Caribbean Sea - marginal semi-enclosed sea basin of the Atlantic Ocean in the west and south is limited to Central and South America, from the north and east - large and small Antilles. In the north-west through the Yucatan Strait is connected to the Gulf of Mexico, south-west - with the Pacific Ocean through the Panama Canal artificial.
The Caribbean Sea lies between 9 ° and 22 ° with. sh. and between 89 ° and 60 ° west. village, an area of approximately 2,753,000 km ². In the south it is washed by Venezuela, Colombia and Panama, in the west - Costa Rica, Nicaragua, Honduras, Guatemala, Belize and Mexico's Yucatan peninsula, in the north - Cuba, Haiti, Jamaica and Puerto Rico to the east - the state of the Lesser Antilles ( see the list of Caribbean countries).
In the history of pre-Columbian settlement of islands in the Caribbean are three groups of people. People First Party (Paleo-Indians) came to the islands in 5000-2000 century BC. Oe. from Central or South America. The next group of migrants in 1000-500 years BC. Oe. from South America to the Greater Antilles and the island of Trinidad, has created mesoindeyskuyu or siboneyskuyu culture. A third group of nations that have emerged in the region were the Taino, who came in 300 BC. Oe. from South America to the island of Trinidad, and from there settled in Small and Greater Antilles, and then the Caribs, who migrated after 1000 Mr. Oe. from the area of the Orinoco Delta and supplanted aravakogovoryaschih Indians from Trinidad and the Lesser Antilles.
The last group of people and gave the modern name of the sea during its discovery by Europeans in the XV century. Interestingly, the first Spanish conquerors, have distorted the name of these tribes and began to call them "cannibals". New lands, which were called the West Indies, also often called the Spanish Antilles, by sea, so in some European languages are also used that name.