutch settlers were evicted to St.   Maarten by Jamaican governors pirates Edward , Thomas , and Henry Morgan . The Netherlands eventually gained complete control of the island in 1816. In the 17th and 18th centuries, Saba's major industries were sugar , indigo , and rum produced on plantations owned by Dutchmen living on St. Eustatius, and later fishing , particularly lobster fishing. To work these plantations, enslaved people were imported from Africa. In

4635-423: The Netherlands Antilles . 17°02′N 63°25′W  /  17.033°N 63.417°W  / 17.033; -63.417 Saba (island) in the Caribbean Saba ( / ˈ s eɪ b ə / SAY -bə , Dutch: [ˈsaːbaː] ) is a Caribbean island and the smallest special municipality (officially " public body ") of the Netherlands . It consists largely of

4738-416: The Orinoco around 650 AD and another group, the Arauquinoid, expanded into these areas and up the Caribbean chain. Around 1300 AD a new group, the Mayoid, entered Trinidad and remained the dominant culture until Spanish settlement. At the time of the European discovery of most of the islands of the Caribbean, three major Amerindian indigenous peoples lived on the islands: the Taíno in the Greater Antilles ,

4841-432: The South American nation of Guyana , the only former British colony on the mainland of that continent. In addition, these countries share the University of the West Indies as a regional entity. The university consists of three main campuses in Jamaica, Barbados and Trinidad and Tobago, a smaller campus in the Bahamas and Resident Tutors in other contributing territories such as Trinidad. The Caribbean islands have one of

4944-436: The United States, Britain, France and the Netherlands still have some Caribbean possessions . The decline of the export industries meant a need to diversify the economies of the Caribbean territories. The tourism industry started developing in the early 20th century, rapidly developing in the 1960s when regular international flights made vacations affordable and is now a $ 50 billion industry. Another industry that developed in

5047-414: The United States. Between the 1960s and 80s, most of the British holdings in the Caribbean achieved political independence, starting with Jamaica in 1962 , then Trinidad and Tobago (1962), British Guiana (1966), Barbados (1966), the Bahamas (1973), Grenada (1974), Dominica (1978), St. Lucia (1979), St. Vincent (1979), Antigua and Barbuda (1981), and St. Kitts and Nevis (1983). Presently,

5150-419: The bank extends about 55 km (34 mi) southwest, with a least reported depth of 7.3 metres (24 ft) located about 15 km (9.3 mi), southwest of Mount Scenery . A depth of 8.2 metres (27 ft) lies about 16 km (9.9 mi) south of the island. The eastern side of the bank is fringed with a ridge of living coral , sand and rock, nearly 48 km (30 mi) in length. The depths over

5253-409: The bank, but ending abruptly in depths of 54.9 metres (180 ft). In depths of under 20 metres (66 ft), the bottom can be distinctly seen. In 2019, the Royal Netherlands Institute for Sea Research (NIOZ) and Wageningen Marine Research organized an expedition to the Saba Bank, close to the Dutch island of Saba. Expert researchers gathered data to acquire more knowledge about sinkholes. In 2018,

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5356-411: The coastal areas of the mainland, Belize , Panama , Guyana , Suriname , and French Guiana are often completely included within the Caribbean due to their strong political and cultural ties with the region. Geopolitically, the islands of the Caribbean are often regarded as a subregion of North America , though sometimes they are included in Middle America , or regarded as its own subregion as

5459-457: The dormant volcano Mount Scenery , which at 870 metres (2,854.3 ft) is the highest point of the entire Kingdom of the Netherlands . The island lies in the northern Leeward Islands portion of the West Indies , southeast of the Virgin Islands . Together with Bonaire and Sint Eustatius it forms the BES islands , also known as the Caribbean Netherlands . Saba has a land area of 13 square kilometres (5.0 sq mi). The population

5562-448: The earlier foraging inhabitants—presumably through disease or violence—as they settled new islands." Between 400 BC and 200 BC, the first ceramic-using agriculturalists, the Saladoid culture , entered Trinidad from South America. They expanded up the Orinoco River to Trinidad, and then spread rapidly up the islands of the Caribbean. Some time after 250 AD another group, the Barancoid, entered Trinidad. The Barancoid society collapsed along

5665-432: The early 20th century was offshore banking and financial services , particularly in The Bahamas and the Cayman Islands , as the proximity of the Caribbean islands to North America made them an attractive location for branches of foreign banks seeking to avail themselves of less complicated regulations and lower tax rates. The United States has conducted military operations in the Caribbean for at least 100 years. Since

