Virgin Islands
American Heritage Dictionary:
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Virgin Islands
(Abbr. V.I.) A group of islands of the northeast West Indies east of Puerto Rico. They are divided politically into the British Virgin Islands to the northeast and the Virgin Islands of the United States to the southwest. The islands were first sighted and named by Christopher Columbus in 1493.
Oxford Dictionary of British History:
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Virgin Islands
A group east of Puerto Rico, shared between Britain and the USA. The British islands form a crown colony. They were visited and named by Columbus but colonized by the English from the later 17th cent.
Columbia Encyclopedia:
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Virgin Islands
Virgin Islands, group of about 100 small islands, West Indies, E of Puerto Rico. The islands are divided politically between the United States and Great Britain. Although constituting the westernmost part of the Lesser Antilles, the Virgin Islands form a geological unit with Puerto Rico and the Greater Antilles; they are of volcanic origin overlaid with limestone. The islands are subject to sometimes severe hurricanes between August and October and suffer from light earthquakes. The water supply is almost completely dependent on rainfall and is preserved in cisterns; some water also comes from desalinization plants. The tropical climate, with its cooling northeast trade winds, and the picturesque quality of the islands, enhanced by their Old World architecture, have encouraged a large tourist trade. The population is predominantly of African descent and the main religion is Protestantism. English and some Spanish and Creole are spoken. The islands were first visited by Europeans when Columbus landed on St. Croix in 1493.
The Virgin Islands of the United States
The Virgin Islands of the United States (2010 pop. 106,405), 133 sq mi (344 sq km), are a U.S. territory. Although 68 islands comprise the group, only the three largest-St. Croix (80 sq mi/207 sq km), St. Thomas (32 sq mi/83 sq km), and St. John (20 sq mi/52 sq km)-are of importance. St. Thomas is mountainous and encloses many snug harbors and bays. Charlotte Amalie, the capital and the chief port, is on St. Thomas; it has one of the finest harbors in the Caribbean. Tourism, especially the cruise-ship trade, is the main source of income on St. Thomas. St. Croix, with less mountainous terrain, has an economy that depends in large part on tourism, but petroleum refining and manufacturing are also important. Food crops are raised; sugarcane is no longer grown, but rum is still distilled. The towns of Christiansted and Frederiksted are on St. Croix. The Virgin Islands National Park covers much of St. John. Cattle are raised on all three islands. The Univ. of the Virgin Islands has campuses on St. Thomas and St. Croix. Under a law passed in 1954, the islands are administered by the U.S. Dept. of the Interior. There is a 15-seat Senate, whose members are elected for two-year terms, and a governor, who is elected for a four-year term.
Settlement of St. Thomas was begun by the Danish West India Company in 1672; St. John was claimed by Denmark in 1683, and St. Croix was purchased from France in 1733. The islands became a Danish royal colony in 1754. In 1801, and again from 1807 to 1815, the islands were in British hands. They were purchased from Denmark in 1917 for $25 million because of their strategic position alongside the approach to the Panama Canal. Since 1927, residents have enjoyed U.S. citizenship, and since 1973 they have been represented in the U.S. House of Representatives by a nonvoting delegate. John deJongh was elected governor in 2006 and reelected in 2010.
The British Virgin Islands
Immediately to the northeast of the U.S. Virgin Islands are the British Virgin Islands, officially the Virgin Islands, a British dependency (2005 est. pop. 22,600), 59 sq mi (153 sq km). There are more than 30 islands; 16 are inhabited. The principal ones are Tortola, Anegada, and Virgin Gorda. Road Town, the capital, is on Tortola. Tourism, light industry, and offshore financial services are the most important economic activities. Britain acquired the islands from the Dutch in 1666. Granted autonomy in 1967, they are governed under the constitution of 2007. There is a unicameral House of Assembly whose 13 voting members are elected to four-year terms. The government is headed by a premier, and the monarch of Great Britain and Northern Ireland, represented by a governor, is the head of state.
Bibliography
See H. W. Hannau, The Virgin Islands: St. Thomas, St. Croix, St. John (1965); E. A. O'Neill, Rape of the American Virgins (1972); W. W. Boyer, America's Virgin Islands (1983); I. Dookhan, A History of the Virgin Islands of the United States (1974, repr. 1994).
Dictionary of Cultural Literacy: Geography:
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Virgin Islands
Islands in the Caribbean Sea, east of Puerto Rico, owned by the United States and Britain.
