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Is it fair to characterize places such as Belize, the three Guianas, and Bermuda (as well as peninsular Florida, the Riviera Maya of Mexico, the Miskito Coast, and the Caribbean coasts of Costa Rica, Panama, Colombia, and Venezuela) as circum-Caribbean? Because all these areas are around the West Indies and have varying degrees of West Indian culture and/or are bordered by the Caribbean Sea; and Belize, the Guianas, and/or Bermuda are lumped in at various times with the actual West Indies.
Is it fair to characterize places such as Belize, the three Guianas, and Bermuda (as well as peninsular Florida, the Riviera Maya of Mexico, the Miskito Coast, and the Caribbean coasts of Costa Rica, Panama, Colombia, and Venezuela) as circum-Caribbean? Because all these areas are around the West Indies and have varying degrees of West Indian culture and/or are bordered by the Caribbean Sea; and Belize, the Guianas, and/or Bermuda are lumped in at various times with the actual West Indies.
The West Indies, Caribbean, and Antilles includes all the islands located in the Atlantic Western Hemisphere between North America and South America.
Technically it can include all lands that have an Atlantic Ocean coast or touch the Caribbean Sea.
Technically Guyana is not part of the West Indies because it is part of mainland South America and it does NOT even border or touch the Caribbean Sea.
Bermuda and Bahamas technically are not truly part of the Caribbean in terms of geographic locations and positioning!
How can Bermuda, which is off the coast of south and North Carolina, be considered part of the Caribbean?
Cape Hatteras, North Carolina, may be the nearest point on the mainland to Bermuda, but I like to think of Bermuda as sort of a transition between the Deep South and the British West Indies. On the one hand, Bermuda in many ways acts like a British West Indian island insofar as a) there's a black majority, b) it's a resort area with (sub)tropical vegetation and really nice beaches, c) it's frost-free, d) the roads and much of the scenery look like out of the Caribbean, and e) it's a tax haven much like the BVI and the Caymans. On the other hand, Bermuda is a) in the same latitude as Savannah, Georgia, or Charleston, S. Carolina, b) has winter weather that's not Caribbean-like (i.e. chilly gales and such - lowest highs can be 15C or a bit below), c) doesn't have a stereotypical Caribbean English accent, and d) is closer geographically to the Canadian Maritime Provinces (and all the US East Coast) than to the West Indies themselves. Sort of like how Buffalo, New York, is geographically in the Northeast and yet has more in common with Chicago, Detroit, or Cleveland than with Boston, NYC, Philadelphia, etc.
From what I've seen in many sources, it's about 60% black and 40% white (the latter including both those of British descent and a large Portuguese minority).
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