5768-420: The extension of the Dutch and Venezuelan exclusive economic zone in two areas, the first between the islands of Aruba , Curaçao , and Bonaire (in front of the State of Falcon in Venezuela and next to the Los Monjes Archipelago ) and a second area further north that includes the islands of Saba and St. Eustatius, the latter taking as a reference the Isla de Aves (the northernmost point of Venezuela in

5871-682: The first humans is correlated with extinction of giant owls and dwarf ground sloths . The hotspot contains dozens of highly threatened animals (ranging from birds, to mammals and reptiles), fungi and plants. Examples of threatened animals include the Puerto Rican amazon , two species of solenodon (giant shrews) in Cuba and the Hispaniola island, and the Cuban crocodile . The region's coral reefs, which contain about 70 species of hard corals and from 500 to 700 species of reef-associated fishes have undergone rapid decline in ecosystem integrity in recent years, and are considered particularly vulnerable to global warming and ocean acidification. According to

5974-409: The first republic in the Caribbean. Neighboring Santo Domingo (now Dominican Republic ) would attain its independence on three separate occasions in 1821, 1844 and 1865. Cuba became independent in 1898 following American intervention in the War of Independence during the Spanish-American war . Following the war, Spain's last colony in the Americas, Puerto Rico , became an unincorporated territory of

6077-544: The fringe of the Atlantic Ocean and Caribbean Sea just to the north of the island of Puerto Rico, is the deepest point in all of the Atlantic Ocean. The region sits in the line of several major shipping routes with the Panama Canal connecting the western Caribbean Sea with the Pacific Ocean. The climate of the area is tropical , varying from tropical rainforest in some areas to tropical monsoon and tropical savanna in others. There are also some locations that are arid climates with considerable drought in some years, and

6180-399: The general depths of the surrounding sea floor. With a length of 60 to 65 km (37 to 40 mi) and a width of 30 to 40 km (19 to 25 mi), the atoll's total surface area is approximately 2,200 km (850 sq mi), and measures from 11–200 metres (36–656 ft) deep, 1,600 km (620 sq mi) of which is shallower than 50 metres (160 ft). From northeast,

6283-403: The indigenous peoples brutally, even enslaving children. In 1512, after pressure from Dominican friars, the Laws of Burgos were introduced by the Spanish Crown to better protect the rights of the New World natives. The Spanish used a form of slavery called the Encomienda , where slaves would be awarded to the conquistadors, who were charged with protecting and converting their slaves. This had

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6386-532: The island at that time. He returned in May of the same year with the Venezuelan priest Manuel Romero who had settled in Curaçao 1 year earlier for political reasons. Communication was difficult at first because neither of the two priests spoke English, Romero spoke only Spanish and Niewindt spoke only French and Dutch . In June 1836, the first Catholic mass on the island was officially celebrated in Saba, and five children were presented for baptism. The oldest Catholic Church on record and still functioning today

6489-455: The island from Spain which had discovered all the Caribbean islands , that the fishermen were not acting on behalf of any government but for a particular interest and that this island was not attached to the territory that the Netherlands had received. The Spanish decision of June 30, 1865, declared that the ownership of the Island belonged to Venezuela and that the Netherlands should nevertheless be compensated. It argued that even if

6592-435: The island governor and two commissioners appointed by the Island Council, currently both members of the WIPM. Each member of the Executive Council is assigned portfolios to oversee. The population of Saba (the Sabans ) was 2,010 in 2017. Saba's small size has led to a fairly small number of island families, who can trace their last names back to around a half-dozen families. This means that many last names are shared across

6695-501: The island is of particular value to sea birds, and has been designated an Important Bird Area (IBA AN006 – "Saba Coastline") by BirdLife International . Saba is home to about sixty species of birds, many of which are sea birds that use the holes and crevices of the steep cliffs and two small islands for breeding and feed in the waters around the island. Saba's shoreline is home to the Caribbean's largest breeding colony of Red-billed tropicbird ( Phaethon aethereus ). Other birds include

6798-418: The island of Barbados in the Lesser Antilles, are considered to be a part of the Caribbean despite not bordering the Caribbean Sea. All the islands in the Antilles , including the Lucayan Archipelago, form the West Indies , a term often interchangeable with the Caribbean . The archipelago of Bermuda is not part of the Caribbean, as it lies in the Sargasso Sea to the north, but it is an associate member of

6901-517: The island's centre. Off the north coast lies the much smaller Green Island . Saba is the northernmost active volcano in the Lesser Antilles Volcanic Arc chain of islands . At 887 metres (2,910 ft), Mount Scenery is also the highest point within the Kingdom of the Netherlands . The island is composed of a single rhombus -shaped volcano measuring 4.6 kilometres (2.9 mi) east to west and 4.0 kilometres (2.5 mi) north to south The oldest dated rocks on Saba are around 400,000 years old, and

