General presentation
The Bahamas, also known as the Commonwealth of the Bahamas, is an archipelago of several hundred islands located north of the Caribbean and a few kilometers from the United States of America.
The Bahamas is about 700 islands and islets with a total area of 260,000 square kilometers (100,387 sq. mi.) from the Isles Lucayes located in the Atlantic Ocean, east of Florida, north of Cuba and the rest of the Caribbean and northwest of the Turks and Caicos Islands. The largest island is Andros.
The population was estimated at 401,045 in 2022.
Most of the islands that are simply coral formations are relatively flat with a few flat hills the highest of which is Mount Alvernia on Cat Island at just 63 meters.
The archipelago takes its name from the Spanish “baja mar” which means low sea.
Its capital is Nassau, it is located on the island of New Providence.
The currency is the Bahamian dollar.
King Charles III is the head of state of the Bahamas which is a constitutional monarchy. Cornelius A. Smith is the Governor of the archipelago and Philip Davis the Prime Minister in charge of executive power in the island.
History
The first settlement of the island would be the Lucayans, a Taino people speaking in the Arawak language who probably arrived from Cuba or Santo Domingo between 500 and 800 AD.
The population increases to the point of estimating about 40,000 inhabitants in the islands of the Bahamas at the arrival of Europeans.
It was in the Bahamas on the island of San Salvador that Christopher Columbus landed in the New World on October 12, 1492. It is therefore the docking of Columbus on an island in the Bahamas which is retained as "discovery of the America” by Christopher Columbus. He discovers there a people, the Arawaks, as well as the Lucayans, the first name of the archipelago, Isles Lucayes with whom he exchanged presents. Christopher Columbus will then sail and dock several islands in the Bahamas before arriving at the current island of Cuba and then Santo Domingo.
The Bahamas did not interest the Spaniards who preferred to colonize and install plantations in the larger islands (Santo Domingo, Cuba, Puerto Rico). The only interest they saw in the Bahamas was the huge population that could be sent to the larger islands to work on their plantations. This is how the islands will be completely emptied of their population to send them there as laborers. Since the islands had no gold and were now empty of inhabitants, the Bahamas archipelago was no longer of interest to the Spaniards, who abandoned them.
However, they remained the owners until the Treaty of Paris in 1783, which established the exchange agreement between the British and the Spanish, with the former becoming owners of the Bahamas and the latter of the eastern region of Florida.
Regarding the colonization of the archipelago, studies have shown that many attempts were made. The Spanish, the French, the British and the Dutch all tried to colonize the islands. To speak more specifically about the French, they settled in Abaco in 1565 but were driven out and tried again in 1625 without much success either.
Concerning the British, a group of colonists headed by William Sayle from Bermuda settled on the present Eleuthera Island. The colonization of the island was not easy. After bringing in slaves from Africa and free men of color, there were many difficulties in setting up a lasting colony: Eleuthera's poor soil did not allow for the establishment of a system of plantations as the colonists wished, and there were many conflicts with the Spanish who wanted to take the island away from the English. Many settlers chose to return to the island of Bermuda and the others settled in the north of Eleuthera.
By 1670, about 20 families were living in the communities of Eleuthera.
In 1666, more settlers from Bermuda moved to New Providence which quickly became the most populous island and also the center of commerce in the Bahamas. There were about 500 inhabitants on the island in 1670, living mainly on sea products and maritime activities. They made salt, caught fish, turtles, conch and other shellfish. They were also pirates, privateers and wreck raiders. They did not hesitate to steal the numerous boats that made the connection between the Caribbean islands and Europe. Later on, farmers from Bermuda also settled and found good land with rich soils.
It should be noted that Eleuthera and New Providence had no legal status under English law. The Proprietors of Carolina were to receive a patent in 1670 but the governors they sent there had difficulty imposing their authority on a population that did not consider their power legitimate.
