British Virgin Islands	United States Virgin Islands
Map of the Virgin Islands

Christopher Columbus named the islands Santa Ursula y las Once Mil Vírgenes (shortened to Las Vírgenes), after Saint Ursula and her 11,000 virgins. The British Virgin Islands ( BVI) is a British overseas territory, located in the Caribbean to the east of Puerto Rico. The United States Virgin Islands is a group of Islands in the Caribbean that are an Insular area of the United States. Christopher Columbus (1451 &ndash May 20 1506 was an Italian Navigator, colonizer This article is about the saint For schools by the same name see St They were inhabited by Arawak, Carib and Cermic Indians, all of whom died out during the colonial period from disease, harsh labor conditions, and murder. The term Arawak (from aru, the Lokono word for Cassava flour was used to designate the Amerindians encountered by the Spanish in Cariban languages Carib, Island Carib or Kalinago people after whom the Caribbean Sea was named live in the Lesser Antilles islands

The islands were later populated by Africans who were enslaved on sugar plantations, and on at least one tobacco plantation. Tobacco is an Agricultural product recognized as an addictive drug processed from the fresh Leaves of plants in the genus Nicotiana. Fundamentally a plantation is usually a large Farm or estate, especially in a tropical or semitropical country on which Cotton, Tobacco The sugar plantations are now gone, but the descendants of the slaves are still there, sharing a common Afro-Caribbean heritage with the rest of the English-speaking Caribbean. Fundamentally a plantation is usually a large Farm or estate, especially in a tropical or semitropical country on which Cotton, Tobacco

On both the British and the U. S. Virgin Islands, vehicles are driven on the left-hand side of the road, yet most cars on the islands have their steering wheels on the left side (as is the norm for drive-on-the-right localities). Also on both the British and the U. S. Virgin Islands, the United States dollar is the official currency. The United States dollar ( sign: $; code: USD) is the unit of Currency of the United States; it has also been

The islands in Vieques and Culebra to the east of Puerto Rico (and territorially part of it), are locally called the Spanish Virgin Islands. Vieques ( Spanish pronunciation: /'vjɛkɛs/ or /'bjɛkɛs/ or /'βjɛkɛs/ English pronunciation: or) in full Isla de Vieques, is an island Puerto Rico (ˌpwertoˈriko officially the Commonwealth of Puerto Rico ("Estado Libre Asociado de Puerto Rico" {{lang-en|"Associated Free State of Puerto Rico"}} The Spanish Virgin Islands (sometimes known as the Passage Islands are a group of islands just east of the main island of Puerto Rico

See also

• Culture of the Virgin Islands
• Music of the Virgin Islands
• Virgin Islands Creole

External links

• Virgin Islands National Park
• University of the Virgin Islands materials in the Digital Library of the Caribbean