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Geography fun facts and oddities: Difference between revisions
→Atlantic islands
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=== Central America === | === Central America === | ||
=== Atlantic | === Atlantic & Caribbean === | ||
* '''Antilles''' | * '''Antilles''' | ||
* "Madeira" | * '''Caribbean''' | ||
** named for the Carib people that occupied southern portion of the Caribbean Sea | |||
** the Taino people were the original inhabitants of the region, including the Bahamas | |||
* '''Madeira''' | |||
** Atlantic island 350 miles west of Morocco | |||
* "madeira" means wood, as the islands had old-growth trees that the Portuguese used for ship building | |||
click EXPAND for more on Madeira | |||
<div class="mw-collapsible mw-collapsed"> | |||
** the ancient Greeks may have known of Madeira | |||
** the Vikings probably visited it between 9330 and 1030 AD | |||
* uninhabited when discovered in 1419 by a Portuguese vessel that was blown off course | |||
** by 1500 Madeira was one of the largest sugar producers in the world and 10% of its population were African slaves | |||
* Madeira is a Portuguese autonomous region (part of Portugal but self-governed) | |||
</div> | |||
=== Europe === | === Europe === | ||