==> The Virgin Islands are the western island group of the Leeward Islands, which are the northern part of the Lesser Antilles, which form the border between the Caribbean Sea and the Atlantic Ocean. Politically, the north-eastern islands form the British Virgin Islands and the south-western ones the United States Virgin Islands. <==
==>Christopher Columbus named the islands Santa Ursula y las Once Mil Virgenes, shortened to Las Virgenes, after Saint Ursula and her 11,000 virgins. They were inhabited by the Arawak, Carib and Cermic, all of whom died out during the colonial period from disease, harsh labor conditions, and genocide. <==
==> Later, the islands were re-populated by European colonists, who established sugar plantations (and at least one tobacco plantation) worked by slaves brought from Africa. The plantations are gone, but the descendants of the slaves remain the bulk of the population, sharing a common Afro-Caribbean heritage with the rest of the English-speaking Caribbean. <==