The Bahamas 
i, officially the
Commonwealth of the Bahamas, is an
island country of the
Lucayan Archipelago consisting of more than 700
islands,
cays, and
islets in the
Atlantic Ocean; north of
Cuba and
Hispaniola (
Haiti and the
Dominican Republic); northwest of the
Turks and Caicos Islands; southeast of the US state of
Florida and east of the
Florida Keys.
Its capital is
Nassau on the island of
New Providence.
The designation of "Bahamas" can refer to either the country or the larger island chain that it shares with the
Turks and Caicos Islands.
As stated in the mandate/manifesto of the
Royal Bahamas Defence Force, the Bahamas territory encompasses 470,000 km
2 (180,000 sq mi) of ocean space.
Originally inhabited by the
Lucayan, a branch of the
Arawakan-speaking
Taino people, the Bahamas were the site of
Columbus' first landfall in the
New World
in 1492.
Although the Spanish never colonised the Bahamas, they shipped
the native Lucayans to slavery in Hispaniola.
The islands were mostly
deserted from 1513 until 1648, when
English colonists from
Bermuda settled on the island of
Eleuthera.
The Bahamas became a
British Crown colony in 1718, when the British clamped down on
piracy.
After the
American War of Independence, the Crown resettled thousands of
American Loyalists
in the Bahamas; they brought their slaves with them and established
plantations on land grants.
Africans constituted the majority of the
population from this period.
The Bahamas became a haven for freed
African slaves: the
Royal Navy
resettled Africans here liberated from illegal slave ships; American
slaves and Seminoles escaped here from Florida; and the government freed
American slaves carried on United States domestic ships that had
reached the Bahamas due to weather.
Slavery in the Bahamas was abolished
in 1834.
Today
the descendants of slaves and free Africans make up nearly 90% of the population; issues related to the slavery years are part of society.
The Bahamas became an independent
Commonwealth realm in 1973, retaining
Queen Elizabeth II as its monarch.
In terms of
gross domestic product per capita, the Bahamas is one of the richest countries in the
Americas (following the United States and Canada). Its economy is based on tourism and finance.
[9]
| Commonwealth of the Bahamas |
|---|
|
|
| Motto: "Forward, Upward, Onward, Together" |
Anthem: March On, Bahamaland
Royal anthem: God Save the Queen a |
|
|
Capital
and largest city |
Nassau
 25°4′N 77°20′W |
| Official languages |
English |
| Ethnic groups ([1]) |
|
| Demonym |
Bahamian |
| Government |
Unitary parliamentary
constitutional monarchy[2][3] |
| • |
Monarch |
Elizabeth II |
| • |
Governor-General |
Marguerite Pindling |
| • |
Prime Minister |
Perry Christie |
| Legislature |
Parliament |
| • |
Upper house |
Senate |
| • |
Lower house |
House of Assembly |
| Independence |
| • |
from the United Kingdom |
10 July 1973[4] |
| Area |
| • |
Total |
13,878 km2 (160th)
5,358 sq mi |
| • |
Water (%) |
28% |
| Population |
| • |
2014 estimate |
321,834[5] (177th) |
| • |
1990 census |
254,685 |
| • |
Density |
23.27/km2 (181st)
60/sq mi |
| GDP (PPP) |
2012 estimate |
| • |
Total |
$11.055 billion[6] |
| • |
Per capita |
$31,382[6] |
| GDP (nominal) |
2012 estimate |
| • |
Total |
$8.043 billion[6] |
| • |
Per capita |
$22,832[6] |
| Gini (2001) |
57[7]
high |
| HDI (2014) |
 0.790[8]
high · 55th |
| Currency |
Bahamian dollar (BSD)
(US dollars widely accepted) |
| Time zone |
EST (UTC−5) |
| • |
Summer (DST) |
EDT (UTC−4) |
| Drives on the |
left |
| Calling code |
+1 242 |
| ISO 3166 code |
BS |
| Internet TLD |
.bs |
Etymology
The name
Bahamas is derived from either the Taino ba ha ma
("big upper middle land"), which was a pronoun for the region used by
the indigenous Amerindians,
[10] while other theories suggest it derives from the Spanish
baja mar ("shallow water or sea" or "
low tide") reflecting the shallow waters of the area.
