why are the Caribbean islands called west indies
Answers
The West Indies is a common term used to refer to the Caribbean islands. 'Indies' in the name West Indies indeed come from India.
Christopher Columbus set out to find a faster sea route to India in the late 15th century. He sailed west, from Spain, hoping that he would reach India without going around the cape of good hope. He landed in the Caribbean islands instead of his destination in Asia, but he thought that he had reached India and therefore called the place 'Indies'. Indies was the term used to refer to the south and south-east Asia at that time.
Later on, when they realized that the place they had landed was not India, they started referring to it as the 'West Indies' - in the meaning 'Indies to the west of Europe' - to differentiate it from the east Indies, i.e. the Indies that lay to the east of Europe, the actual Indies