7004-416: The island's government. The incumbent island governor is Jonathan G. A. Johnson . Saba's legislative body is the Island Council , of which there are five members. Councillors are elected by the citizens of the island every four years. The Island Council holds the power to: Following the 2023 island elections, the Windward Islands People's Movement (WIPM) holds three seats on the Island Council, while

7107-475: The island's only port), Tent Bay, Ladder Bay , Wells Bay and Cave of Rum Bay. Saba's coastline also includes the Flat Point Tide Pools , which were created by a large lava flow thousands of years ago. These tide pools are located below the airport at Flat Point, and feature large lava rock formations filled with colorful saltwater pools. The pools are home to diverse marine life, including small fish, sea urchins , crabs, and sea flora. The shoreline of

7210-407: The island's women. Throughout the late 19th   century and early 20th   century, the primary source of revenue for the island came from the lacework produced by these women. During this period of time, with most of the island's men gone out to sea for extended periods, the island became known as "The Island of Women". In 1943, Joseph "Lambee" Hassell, a self-taught engineer, began building

7313-451: The island, including the Underwood's spectacled tegu ( Gymnophthalmus underwoodi ), brahminy blind snake ( Indotyphlops braminus ), and non-native iguanas, all of which are believed to have arrived on cargo shipments from St. Maarten. About 4.3 kilometres (2.7 mi) southwest of the island is the northeastern edge of the Saba Bank , the largest submarine atoll in the Atlantic Ocean with an especially rich biodiversity. Saba Bank

7416-495: The island, the most numerous being Hassell, Johnson and Every; these three names are shared by upwards of 30% of Saba's population. Most families' ancestry is a result of the intermixing of Africans , Dutch , English , and Scottish . The population is also partly descended from the Irish who were exiled from that country after the accession of King Charles I of England, Scotland and Ireland in 1625. Charles exiled these Irish to

7519-645: The members of the Dutch Senate . The 2019 elections on Saba, held concurrently with the 2019 Island Council Elections resulted in four of the five Saban seats in the Electoral College going to the Windward Islands People's Movement and one seat going to the Saba Labour Party . The island governor is the head of the government of Saba. The Dutch monarch appoints the governor for a term of six years, and he or she falls under

7622-486: The most diverse eco systems in the world. The animals, fungi and plants, and have been classified as one of Conservation International 's biodiversity hotspots because of their exceptionally diverse terrestrial and marine ecosystems, ranging from montane cloud forests , to tropical rainforest , to cactus scrublands . The region also contains about 8% (by surface area) of the world's coral reefs along with extensive seagrass meadows, both of which are frequently found in

7725-412: The most recent eruption was shortly before the 1630s European settlement (280 years B.P. ). Between 1995 and 1997, an increase in local seismic activity was associated with a 7–12 °C (45–54 °F) rise in the temperature of the hot springs on the island's northwest and southeast coasts. There is an 8.6 hectares (21 acres) cloud forest located at and above 825 metres (2,707 ft) on top of

7828-549: The mountain referred to as the "Elfin Forest Reserve" because of its high altitude mist and mossy appearance. The most dominant tree in the cloud forest is the Mountain Mahogany ( Freziera undulate ), although hurricanes over the years have destroyed a large number of the mature trees. Despite the name, the mountain mahogany is not related to other mahogany species; although one species of true mahogany tree

7931-497: The new Party for Progress, Equality, and Prosperity held two. In 2019, Esmeralda Johnson was the youngest person ever to be elected to the council. Members of the Island Council are: The Executive Council, appointed by the Island Council, acts as the executive branch of government. The council has the following responsibilities: The council appoints the island secretary, currently Tim Muller. The council consists of

8034-466: The number of fungal species endemic to some Caribbean islands. For Cuba, 2200 species of fungi have been tentatively identified as possible endemics of the island; for Puerto Rico , the number is 789 species; for the Dominican Republic , the number is 699 species; for Trinidad and Tobago, the number is 407 species. Many of the ecosystems of the Caribbean islands have been devastated by deforestation , pollution, and human encroachment. The arrival of

8137-549: The peaks of mountains tend to have cooler temperate climates . Rainfall varies with elevation, size and water currents, such as the cool upwellings that keep the ABC islands arid. Warm, moist trade winds blow consistently from the east, creating both rain forest and semi arid climates across the region. The tropical rainforest climates include lowland areas near the Caribbean Sea from Costa Rica north to Belize , as well as

