Geography and Location
The Bahamas is an archipelagic country located in the Atlantic Ocean within the Lucayan Archipelago. The country comprises 700 islands and more than 2,500 cays, positioned north of Cuba and northwest of Hispaniola (shared by the Dominican Republic and Haiti) and the Turks and Caicos Islands. The Bahamas lies southeast of the US state of Florida and east of the Florida Keys. The capital and largest city is Nassau, situated on the island of New Providence. According to the Royal Bahamas Defence Force, the country's territory encompasses 470,000 km² (180,000 square miles) of ocean space.
Naming and Etymology
The name Bahamas derives from the Lucayan word "Bahama," meaning "large upper middle island," originally used for the island of Grand Bahama. The term first appeared on the circa 1523 Turin Map but was applied to the entire archipelago in English by 1670. While tourist guides often attribute the name to the Spanish phrase "baja mar" (shallow sea), scholars argue this is a folk etymology. The Bahamas is one of only two countries whose official short name begins with the definite article; the other is The Gambia.
Early History and Indigenous Peoples
The Bahamas was first inhabited by the Taíno people, who became known as the Lucayans. They migrated to the southern islands from Hispaniola and Cuba sometime between AD 500 and 800, having originally come from mainland South America. An estimated 30,000 Lucayans inhabited the Bahamas at the time of Christopher Columbus' arrival in 1492.
European Contact and Spanish Period
Christopher Columbus made his first landfall in the New World on an island he named San Salvador, known to the Lucayans as Guanahani, in 1492. While scholars agree this island was within the Bahamas, the exact location remains debated. Columbus exchanged goods with the Lucayans and claimed the islands for the Crown of Castile before exploring larger islands in the Greater Antilles.
The 1494 Treaty of Tordesillas theoretically placed the Bahamas in the Spanish sphere, though Spain did little to establish control on the ground. However, Spanish forces enslaved many Lucayans and sent them to Hispaniola for forced labor. These enslaved people suffered harsh conditions and died in large numbers from diseases including smallpox, to which they had no immunity. This exploitation severely diminished the Bahamas' population, leaving the islands mostly deserted from 1513 to 1648.
English Settlement and Colonial Development
The first English settlers arrived in 1648, known as the Eleutheran Adventurers, led by William Sayle. These Puritans migrated from Bermuda seeking greater religious freedom and settled on an island they named Eleuthera, Greek for "free." They later established a settlement on New Providence, which they called Sayle's Island. Life proved difficult for these early colonists, and many, including Sayle himself, returned to Bermuda. The remaining settlers survived by salvaging goods from shipwrecks.
In 1670, King Charles II granted the islands to the Lords Proprietors of the Carolinas in North America, who rented them from the king with rights to trade, collect taxes, appoint governors, and administer the country from New Providence. During this period, the Bahamas became a haven for pirates, including the famous Blackbeard. Piracy and attacks from foreign powers posed constant threats, with Spanish raids occurring in 1684 and a joint Franco-Spanish occupation during the War of the Spanish Succession in 1703.
18th Century and British Crown Colony
To eliminate piracy and restore orderly government, Britain made the Bahamas a crown colony in 1718 under the governorship of Woodes Rogers. Rogers successfully suppressed piracy after a difficult struggle. A local assembly was established in 1729, granting British settlers a degree of self-governance.
During the American Revolutionary War in the late 18th century, US forces briefly occupied Nassau in 1776 under Commodore Esek Hopkins. A Spanish fleet captured Nassau in 1782, but the Bahamas was returned to British control through the Treaty of Paris in 1783. Following American independence, Britain resettled approximately 7,300 American Loyalists and their African slaves in the Bahamas, significantly increasing the population and establishing plantations on granted land.
Slavery and African Population
African slaves and their descendants constituted the majority of the Bahamas' population from the late 18th century onward. The British abolished the slave trade in 1807, though slavery itself was not abolished in the Bahamas until 1834. Beginning in 1818, the Bahamas became a haven for manumitted African slaves from outside the British West Indies. Africans liberated from illegal slave ships were resettled on the islands by the Royal Navy, while some North American slaves and Seminoles escaped to the Bahamas from Florida. During this era, Bahamians recognized the freedom of enslaved individuals arriving on ships of other nations. Today, Black Bahamians comprise approximately 90 percent of the population.
Independence and Modern Government
The Bahamas became an independent Commonwealth realm separate from the United Kingdom in 1973, with Lynden Pindling serving as its first prime minister. The country maintains King Charles III as its monarch, represented by an appointed governor-general. Though geographically part of the Lucayan Archipelago rather than the Caribbean Sea, the Bahamas is considered part of the wider Caribbean region and is a full member of the Caribbean Community (CARICOM), though it does not participate in the CARICOM Single Market and Economy.
Economy and Population
The Bahamas has the fourteenth-largest gross domestic product per capita in the Americas. Its economy is based primarily on tourism and offshore finance. The country has a population of approximately 400,516 residents.