Alternatively it may originate from
Guanahani, a local name of unclear meaning.
[11]
In English, the Bahamas is one of only two countries whose self-standing short name begins with the word "the", along with
the Gambia.
[12]
History
A depiction of Columbus' first landing, claiming possession of the
New World for Spain in
caravels; the
Niña and the
Pinta, on Watling Island, an island of The Bahamas that the natives called
Guanahani and that he named
San Salvador, on October 12, 1492.
[13]
Taino people moved into the uninhabited southern Bahamas from
Hispaniola and
Cuba around the 11th century, having migrated there from South America.
They came to be known as the
Lucayan people.
An estimated 30,000 Lucayan inhabited the Bahamas at the time of
Christopher Columbus' arrival in 1492.
Columbus's first landfall in the
New World was on an island he named San Salvador (known to the Lucayan as
Guanahani).
Some researchers believe this site to be present-day
San Salvador Island
(formerly known as Watling's Island), situated in the southeastern
Bahamas.
An alternative theory holds that Columbus landed to the
southeast on
Samana Cay, according to calculations made in 1986 by
National Geographic writer and editor
Joseph Judge,
based on Columbus's log.
Evidence in support of this remains
inconclusive. On the landfall island, Columbus made first contact with
the Lucayan and exchanged goods with them.
The Spanish forced much of the Lucayan population to
Hispaniola for use as forced labour.
The slaves suffered from harsh conditions and most died from contracting
diseases to which they had no
immunity; half of the Taino died from
smallpox alone.
[14]
The population of the Bahamas was severely diminished.
[15]
In 1648, the
Eleutherian Adventurers, led by
William Sayle, migrated from
Bermuda.
These English Puritans established the first permanent European settlement on an island which they named
Eleuthera—the name derives from the Greek word for freedom.
They later settled
New Providence, naming it Sayle's Island after one of their leaders.
To survive, the settlers
salvaged goods from wrecks.
In 1670
King Charles II granted the islands to the
Lords Proprietors of the Carolinas in North America.
They rented the islands from the king with rights of trading, tax, appointing
governors, and administering the country.
[16]
In 1684 Spanish
corsair Juan de Alcon
raided the capital, Charles Town (later renamed
Nassau).
In 1703 a joint Franco-Spanish expedition
briefly occupied the Bahamian capital during the
War of the Spanish Succession.
18th–19th centuries
During proprietary rule, the Bahamas became a haven for
pirates, including the infamous
Blackbeard (c.1680–1718).
To put an end to the '
Pirates' republic' and restore orderly government, Britain made the Bahamas a
crown colony in 1718 under the royal governorship of
Woodes Rogers.
After a difficult struggle, he succeeded in suppressing piracy.
[17]
In 1720, Rogers led local
militia to drive off a
Spanish attack.
During the
American War of Independence in the late 18th century, the islands became a target for American naval forces under the command of Commodore
Esek Hopkins.
US Marines occupied the capital of Nassau for a
fortnight.
In 1782, following the British defeat at
Yorktown, a Spanish fleet appeared off the coast of Nassau. The city
surrendered without a fight.
Spain returned possession of the Bahamas to Britain the following year, under the terms of the
Treaty of Paris.
Before the news was received, however, the
islands were recaptured by a small British force led by
Andrew Deveaux.
After American independence, the British resettled some 7,300
Loyalists
with their slaves in the Bahamas, and granted land to the planters to
help compensate for losses on the continent.
These Loyalists, who
included Deveaux, established plantations on several islands and became a
political force in the capital. European Americans were outnumbered by
the African-American slaves they brought with them, and ethnic Europeans
remained a minority in the territory.
In 1807, the British abolished the
slave trade, followed by the United States the next year.
During the following decades, the
Royal Navy intercepted the trade; they resettled in the Bahamas thousands of Africans liberated from slave ships.
