Leeward Islands (Caribbean) - List of the Leeward Islands, British colonial entity

Island group of the Lesser Antilles in the Caribbean Sea, N of the Windward Is; from the Virgin Is (N) to Dominica (S); sheltered from the NE prevailing winds; the name was formerly used by the Spanish to include the Greater Antilles; also formerly the name of a British colony comprising Anguilla, Antigua and Barbuda, British Virgin Is, Montserrat, St Kitts and Nevis.

This article is about the Caribbean island group. For the western Society Islands in French Polynesia, see Leeward Islands (Society Islands); Thus, the Leeward Islands are downwind, on the backside of, or leeward of, the easternmost Windward Islands, the group of islands that first meet the trade winds coming from the east.

The division between the Windward and Leeward Islands is different in English than it is in some other languages, notably French (Îles sous-le-vent), Spanish (Islas de Sotavento), German and Dutch (Benedenwindse Eilanden). the Leeward Islands are not to be confused with the Leeward Antilles just north of Venezuela. In Spanish, the islands between the Virgin Islands south to, and including, Trinidad and Tobago are called the "Windward Islands", while only the islands off Venezuela are called the "Leeward Islands".

To add even more to the confusion, in the English spoken locally (for instance on the SSS Islands) the islands of the Leeward Islands from the Virgin Islands to Dominica are called the Windward Islands, just like the other Windward Islands.

List of the Leeward Islands

The Virgin Islands Anguilla St. Martin/Maarten (Guadeloupe (north part) and Netherlands Antilles (south part)) Saba (Netherlands Antilles) Sint Eustatius (Netherlands Antilles) Saint Barthélemy Antigua Barbuda Saint Kitts Nevis Montserrat Guadeloupe Dominica

The tiny and remote Isla Aves may perhaps be included with this group for convenience.

British colonial entity

The name Leeward Islands also designates a British colony on several of these islands (analogous to one on the British Windward Islands), consisting of Antigua, Barbuda, the British Virgin Islands, Montserrat, Saint Kitts, Nevis, Anguilla and (to 1940) Dominica, from 1671 to 1816 and again from 1833 to 1960.

The colony was known as the Federal Colony of the Leeward Islands from 1871 to 1956 and the Territory of the Leeward Islands from 1956 to 1960.

The "Leeward Islands" is still the title of one of the Caribbean First-class cricket sides.

Postage stamps

The British Leeward Islands - Antigua, Dominica, Montserrat, Nevis, St. Christopher (St. Kitts), and the Virgin Islands all used postage stamps inscribed "LEEWARD ISLANDS" between 1890 and 1 July 1956, often concurrently with stamps inscribed with the colony's name.

The common design commemorative stamps of the Commonwealth between 1946 and 1949 included stamps inscribed "LEEWARD ISLANDS".