Pre-Hispanic era The first inhabitants of the Bahamas were Indigenous people, who moved into the uninhabited southern islands from
Hispaniola and Cuba sometime between AD 500 and 800, having migrated there from mainland
South America; they came to be known as the
Lucayan people. An estimated 30,000 Lucayans inhabited the Bahamas at the time of
Christopher Columbus' arrival in 1492.
Arrival of the Spanish '' by
John Vanderlyn, 1847. A depiction of Columbus' first landing, claiming possession of the
New World for the
Crown of Castile 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 12 October 1492. Columbus' first landfall in what was to Europeans a "New World" was on an island he named San Salvador (known to the Lucayans as
Guanahani). While there is a general consensus that this island lay within the Bahamas, precisely which island Columbus landed on is a matter of scholarly debate. Some researchers believe the site to be present-day
San Salvador Island (formerly known as Watling's Island), situated in the southeastern Bahamas, whilst 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' log. On the landfall island, Columbus made first contact with the Lucayans and exchanged goods with them, claiming the islands for the
Crown of Castile, before proceeding to explore the larger isles of the
Greater Antilles. The 1494
Treaty of Tordesillas theoretically divided the new territories between the
Kingdom of Castile and the
Kingdom of Portugal, placing the Bahamas in the Spanish sphere; however, they did little to press their claim on the ground. The Spanish did, however, exploit the Native Lucayan peoples, many of whom were enslaved and sent to Hispaniola for use as forced labour. As a result of these depredations the population of the Bahamas was severely diminished.
Arrival of the English The English had expressed an interest in the Bahamas as early as 1629. However, it was not until 1648 that the first English settlers arrived on the islands. Known as the
Eleutherian Adventurers and led by
William Sayle, they migrated from
Bermuda seeking greater religious freedom. These English
Puritans established the first permanent European settlement on an island which they named
Eleuthera, Greek for
free. They later settled
New Providence, naming it Sayle's Island. Life proved harder than envisaged however, and many – including Sayle – chose to return to Bermuda. and in 1703 a joint Franco-Spanish expedition
briefly occupied Nassau during the
War of the Spanish Succession.
18th century land at
New Providence during the
Battle of Nassau in 1776 During proprietary rule the Bahamas became a haven for
pirates, including
Blackbeard (
circa 1680–1718). To put an end to the "
Pirates' republic" and restore orderly government, Britain made the Bahamas a
crown colony in 1718, which they dubbed "the Bahama islands" under the governorship of
Woodes Rogers. In 1720 the
Spanish attacked Nassau during the
War of the Quadruple Alliance. In 1729 a local assembly was established giving a degree of self-governance for British settlers. The reforms had been planned by the previous Governor George Phenney and authorised in July 1728. During the
American War of Independence in the late 18th century, the islands became a target for US naval forces. Under the command of Commodore
Esek Hopkins,
US Marines, the US Navy occupied Nassau in 1776, before being evacuated a few days later. In 1782 a Spanish fleet appeared off the coast of Nassau, and the city
surrendered without a fight. Later, in April 1783, on a visit made by Prince William of the United Kingdom (later
King William IV) to
Luis de Unzaga at his residence in the Captaincy General of Havana, they made prisoner exchange agreements and also dealt with the preliminaries of the
Treaty of Paris (1783), in which the recently conquered Bahamas would be exchanged for
East Florida, which would still have to conquer the city of
St. Augustine, Florida in 1784 by order of Luis de Unzaga; after that, also in 1784, the Bahamas would be declared a British colony. After US independence, the British resettled some 7,300
Loyalists with their African slaves in the Bahamas, including 2,000 from New York and at least 1,033 Europeans, 2,214 African descendants, and a few Native American
Creeks from
East Florida. Most of the refugees resettled from New York had fled from other colonies, including
West Florida, which the Spanish captured during the war. The government granted land to the planters to help compensate for losses on the continent. These Loyalists, who included Deveaux and also
Lord Dunmore, established plantations on several islands and became a political force in the capital. Thousands of Africans liberated from slave ships by the Royal Navy were resettled in the Bahamas. In the 1820s during the period of the
Seminole Wars in Florida, hundreds of North 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. Some of their descendants in Red Bays continue African Seminole traditions in basket making and grave marking. In 1818 the
Home Office 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 enslaved people owned by US nationals being freed from 1830 to 1835. 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. The United Kingdom 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 countries. Slavery was
abolished in the British Empire on 1 August 1834. The most notable case was that of the
Creole in 1841: as a result of a
slave revolt on board, the leaders ordered the US 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. These incidents, in which a total of 447 enslaved people belonging to US nationals were freed from 1830 to 1842, increased tension between the United States and the
United Kingdom. They had been co-operating in patrols to suppress the international slave trade. However, worried about the stability of its large domestic slave trade and its value, the United States argued that the United Kingdom 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. During the
American Civil War of the 1860s, the islands briefly prospered as a focus for
blockade runners aiding the
Confederate States.
