Lesser Antilles

The Lesser Antilles are a chain of islands at the eastern edge of the Caribbean Sea, part of the West Indies, arcing from east of Puerto Rico through the Leeward and Windward Islands toward South America before curving west along the coast of Venezuela. The chain today holds eight independent nations and seventeen dependent territories governed by France, the Netherlands, the United Kingdom, the United States and Venezuela. Most of the islands were built by volcanic activity from the subduction of the oceanic crust of the South American plate beneath the Caribbean plate, making the chain a volcanic island arc. Barbados and Trinidad are exceptions, continental islands outside the volcanic arc that are still sometimes grouped with the Windward Islands.