Note : This question was answered several times before, but it still remains with no definitive answers.
I understand that the British, French, and Spanish had good, large navies with warships fighting each other throughout most of the islands like Jamaica, Cuba, and Saint Domingue. As England, Spain, and France were countries that faced the Atlantic Ocean, of course they decided to try colonize the West Indies, but Portugal and The Netherlands also face towards the ocean, so why didn't they depart their navy's ships from their homeland all the way to the West Indies? (unless they had good sized navies). I'm also asking because I found out that the Dutch and British allied their navies together in order to fight in places around the Europe's Atlantic coastline (like Spain for example) would they have also tried to do the same thing in the West Indies?
Since you haven´t had much luck getting this answered, you could try contacting Alejandro de la Fuente, a Cuban professor at Harvard, who focuses on race but who also published an excellent book on early colonial Cuba. His e-mail is available online if you search for his staff page at Harvard. I wouldn´t go at it as "please give me a long explanation of this" so much as "this is what I am trying to figure out. Can you suggest any authors for me to look at?"
You would be surprised at the number of historians who are happy to jot out a few helpful lines for someone interested in their field of study. I have gotten responses from figures like Lars Schoultz and many Cuban historians teaching in the states despite writing them out of the blue.