- Christopher Columbus discovered the Virgin Islands in 1493.
Wikipedia on Answers.com:
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Virgin Islands
For other uses, see Virgin Islands (disambiguation).
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Coordinates: 18°5′37″N 64°49′49″W / 18.09361°N 64.83028°W The Virgin Islands are the eastern island group of the Leeward Islands, which are the northern part of the Lesser Antilles, which form the border between the Caribbean Sea and the Atlantic Ocean. Politically, the eastern islands form the British Virgin Islands and the western ones form the United States Virgin Islands.
The British Virgin Islands is an overseas territory of the United Kingdom comprising Tortola, Virgin Gorda, Jost Van Dyke, and Anegada to the northeast. The United States Virgin Islands is an unincorporated territory of the United States comprising St. Croix to the south, with St. John, St. Thomas, and Water Island. The Virgin Passage separates the U.S. Virgin Islands from the "Passage Islands" or sometimes called the Spanish Virgin Islands, Vieques and Culebra, which are the easternmost islands of Puerto Rico. The United States dollar is the official currency on both the British and U.S. Virgin Islands.
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History
See also: Danish West Indies, History of the United States Virgin Islands, and History of the British Virgin Islands
Christopher Columbus named the islands Santa Ursula y las Once Mil Vírgenes, shortened to Las Vírgenes, after Saint Ursula and her 11,000 virgins. They were inhabited by the Arawak, Carib, and Cermic, all of whom perished during the colonial period through enslavement, foreign disease, and mass suicide.
European colonists later settled here and established sugar plantations, at least one tobacco plantation, and purchased slaves kidnapped from Africa. The plantations are gone, but the descendants of the slaves remain the bulk of the population, sharing a common African-Caribbean heritage with the rest of the English-speaking Caribbean.
In 1916 and 1917, Denmark and the U.S., respectively, ratified a treaty in which Denmark sold the Danish West Indies to the United States of America for $25 million in gold.
Name
Columbus gave the islands the fanciful name Santa Ursula y las Once Mil Vírgenes (Saint Ursula and her 11,000 Virgins), shortened to Las Vírgenes (The Virgins), after the legend of Saint Ursula.
The official name of the British Virgin Islands is simply the Virgin Islands, and the official name of the United States Virgin Islands is the Virgin Islands of the United States. In practice, the two island groups are almost universally referred to as the British Virgin Islands and the United States Virgin Islands, to distinguish them from one another.
Main article: Spanish Virgin Islands
A 1990s tourist campaign re-christened the Passage Islands as the Spanish Virgin Islands,[citation needed] though they are seldom[clarification needed] identified as such on maps and atlases.[citation needed] They are part of the Commonwealth of Puerto Rico, located east of the main island of Puerto Rico. However, they are geographically part of the Virgin Islands chain.[1] They are closer to St. Thomas than St. Thomas is to St. Croix, which are both part of the United States Virgin Islands.
Traffic control
Motor vehicles are driven on the left-hand side of the road in both the British and the U.S. Virgin Islands, although the steering wheels on most cars are located on the left side (as is the norm for drive-on-the-right localities).
See also
- American Virgin Islands
- Culture of the Virgin Islands
- British Virgin Islands
- Dutch Virgin Islands
- Danish West Indies
- Lesser Antilles
- Music of the Virgin Islands
- Spanish Virgin Islands
- Virgin Islands Creole
References
- ^ "Casa Las Palmas". http://www.culebra-caribbean.com/. Retrieved March 7, 2007.
External links
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Copyrights:
American Heritage Dictionary
The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition Copyright © 2007, 2000 by Houghton Mifflin Company. Updated in 2007. Published by Houghton Mifflin Company. All rights reserved.
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Oxford Dictionary of British History
A Dictionary of British History. Copyright © 2001, 2004 by Oxford University Press. All rights reserved.
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Columbia Encyclopedia
The Columbia Electronic Encyclopedia, Sixth Edition Copyright © 2012, Columbia University Press. Licensed from Columbia University Press. All rights reserved. www.cc.columbia.edu/cu/cup/.
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Dictionary of Cultural Literacy: Geography
The New Dictionary of Cultural Literacy, Third Edition Edited by E.D. Hirsch, Jr., Joseph F. Kett, and
James Trefil. Copyright © 2002 by Houghton Mifflin Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin. All rights reserved.
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