History - The Bahamas Guide (2024)

History of the Bahamas

It was the famous Italian explorer, Christopher Columbus, in an expedition backed by the King Ferdinand and Queen Isabella of Spain, who first set foot on the Island of Guanahani–or San Salvador as it is know today–one of the 700 plus islands that make up the archipelago, known today as the Commonwealth of the Bahamas.

The date was October 12th, 1492. The Spaniards named these islands the Bajar Mar, or shallow seas.

Columbus, in search of gold, spices and treasure, was searching for a new route to reach India–he had failed in his original quest, but had achieved something greater when he brought Western Civilization to the New World.

Unfortunately, for the Arawaks, he also brought with him a few of the bad ideas and bad people that plagued Western Civilization at the time, so that soon the original settlers of the islands–the Arawak Indians– would be taken as slaves and wiped out, soon to be replaced by Negroes taken from the shores of the massive continent of Africa.

Though the Arawaks did little for modern ideas we do credit them with adding a few popular words to our language such as ‘barbecue’, according to some scholars.

When Columbus discovered the islands, he found Lucayans and called them Indians. They were in fact related to the neo-Indian Arawaks in the larger Caribbean Islands, who had originally come from the South American mainland. Being peaceful they fled northwards away from the warlike Caribs. Historians speculate that they arrived in Bahamas between 500 AD, settling from Cuba and Hispaniola. The Lucayans, or Arawaks, being relatively primitive had no written language, but only a spoken one. Spanish slave traders later captured native Lucayan Indians to work in gold mines in Hispaniola, and within a quarter of a century the Lucayans were wiped out by enslavement, disease and other hardships.

During the next few centuries the Bahamas would pass under the rule of Spain, for a brief time America and finally lay under the law of England. In between this period of almost 500 years, would pass many world and civil wars, pirates such as the infamous Blackbeard, boot leggers and rum runners, and thanks to the discovery of the social principle of individual rights: the abolition of slavery.

In 1647, a group of English and Bermudian religious refugees, the Eleutheran Adventurers, founded the first permanent European settlement in The Bahamas and gave Eleuthera its name. Similar groups of settlers formed governments in The Bahamas until the islands became a British Crown Colony in 1717.

By the mid 1660’s the area was periodically besieged by pirates such as Edward Teach (also known as Blackbeard), Henry Morgan, and Calico Jack Rackham. For nearly half a century these pirates, also known as buccaneers, raided Spanish galleys and the Spaniard’s fury erupted in 1695 when they invaded and destroyed Charles Town on the island of New Providence. The city was quickly rebuilt and named Nassau. In 1718, King George I appointed Captain Woodes Rogers, a former pirate, as the first Royal Governor of The Bahamas. Rogers anti-piratical fervor inspired the motto Expulsis Piratis, Restitua Commercia (Latin for “Piracy Expelled, Commerce Restored”).

During the American Revolutionary War, Nassau capitulated to the Spaniards for the last time, as in 1783, The Bahamas was restored to Great Britain by treaty. Following the American Revolution, thousands of British Loyalists emigrated to The Bahamas, many bringing their black slaves with them. During the American Civil War, The Bahamas prospered as a center of Confederate blockade-running.

The Emancipation Act was designed to come into force on August 1, 1834, in order to bring freedom to the slaves. However, the slaves did not become fully free until August 1, 1838 after an apprenticeship period that served as a transition from slavery to freedom.

During the American prohibition, the islands served as a base for American rumrunners. During World War II, the Allies centered their flight training and antisubmarine operations for the The Bahamas. Since then, The Bahamas has developed into a major tourist and financial services center due to its excellent location, sub-tropical weather, silver white beaches, and primarily free-market oriented rule of law. Bahamians achieved self-government through a series of constitutional and political steps, attaining internal self-government in 1964.

The Progressive Liberal Party (PLP) won control of the government in general elections in 1967. The PLP leader Lynden O. Pindling, then became Prime Minister and remained in this position until August 1992 when the Free National Movement won parliamentary elections and Hubert Ingraham became Prime Minister.

Though first discovered by Christopher Columbus in 1492, the Bahamas did not become sovereign until July 10th, 1973, when it gained complete independence from Great Britain, under the leadership of the then Prime Minister Sir. Lynden Pindling.

Today, the Bahamas is a democracy, with open elections held every 5 years, with a Constitution based (for the most part) on the right of each man to life, liberty and property–honestly acquired.

Since the birth of the Bahamas as a sovereign in 1973, vast improvements have been made to the country by the governments of Mr. Pindling.

Unfortunately Mr. Pindling and many of the members in his government freely chose to use their legitimately acquired power for illegitimate purposes, and within roughly a decade his party was ousted and replaced by the FNM–led by Prime Minister Hubert Ingrahm.

Under the FNM, the borders of the Bahamas were further opened to foreign industry, talent and dollars–the life blood of the country, without which the Bahamas would soon reach the economic and moral level of its’ Caribbean neighbor Haiti.

In May 2002, the Progressive Liberal Party (PLP), led by veteran politician Perry Christie, was returned to office, replacing the Free National Movement (FNM), which had run the government for the past decade.

The cosmopolitan nature of the Bahamas as a meeting place of all cultures, people, and dollars, situated in tropical paradise, sets the seeds for the Bahamas as the center point for peace, prosperity, and happiness in our ever-changing world.

Timeline of Key Historical Events in the Bahamas