Emerging Caribbean: A political Geography by Monique Bégot, Pascal Buléon, and Patrice Roth (review)

This book is an interesting addition to the geographic literature of the Caribbean. It contains a good combination of maps, diagrams, and text. Its landscape format (12.5 × 10.25 inches) permits large areas of the pages to be used for displaying the maps, which for the most part are very well designed, informative, and attractive. The general design makes it almost a coffee table book intended to reach a general audience.

The book is organized in five sections, that are titled “Situation,” (pp. 4–11) “The Power of the Sea,” (pp. 13–28) “Mosaic,” (pp. 29–44) “Stirrings,” (pp. 45–59) and “From One Resource to Another” (pp. 61–75). In this review I will summarize the individual content of each section, followed by general comments about the book.

The first chapter titled “Situation” is a brief introduction to the Caribbean region. This chapter attempts to present the different geographical definitions of the Caribbean. The book does not limit itself to any one definition, as the maps in all chapters vary their scale to show the Caribbean. However many of the maps contain the greater Caribbean region from the archipelago of The Bahamas all the way South to Trinidad to the greater Caribbean region including coastal parts of North, Central, and South America. A quote shows the problem of defining the Caribbean: “the Caribbean at different times has appeared continuous/ discontinuous, single/multiple, large/small; its boundaries are not clear cut but when one searches for them, their reality is confirmed” (p. 4).

The chapter shows a map of the relative geographic location of the Caribbean on a global scale as well by hemisphere. A second map shows the major mountain ranges in North America, the northern part of South America, as well as the deepest points in the ocean in the Caribbean region. Another map shows the 17^th and 18th century French, British and Spanish possessions. It also presents maps dedicated to the languages currently spoken in the Greater and Lesser Antilles. The section concludes with various hand drawn diagrams/maps that visually explain different versions of what the Caribbean may be interpreted as; for example a double ford between the Americas, the island archipelago, and the greater Caribbean region.

The emphasis in Chapter Two is on the Atlantic Ocean and the Caribbean Sea’s historical importance as trade lanes. Therefore chapter text and maps are tied with economic, political, and historical issues. There are five beautiful maps in this chapter. The first one shows the geographic shifting of the “Atlantic Mediterranean” over time beginning in the 9^th and ending in the 19th century. There is a second map of ports and seaways in the greater Caribbean, as well as a map showing Exclusive Economic Zones. A fourth map titled “Backyard of the United States” shows the military presence and political influence of the United States in the Caribbean. A final map shows the geographic extent and the impact of regional economic organizations such as the Caribbean Community (CARICOM) and the Organization of Eastern Caribbean States (OECS), as well as economic links to Europe and to the United States.

Chapter Three is mainly about cultural, socio-political and demographic aspects of the Caribbean. It addresses issues like diversity, divergence, independence and dependence, as well as demographic trends like population growth and density in the region. The maps in this chapter show the process of achieving political independence, regime and status, and population. The final map of the section shows regional Human Development Index (HDI) for 2005. The HDI is a composite index that combines health, education, and economic indicators onto one number between 0 and 1. This is perhaps the only map in the book that requires reading the text to understand it due to its more technical nature.

The fourth chapter, “Stirrings,” starts with a note about one of the...