8240-643: The primary stress on the third syllable , and / k ə ˈ r ɪ b i ə n / ( kə- RIB -ee-ən ), with the stress on the second. Most authorities of the last century preferred the stress on the third syllable. This is the older of the two pronunciations, but the stressed-second-syllable variant has been established for over 75 years. It has been suggested that speakers of British English prefer / ˌ k ær ɪ ˈ b iː ə n / ( KARR -ə- BEE -ən ) while North American speakers more typically use / k ə ˈ r ɪ b i ə n / ( kə- RIB -ee-ən ), but major American dictionaries and other sources list

8343-615: The region has thousands of islands, islets , reefs , and cays . Island arcs delineate the northern and eastern edges of the Caribbean Sea : the Greater Antilles in the north and the Lesser Antilles , which includes the Leeward Islands , Windward Islands , and the Leeward Antilles , to the east and south. The nearby northwestern Lucayan Archipelago , comprising The Bahamas and the Turks and Caicos Islands , and

8446-551: The region's staple crop. Sugar was produced from sugarcane for export to Europe. Cuba and Barbados were historically the largest producers of sugar . The tropical plantation system thus came to dominate Caribbean settlement. Other islands were found to have terrain unsuited for agriculture , for example Dominica , which remains heavily forested. The islands in the southern Lesser Antilles , Aruba , Bonaire and Curaçao , are extremely arid, making them unsuitable for agriculture. However, they have salt pans that were exploited by

8549-409: The ridge range from 11 to 35 metres (36 to 115 ft). Westward of this ridge, except for a few 16.5-metre (54 ft) and 18.3-metre (60 ft) deep coral patches near the south side of the bank and a 16.4-metre (54 ft) deep patch near the west end of the bank, the bottom is clear white coral sand with depths from 21.9 to 36.6 metres (72 to 120 ft), gradually increasing towards the edge of

8652-487: The same group of researchers discovered more than 20 enormous holes ranging from 10 to 375 metres (33 to 1,230 ft) in depth and with diameters varying between 70 and 1,100 metres (230 and 3,610 ft). The floor of the Saba Bank consists of a limestone deposition 1 to 2 kilometres (0.62 to 1.24 mi) thick. When the bank lay above water during the ice ages and the sea level was 120 metres (390 ft) lower than it

8755-413: The shallow marine waters bordering the island and continental coasts of the region. For the fungi, there is a modern checklist based on nearly 90,000 records derived from specimens in reference collections, published accounts and field observations. That checklist includes more than 11,250 species of fungi recorded from the region. As its authors note, the work is far from exhaustive, and it is likely that

8858-421: The south of the island of Saba , covers more than 2,400 km (930 sq mi) and is therefore the largest protected nature area in the Netherlands. The bank lies completely underwater and is important from both a biological and economic perspective. The northeastern side of Saba Bank lies about 4.3 km (2.7 mi) southwest of the island of Saba. It is raised about 1,000 metres (3,300 ft) above

8961-589: The stress on the third syllable as more common in American English too. According to the American version of Oxford Online Dictionaries, the stress on the second syllable is becoming more common in UK English and is increasingly considered "by some" to be more up to date and more "correct". The Oxford Online Dictionaries claim the stress on the second syllable is the most common pronunciation in

9064-470: The supervision of the minister of the interior and kingdom relations . The island governor chairs meetings of both the Island Council and the Executive Council. They are also responsible for representing the island's government both in and out of court, maintaining public order, implementing policy and legislation, coordinating with other governments, and receiving and handling complaints about

9167-702: The terms Greater Antilles and Lesser Antilles often vary. The Virgin Islands as part of the Puerto Rican bank are sometimes included with the Greater Antilles. The term Lesser Antilles is often used to define an island arc that includes Grenada but excludes Trinidad and Tobago and the Leeward Antilles. The waters of the Caribbean Sea host large, migratory schools of fish, turtles, and coral reef formations. The Puerto Rico Trench , located on

9270-771: The time of European contact , the dominant ethnic groups in the Caribbean included the Taíno of the Greater Antilles and northern Lesser Antilles , the Island Caribs of the southern Lesser Antilles, and smaller distinct groups such as the Guanajatabey of western Cuba and the Ciguayo of eastern Hispaniola. The population of the Caribbean is estimated to have been around 750,000 immediately before European contact, although lower and higher figures are given. After contact, social disruption and epidemic diseases such as smallpox and measles (to which they had no natural immunity) led to

