page_title: West Indies
section_title: Countries and territories by subregion and archipelago
hierarchical_section_title: West Indies / Countries and territories by subregion and archipelago
caption_attribution_description: Map of the Caribbean Sea and its islands.
context_page_description: The West Indies is a subregion of North America, surrounded by the North Atlantic Ocean and the Caribbean Sea that includes 13 independent island countries and 18 dependencies and other territories in three major archipelagos: the Greater Antilles, the Lesser Antilles, and the Lucayan Archipelago.
  The subregion includes all the islands in the Antilles, plus The Bahamas and the Turks and Caicos Islands, which are in the North Atlantic Ocean. Nowadays, the term West Indies is often interchangeable with the term Caribbean, although the latter may also include some North and South American mainland countries which have Caribbean coastlines.
caption: Political map of the West Indies
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