The Caribbean is usually taken to include the number of widely scattered islands in the Caribbean Sea, as well as four neighbouring mainland territories which, for historical reasons, are closely associated with one or other of the island groups. The islands comprise: three Republics—Cuba, Haiti, and the Dominican Republic; three former British Colonies which have become independent countries within the Commonwealth during the last ten years, Jamaica (1962), Trinidad and Tobago (1962), and Barbados (1966), and a number of other islands which continue to have some level of dependent relationship with one or other of the ‘metropolitan’ countries including Britain (the Windward and Leeward Islands, the British Virgin Islands and the Bahamas); France (Martinique and Guadeloupe), the Netherlands (Curaçao, Aruba, Bonaire), and the United States of America(Puerto Rico and the U.S. Virgin Islands). The Mainland Territories include the independent Commonwealth country Guyana (formerly British Guiana and independent since 1966), French Guiana, Surinam (Dutch Guiana), and British Honduras.