ABC islands (Lesser Antilles)

ABC Islands is the name for the islands of Aruba, Bonaire and Curacao, which geographically to South America, as they lie on the South American continental shelf. If one uses their order from west to east as sorting, but ACB would be correct as the label.

Aruba and Curacao are autonomous countries within the Kingdom of the Netherlands, Bonaire, however, heard as a special municipality directly to the Netherlands. Until October 10, 2010 Bonaire and Curaçao were part of the Netherlands Antilles, Aruba already separated in 1986 from the Netherlands Antilles.

Tourism is on the islands of the most important foreign exchange earner. The main political issue on almost all the islands of the West Indies is the rapid increase in population and unemployment related. Therefore, many young people leave the islands to find work in the Netherlands.

The island group is preceded by only a few kilometers away Venezuelan coast. They are like Trinidad and Tobago and the Venezuelan islands off the South American coast to the Leeward Islands, the southern part of the Lesser Antilles. This also gives conclusion on the climate, it is dry and desert -like, in contrast to the Leeward Islands.

On the ABC islands, the Creole language Papiamentu is spoken.