leeward exotic island 700.000 people

Leeward Islands, French Îles Sous-le-Vent, Spanish Islas de Sotavento, an arc of West Indian islands that constitute the most westerly and northerly of the Lesser Antilles, at the northeastern end of the Caribbean Sea, between latitudes 16° and 19° N and longitudes 61° and 65° W. The history of British, French, Spanish, and Dutch colonialism in the region has left its stamp on the islands’ language and culture as well as on many of the islands’ economies, which depend on trade and aid from former European administrative powers. The major islands are, from north to south, the United States Virgin Islands and British Virgin Islands (both geologically a part of the Greater Antilles); Anguilla; Saint Martin, an island that is partly French and partly Dutch; Saint-Barthélemy; Saba; Sint Eustatius; Saint Kitts and Nevis; Antigua and Barbuda; Montserrat; and Guadeloupe. Just south of this chain is the island country of Dominica, formerly administered by the British government as part of the Leewards but usually designated as part of the Windward Islands.