Jamaica

In 1494 explorer Christopher Columbus first set foot on a mountainous tropical island referred to by its Native American inhabitants-the Arawaks-as Xaymaca, or "land of wood and water." Later known as Jamaica, the island came under English control by the mid-1600s, and remained a British colony until gaining independence in 1962.

Today Jamaica, the third-largest island in the Greater Antilles, is the largest English-speaking island in the Caribbean.

With major exports ranging from sugar and bananas to bauxite and alumina, the country also enjoys a lively tourist trade from visitors to its spectacular tropical forests and warm, sandy beaches.