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Virgin Islands

Virgin Islands

U.S. Virgin Islands

British Virgin Islands

The Virgin Islands are the western island group of the Leeward Islands, which are the northern part
of the Lesser Antilles, and 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 Virgin
Islands of the United States. The British Virgin Islands is an overseas territory of the United
Kingdomcomprising Tortola, Virgin Gorda, Jost Van Dyke and Anegada.
The U.S. Virgin Islands is one of five inhabited insular areas of the United States, along
with American Samoa, Guam, Northern Mariana Islands, and Puerto Rico. The territory
comprises St. Croix, St. John, St. Thomas and Water Island. The Virgin Passage separates the U.S.
Virgin Islands from the Spanish Virgin Islands of Vieques and Culebra, which are part of Puerto
Rico. The United States dollar is the official currency on both the British and U.S. Virgin Islands as
well as the Spanish/Puerto Rican Virgin Islands.
Etymology


The locations of the US and UK Virgin Islands


Rigobert Bonne: Map of the Virgin Islands, 1780
Christopher Columbus named the islands after Saint Ursula and the 11,000 Virgins (Spanish: Santa
rsula y las Once Mil Vrgenes), shortened to the Virgins (las Vrgenes). The official name of the
British territory is the Virgin Islands, and the official name of the U.S. territory 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 U.S. Virgin Islands.
History
The Virgin Islands were originally inhabited by the Arawak, Carib, and Cermic, all of whom are
thought to have perished during the colonial period due to enslavement, foreign disease, and mass
extermination
[citation needed]
brought by European colonists.
European colonists later settled here and established sugar plantations, at least
one tobacco plantation, and purchased slaves acquired 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.
In the 1990s a Puerto Rican tourism campaign renamed 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.
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). Only on the Spanish Virgin Islands are vehicles driven on the right-hand
side of the road.

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