In the 1820s during the period of the
Seminole Wars in Florida, hundreds of American slaves and
African Seminoles escaped from
Cape Florida to the Bahamas.
They settled mostly on northwest
Andros Island,
where they developed the village of Red Bays.
From eyewitness accounts,
300 escaped in a mass flight in 1823, aided by Bahamians in 27
sloops, with others using canoes for the journey.
This was commemorated in 2004 by a large sign at
Bill Baggs Cape Florida State Park.
[18][19]
Some of their descendants in Red Bays continue African Seminole traditions in basket making and grave marking.
[20]
The United States'
National Park Service, which administers the National
Underground Railroad
Network to Freedom, is working with the African Bahamian Museum and
Research Center (ABAC) in Nassau on development to identify Red Bays as a
site related to American slaves' search for freedom.
The museum has
researched and documented the African Seminoles' escape from southern
Florida.
It plans to develop interpretive programs at historical sites
in Red Bay associated with the period of their settlement in the
Bahamas.
[21]
In 1818,
[22] the Home Office in London had ruled that "any slave brought to the Bahamas from outside the
British West Indies would be manumitted."
This led to a total of nearly 300 slaves owned by US nationals being freed from 1830 to 1835.
[23]
The American slave ships
Comet and
Encomium used in the United States domestic
coastwise slave trade,
were wrecked off Abaco Island in December 1830 and February 1834,
respectively.
When wreckers took the masters, passengers and slaves into
Nassau, customs officers seized the slaves and British colonial
officials freed them, over the protests of the Americans.
There were 165
slaves on the
Comet and 48 on the
Encomium.
Britain
finally paid an indemnity to the United States in those two cases in
1855, under the Treaty of Claims of 1853, which settled several
compensation cases between the two nations.
[24][25]
Slavery was
abolished in the British Empire on 1 August 1834.
After that British colonial officials freed 78 American slaves from the
Enterprise, which went into Bermuda in 1835; and 38 from the
Hermosa, which wrecked off Abaco Island in 1840.
[26]
The most notable case was that of the
Creole in 1841: as a result of a
slave revolt on board, the leaders ordered the American brig to Nassau.
It was carrying 135 slaves from Virginia destined for sale in
New Orleans.
The Bahamian officials freed the 128 slaves who chose to stay in the islands.
The
Creole case has been described as the "most successful slave revolt in U.S. history".
[27]
These incidents, in which a total of 447 slaves belonging to US
nationals were freed from 1830 to 1842, increased tension between the
United States and
Great Britain.
They had been co-operating in patrols to suppress the international
slave trade.
But, worried about the stability of its large domestic
slave trade and its value, the United States argued that Britain should
not treat its domestic ships that came to its colonial ports under
duress, as part of the international trade.
The United States worried
that the success of the
Creole slaves in gaining freedom would encourage more slave revolts on merchant ships.
20th century
In August 1940, after his abdication of the British throne, the
Duke of Windsor was installed as
Governor of the Bahamas, arriving with his wife, the
Duchess.
Although disheartened at the condition of Government House, they "tried to make the best of a bad situation".
[28]
He did not enjoy the position, and referred to the islands as "a third-class British colony".
[29]
He opened the small local parliament on 29 October 1940.
The couple visited the "Out Islands" that November, on
Axel Wenner-Gren's yacht, which caused some controversy.
[30]
The
British Foreign Office
strenuously objected to the trip because they had been advised
(mistakenly) by United States intelligence that Wenner-Gren was a close
friend of the
Luftwaffe commander
Hermann Göring of Nazi Germany.
[30][31]
The Duke was praised at the time for his efforts to combat poverty on
the islands. A 1991 biography by Philip Ziegler, however, described him
as contemptuous of the Bahamians and other non-white peoples of the
Empire.
He was praised for his resolution of civil unrest over low wages
in
Nassau in June 1942, when there was a "full-scale riot."
[32]
Ziegler said that the Duke blamed the trouble on "mischief makers –
communists" and "men of Central European
Jewish descent, who had secured jobs as a pretext for obtaining a deferment of draft".
