CARIBBEAN

the area of the Caribbean Sea , to the east of Central America, that includes islands such as Cuba, Jamaica, Puerto Rico, Trinidad, Tobago and Barbados. Many of these islands, sometimes called the West Indies , are members of the British Commonwealth . Most of the people living in the Caribbean are descended from African slaves taken there by people from Britain and other European countries in the 16th and 17th centuries. Since the 1950s, many people from these islands have come to live and work in Britain, and refer to themselves as West Indians or Afro-Caribbeans .