Les adjectifs composés English
Pour ce numéro, Vocable vous propose un extrait du nouvel ouvrage Grammar with anglo-saxon cultural stories des éditions Ellipses qui permet de réviser ses connaissances en grammaire anglaise tout en découvrant des faits culturels et historiques sur le Commonwealth. Un apprentissage contextualisé grâce à 49 courtes histoires réparties en 6 grandes parties thématiques qui immerge le lecteur dans la culture du Royaume-Uni, de l’Inde, de l’Australie mais aussi de l’Amérique du Nord.
Creole
The Caribbean Islands also called the Antilles or the West Indies, is a 7,000-island region situated between the Atlantic Ocean, the Caribbean Sea and the Gulf of Mexico, with breath-taking views. They are called Cuba, Puerto Rico, Jamaica, Martinique, Guadeloupe, Ste Lucia, and the Bahamas among many others. They are individual, unique and yet they share many characteristics in their history.
Natives
Before the 15th century, the West Indies were inhabited by natives being the Arawaks, the Taino or the Caribs principally. They were mainly fruit-gathering and game-hunting peoples but they also cultivated some starch and sugar-rich plants, like manioc for instance.
The imperial settlers
In 1492 a Genoa-born man, Christopher Columbus, was sent to discover new lands in the name of the monarchs of Spain, Isabel of Castile and Ferdinand of Aragon. He first set foot on Hispaniola (Santo Domingo). Shortly after, other Europeans arrived they were French, Portuguese, Dutch, and British. This region soon became a battlefield where all these Europeans fought to possess islands.
The African and Asian workforce
Besides, due to the high business interest in the sugar-cane cultivation, a labor-force became necessary. The triangle trade started; merchants left the harbors of Britain (Liverpool or Bristol), France (Nantes or Bordeaux), Spain or Amsterdam, sailed southward in African countries like Benin, Cameroon or Senegal. Once the slave-ships were loaded, they crossed the Atlantic Ocean and sold the slaves on the Caribbean markets. Asian indentured servants followed this arrival, mainly from India.