[33]
The Duke resigned the post on 16 March 1945.
[34][35]
Post-Second World War
Modern political development began after the
Second World War.
The first political parties were formed in the 1950s.
The British
Parliament authorised the islands as internally self-governing in 1964,
with
Sir Roland Symonette, of the
United Bahamian Party, as the first Premier.
A new constitution granting the Bahamas internal autonomy went into effect on 7 January 1964.
[36] In 1967,
Lynden Pindling of the
Progressive Liberal Party, became the first black Premier of the majority-black colony; in 1968 the title of the position was changed to
Prime Minister.
In 1968, Pindling announced that the Bahamas would seek full independence.
[37]
A new constitution giving the Bahamas increased control over its own affairs was adopted in 1968.
[38]
The
British House of Lords voted to give the Bahamas its independence on 22 June 1973.
[39]
Prince Charles delivered the official documents to
Prime Minister Lynden Pindling, officially declaring the Bahamas a fully independent nation on 10 July 1973.
[40]
It joined the
Commonwealth of Nations on the same day.
[41]
Sir Milo Butler was appointed the first
Governor-General of the Bahamas (the official representative of
Queen Elizabeth II) shortly after independence.
The Bahamas joined the
International Monetary Fund and the
World Bank on 22 August 1973,
[42] and it joined the
United Nations on 18 September 1973.
[43]
Based on the twin pillars of tourism and
offshore finance,
the Bahamian economy has prospered since the 1950s.
Significant
challenges in areas such as education, health care, housing,
international narcotics trafficking and illegal immigration from Haiti
continue to be issues.
The
College of the Bahamas
is the national higher education/tertiary system.
Offering
baccalaureate, masters and associate degrees, COB has three campuses,
and teaching and research centres throughout the Bahamas.
COB is on
track to become the national "University of The Bahamas" (UOB) in 2015.
Geography and climate
The Bahamas from space.
NASA Aqua satellite image, 2009
The country lies between latitudes
20° and
28°N, and longitudes
72° and
80°W.
In 1864, the
Governor of the Bahamas reported that there were 29 islands, 661 cays, and 2,387 rocks in the colony.
[44]
The closest island to the United States is
Bimini, which is also known as the gateway to the Bahamas.
The island of
Abaco is to the east of
Grand Bahama.
The southeasternmost island is
Inagua.
The largest island is
Andros Island.
Other inhabited islands include
Eleuthera,
Cat Island,
Long Island,
San Salvador Island,
Acklins,
Crooked Island,
Exuma and
Mayaguana.
Nassau, capital city of the Bahamas, lies on the island of
New Providence.
All the islands are low and flat, with ridges that usually rise no
more than 15 to 20 m (49 to 66 ft).
The highest point in the country is
Mount Alvernia (formerly Como Hill) on Cat Island.
It has an elevation of 63 metres (207 ft).
To the southeast, the
Turks and Caicos Islands, and three more extensive submarine features called
Mouchoir Bank,
Silver Bank and
Navidad Bank, are geographically a continuation of the Bahamas.
Climate
The climate of the Bahamas is
tropical savannah climate or
Aw according to
Köppen climate classification.
As such, there has never been a frost or freeze reported in the
Bahamas, although every few decades low temperatures can fall into the
3–5 °C (37–41 °F) range for a few hours when a severe cold outbreak
comes off the North American landmass.
Otherwise, the low latitude, warm
tropical
Gulf Stream, and low
elevation
give the Bahamas a warm and winterless climate.
There is only an 8 °C
difference between the warmest month and coolest month in most of the
Bahama islands.
As with most tropical climates, seasonal rainfall
follows the sun, and summer is the wettest season.
The Bahamas are often
sunny and dry for long periods of time, and average more than 3,000
hours or 340 days
[45] of sunlight annually.
Tropical storms and hurricanes affect the Bahamas.
In 1992,
Hurricane Andrew passed over the northern portions of the islands, and
Hurricane Floyd passed near the eastern portions of the islands in 1999.
Source: Wikipedia.org
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