Windward Islands - Definition and Overview

This article is about the Caribbean island group. There are also Windward Islands in the Society Islands in French Polynesia.

Windward Islands are the southern islands of the Lesser Antilles. They are called such because they are more windward than the Leeward Islands, given that the prevailing winds in the area blow north.

The name was also used to refer to a British colony in these islands, existing between 1833 and 1960 and consisting of the islands of Grenada, St Lucia, Saint Vincent, the Grenadines, Barbados (to 1885, when it became a separate colony), Tobago (to 1889 when it was joined to Trinidad), and Dominica (from 1940, when it was transferred from the Leeward Islands colony to the Windward Islands.)

The colony was known as the Federal Colony of the Windward Islands from 1871 to 1956, and the Territory of the Windward Islands from 1956 to 1960.

The Windward Islands:

• Martinique
• Saint Lucia
• Barbados
• Saint Vincent
• The Grenadines
• Grenada
• Trinidad
• Tobago