At the beginning of the 18th century, there were more than 1,000 pirates in New Providence, more than the island's population of 200 families. In order to stop the plundering of the pirates of New Providence, the Spanish and French fleets attacked Nassau between 1701 and 1706. The pirates were temporarily removed but returned and rebuilt the city. The Carolina Proprietors left both islands permanently after failing to impose their power in the islands.
In 1718, Great Britain made the Bahamas a colony and former privateer Woodes Rogers was appointed the first Royal Governor of the archipelago. He drove out the pirates from Nassau, restored law and order and built the fort of Nassau. Once his mission was accomplished, he left the islands but returned in 1729 at the request of the population of the archipelago. He created the first Assembly of the Bahamas whose official motto became "Expulsis Piratis, Restituta Commercia" and remained on the island until his death.
During the Revolution, Loyalists fleeing America in the 1770s settled in Nassau. The port of Nassau continued to flourish during the American War of Independence and Prohibition. It allowed to fight against the blockade imposed on the United States.
In April 1861 during the Civil War, the Bahamas became a transitional arsenal for the Southerners. The victory of the Northern troops provoked a new influx of refugees, planters ruined by the abolition of slavery. However, coming with their slaves, they were disappointed to learn that slavery had been abolished in the Bahamas as in all the English colonies. The slaves thus took advantage of the Emancipation Act to benefit from the same rights as the whites.
In search of fortune, the Queen's subjects even came to try their luck in the islands.
In 1911, the attempt to attach the Bahamas to Canada failed, as the British government did not think it wise to attach islands with a predominantly black population to be governed by a country populated only by whites.
Subsequently, Bahamians joined forces with Canadians, Americans and British to fight alongside them in the First World War. It is estimated that close to 1,800 Bahamian soldiers participated in the Great War.
In January 1940, the Bahamas got its first airport in Nassau. It was named Harry Oakes, after a millionaire who had largely contributed to its creation.
The Nassau airfield used during the war to supply the Canadians became the Nassau International Airport in 1957 and helped stimulate the growth of mass tourism after Cuba was closed to American tourists in 1961.
Les Bahamiens obtiennent l'autonomie gouvernementale en 1964, avec Sir Roland Symonette, du United Bahamian Party, comme premier Premier Ministre.
Freeport, on the island of Grand Bahama, was established as a free trade zone in the 1950s and became the second largest city in the Bahamas. Bank secrecy combined with the absence of corporate and income taxes led to rapid growth of the offshore financial sector in the post-war years.
Modern political development began after World War II. The first political parties were formed in the 1950s. The Progressive Liberal Party was formed in 1953 and the United Bahamian Party was formed in 1956.
On July 10, 1973, The Bahamas gained its independence from Great Britain but still remained loyal to the Crown and the portrait of Queen Elizabeth II appears in all administrative buildings.
The College of the Bahamas was founded in 1974 and provided the country's higher or tertiary education. The college was accredited in 2016 as the University of the Bahamas, offering bachelor's, master's and associate degrees at three campuses and teaching and research centers across The Bahamas.
In September 2019, Category 5 Hurricane Dorian strikes the islands of Abaco and Grand Bahama devastating the northwestern Bahamas. The storm causes more than $7 billion in damage and kills more than 50 people and 1,300 people are reported missing.
Economy
Only 97 km separate the Bimini Islands of the Bahamas from the American coast of the United States. This proximity makes it a destination of choice for Americans in search of tropical sun and heavenly beaches. The island attracts nearly 1.5 million tourists each year. Tourism alone constitutes 1⁄3 of the GDP and 2 out of 5 employees.
But there are not only advantages in this small distance that separates the two countries. The Bahamas is indeed a favored transit point for drug traffickers to move drugs to the U.S. market.
It is also a country that has had to deal with waves of immigrants coming by boat from Cuba or Haiti. They were systematically sent back to their country of origin, in contradiction with international refugee laws.
With no taxes on wealth, inheritance or corporate income, the archipelago is a paradise for billionaires and other big money.
Finally, the Bahamas is one of the largest GDP in the Caribbean.