9373-538: The traditional beliefs about pre-Columbian indigenous history. According to National Geographic , "studies confirm that a wave of pottery-making farmers—known as Ceramic Age people—set out in canoes from the northeastern coast of South America starting some 2,500 years ago and island-hopped across the Caribbean. They were not, however, the first colonizers. On many islands they encountered a foraging people who arrived some 6,000 or 7,000 years ago...The ceramicists, who are related to today's Arawak -speaking peoples, supplanted

9476-411: The true total number of fungal species already known from the Caribbean is higher. The true total number of fungal species occurring in the Caribbean, including species not yet recorded, is likely far higher given the generally accepted estimate that only about 7% of all fungi worldwide have been discovered. Though the amount of available information is still small, a first effort has been made to estimate

9579-467: The two islands had been united, the sandbank was now separate from the island of Saba and that the first state to have a military force and to exercise sovereignty there had been Venezuela, which had inherited it from the Captaincy General of Venezuela . During that time, Saba lace , a Spanish form of needlework introduced by a nun from Venezuela, became an important product made by

9682-519: The visit of Christopher Columbus in 1493, but this did not mean the immediate arrival of the Catholic Church . It is believed that the first Christian groups to settle on the island were Protestants coming from the Netherlands in 1640. During the period of nominal Spanish domination , the island was included in the jurisdiction of the Diocese of Puerto Rico The oldest church on record

9785-506: The west of Barbados. The principal hurricane belt arcs to northwest of the island of Barbados in the Eastern Caribbean. A great example being recent events of Hurricane Irma devastating the island of Saint Martin during the 2017 hurricane season. Sea surface temperatures change little annually, normally running from 30 °C (87 °F) in the warmest months to 26 °C (76 °F) in the coolest months. The air temperature

9888-488: The wet and dry seasons. Seasonally, monthly mean temperatures vary from only about 5 C (7 F) in the northern most regions, to less than 3 C in the southernmost areas of the Caribbean. Hurricane season is from June to November, but they occur more frequently in August and September and more common in the northern islands of the Caribbean. Hurricanes that sometimes batter the region usually strike northwards of Grenada and to

9991-419: The year, the wet season from May through November sees more frequent cloud cover (both broken and overcast), while the dry season from December through April is more often clear to mostly sunny. Seasonal rainfall is divided into 'dry' and 'wet' seasons, with the latter six months of the year being wetter than the first half. The air temperature is hot much of the year, varying from 25 to 33 C (77 F to 90 F) between

10094-491: Was 1,911 in January 2022, with a population density of 147 inhabitants per square kilometre (380/sq mi). It is the smallest territory by permanent population in the Americas. Its towns and major settlements are The Bottom (the capital), Windwardside , Zion's Hill , and St. Johns . Theories about the origin of Saba's name include siba (the Arawakan word for 'rock'), sabot , sábado , and Sheba . The island

10197-571: Was also a short-lived political union called the British West Indies Federation composed of ten English-speaking Caribbean territories, all of which were then British dependencies. The modern Caribbean is one of the most ethnically diverse regions on the planet, as a result of colonization by the Spanish , English , Dutch , and French ; the Atlantic slave trade from Sub-Saharan Africa ; indentured servitude from

10300-547: Was duly achieved in October 2010, when the Netherlands Antilles was dissolved and Saba became a special municipality of the Netherlands . Saba is a small island at 13 square kilometres (5.0 sq mi) in size and roughly circular in shape. It lies north-west of Sint Eustatius and south-west of Saint Barthélemy and Sint Maarten . The terrain is generally mountainous, culminating in Mount Scenery volcano in

10403-410: Was published in 2016. Saba has a predominantly Christian population. The main denominations are Catholicism (45%), Non-denominational Christianity (18%), Anglicanism (9%), Evangelicalism (4%), and Pentecostalism 4%, with an additional 11% adhering to other Christian denominations. In addition, 6% of the population is Muslim . The first contact with Christians on the island occurred with

10506-427: Was referred to by its present name, Saba, as early as 1595 when it appeared in a voyage account by John Hawkins . Before its present name, the island was designated "St. Christopher" (San Cristóbal) by Christopher Columbus . Saba is thought to have been inhabited by the Ciboney people as early as the 1100s BC. Later, circa 800 AD, Arawak people from South America settled on the island. Christopher Columbus

10609-478: Was roundly condemned throughout the hemisphere as a return to gunboat diplomacy . In 1983, the US invaded Grenada to remove populist left-wing leader Maurice Bishop. The US maintains a naval military base in Cuba at Guantanamo Bay . The base is one of five unified commands whose "area of responsibility" is Latin America and the Caribbean. The command is headquartered in Miami, Florida. The geography and climate in

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