The Bahamas - History

The story of the Bahamas is a singular one, and bears principally upon the fortunes of New Providence, which, from the fact that it alone possesses a perfectly safe harbour for vessels drawing more than 9 feet, has always been the seat of government when it was not the headquarters of lawlessness.

In 1492, Christopher Columbus made his first landfall in the Western Hemisphere in The Bahamas. The Bahamas was one of the few areas in the region in which the Arawak people were not displaced by the more warlike Caribs. When, in 1492, Christopher Columbus made his first landing in the New World in The Bahamas, the people who met him were Arawaks who, he wrote, ‘have opened their hearts to us. We have become great friends.’

San Salvador claims historical precedence as the landfall of Columbus on his memorable voyage. Cat Island was long supposed to be the island first reached by Columbus (12th October 1492) and named by him San Salvador. Then the distinction was successively transferred to the neighbouring Watling, Great Turk, and Mariguana; but in 1880 the American marine surveyor, G. V. Fox, identified San Salvador, on seemingly good grounds, with Samana (Atwood Cay), which lies about midway between Watling and Mariguana. The chief difficulty is its size, for, if Samana is the true San Salvador, it must have been considerably larger then than now. Watling Island was generally accepted as the landfall.

Spanish slave traders later captured native Lucayan Indians to work in gold mines in Hispaniola, and within 25 years, all Lucayans perished. In 1647, a group of English and Bermudan religious refugees, the Eleutheran Adventurers, founded the first permanent European settlement in The Bahamas and gave Eleuthera Island its name. Similar groups of settlers formed governments in The Bahamas until the islands became a British Crown Colony in 1717.

The late 1600s to the early 1700s were the golden age for pirates and privateers. Many famous pirates and privateers--including Sir Francis Drake and Blackbeard--used the islands of The Bahamas as a base. The numerous islands and islets with their complex shoals and channels provided excellent hiding places for the plundering ships near well-traveled shipping lanes. The first Royal Governor, Woodes Rogers, brought law and order to The Bahamas in 1718 when he expelled the buccaneers.

During the American Revolution, American colonists loyal to the British flag settled in The Bahamas. When the American colonies won their independence, some British loyalists from the southeastern United States chose to leave and settle in the British-held Bahamas. These Loyalists and new settlers from Britain brought Colonial building skills and agricultural expertise. Until 1834, when Britain abolished slavery, they also brought slaves, importing the ancestors of many modern Bahamians from Western Africa.

Proximity to the U.S. continued to provide opportunity for illegal shipping activity. In the course of the American Civil War, The Bahamas prospered as a center of Confederate blockade-running. During Prohibition, the islands served as a base for American rumrunners. Today, The Bahamas is a major transshipment point for narcotics on the way to the U.S.

Bahamians achieved self-government through a series of constitutional and political steps, attaining internal self-government in 1964 and full independence within the Commonwealth on July 10, 1973. Since independence, The Bahamas has continued to develop into a major tourist and financial services center.