Early 20th century and
Governor of the Bahamas from 1940 to 1945 The early decades of the 20th century were ones of hardship for many Bahamians, characterised by a stagnant economy and widespread poverty. Many eked out a living via subsistence agriculture or fishing. He did not enjoy the position, and referred to the islands as "a third-class British colony". 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 controversy; the
British Foreign Office strenuously objected because they had been advised by United States intelligence that Wenner-Gren was a close friend of the
Luftwaffe commander
Hermann Göring of Nazi Germany. 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-European 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". 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". The Duke resigned from the post on 16 March 1945.
Post-Second World War until it gained independence in 1973.Modern political development began after the
Second World War. The first political parties were formed in the 1950s, split broadly along ethnic lines, with the
United Bahamian Party (UBP) representing the English-descended Bahamians (known informally as the "Bay Street Boys") and the
Progressive Liberal Party (PLP) representing the Black-Bahamian majority. In 1967
Sir Lynden Pindling of the PLP became the first black premier of the Bahamian colony; in 1968 the title of the position was changed to prime minister. In 1968 Pindling announced that the Bahamas would seek full independence. A new constitution giving the Bahamas increased control over its own affairs was adopted in 1968. In 1971, the UBP merged with a disaffected faction of the PLP to form a new party, the
Free National Movement (FNM), a centre-right party which aimed to counter the growing power of Pindling's PLP.
Her Majesty's Government gave the Bahamas its independence by an
Order in Council dated 20 June 1973. The Order came into force on 10 July 1973, on which date
Charles, Prince of Wales, delivered the official documents to Pindling, the prime minister. July 10 is now celebrated as
Independence Day. It joined the
Commonwealth of Nations on the same day.
Sir Milo Butler was appointed the first
governor-general of the Bahamas (the official representative of
Queen Elizabeth II) shortly after independence.
Post-independence Shortly after independence, the Bahamas joined the
International Monetary Fund and the
World Bank on 22 August 1973, and later the
United Nations on 18 September 1973. Politically, the first two decades were dominated by Pindling's PLP, who went on to win a string of electoral victories. Allegations of corruption, links with drug cartels and financial malfeasance within the Bahamian government failed to dent Pindling's popularity. Meanwhile, the economy underwent a dramatic growth period fuelled by the twin pillars of tourism and
offshore finance, significantly raising the
standard of living on the islands. The Bahamas' booming economy led to it becoming a beacon for immigrants, most notably from
Haiti. with 1,300 people missing after two weeks. The
COVID-19 pandemic reached the Bahamas on 15 March 2020. At the
2021 general election the governing
Free National Movement (FNM) lost to the opposition
Progressive Liberal Party (PLP) as the economy struggled to recover from its deepest crash since at least 1971. On 17 September 2021 the chairman of the PLP,
Phillip Davis, was sworn in as the new prime minister, succeeding
Hubert Minnis. ==Geography==