The Caribbean is situated largely on the Caribbean Plate, the region comprises around 7,000 islands, islets, reefs, and cays. These islands, called the West Indies, generally form island arcs that delineate the eastern and northern edges of the Caribbean Sea. The Caribbean is a region consisting of the Caribbean Sea, its islands (most of which enclose the sea), and the surrounding coasts. The region is located southeast of the Gulf of Mexico and Northern America, east of Central America, and to the north of South America. These islands are called the West Indies because when Columbus landed here in 1492 he believed that he had reached the Indies (in Asia).

After reportedly landing in the Bahamas, Christopher Columbus named these islands the Indies, because Columbus thought he had finally reached Asia (and the East Indies).

The region consists of the Antilles, divided into the larger Greater Antilles which bound the sea on the north and the Lesser Antilles on the south and east and including the Leeward Antilles, and the Bahamas and the Turks and Caicos Islands, which are in fact in the Atlantic Ocean north of Cuba, not in the Caribbean Sea.

Long called the West Indies, the overall area is now commonly referred to as the Caribbean, a name that became popular after World War II.

Geo-politically, the West Indies are usually regarded as a sub-region of North America and are organized into 27 territories including sovereign states, overseas departments, and dependencies. At one time, there was a short-lived country called the Federation of the West Indies composed of ten English-speaking Caribbean territories, all of which were then UK dependencies.