| When asked in history lessons at school what made | | | | them. Maybe they came originally from what is known |
| the year 1492 so special, almost every student knows | | | | today as Florida. What is known is that they were not |
| the answer. It was the year that Christopher Columbus | | | | cannibals and seemed to have been very |
| discovered America. The word America has different | | | | mild-mannered.The first foreigners to settle in the |
| connotations in Europe and in America itself. When | | | | Bahamas were a group of religious refugees from |
| people in Europe talk about America they almost | | | | England . They were Eleutheran Adventurers, |
| invariably refer to The United States of America, with | | | | persecuted by their local church and they gave |
| Washington, D.C. as its capital. In Europe people are | | | | Eleuthera island its name. After other groups of |
| not even aware of the geographical term North | | | | settlers from different parts of the world established |
| America, which includes Canada, the U.S. and Mexico. | | | | their own settlements with their own governments in |
| So when asked about Christopher Columbus and his | | | | The Bahamas the islands became a British Crown |
| discovery they believe that he landed somewhere | | | | Colony.The ongoing animosity and sometimes outright |
| near Boston.In fact the place where Columbus first | | | | war between Spain and Great Britain gave |
| arrived in the Western Hemisphere was The | | | | adventurers, many of them English and French, the |
| Bahamas. The Bahamas are a group of islands and it | | | | opportunity to use the islands as their base from which |
| was on one of them, San Salvador, where Christopher | | | | to attack Spanish ships that went to or came from the |
| Columbus set foot on October 12th , 1492.The | | | | New World. It was the natural geological formations of |
| Bahamas themselves were never of much interest to | | | | the islands and their coasts that gave those pirates a |
| the Spanish and they never really settled there. What | | | | superb advantage and provided them with a perfect |
| they did do though was turn all the local residents into | | | | hiding place.When in 1697 Europe arrived at peace |
| slaves and send them to the mines of San Domingo. | | | | through the treaty of Riswick England stopped |
| Basically the whole population just disappeared within a | | | | protecting the islands. The Bahamas, now being on |
| very short time.But it seems that not very many | | | | their own and without any official alliances, soon turned |
| people were living in the Bahamas, because after their | | | | into a haven for pirates who fought all nations and |
| abduction and forced slavery there was hardly any | | | | attacked all ships independent of their origin. |
| evidence of civilization like abandoned houses, temples | | | | Lawlessness reigned and The Bahamas became a |
| and ruins left. Nor was there much evidence of | | | | by-word for crime at that time.This state of affairs |
| extensive agriculture or soil cultivation. Nowadays there | | | | could obviously not continue indefinitely and in 1718 |
| are many fruit trees on the islands, but their introduction | | | | England assumed responsibility again for the islands |
| through the Spanish can be traced back and there are | | | | and began to exterminate all pirates. Soon law and |
| absolutely no animals that could serve as food for | | | | order were established again and the British Crown |
| human consumption. The aboriginals that used to live | | | | was again in possession of the islands until 1973, when |
| there were evidently fishermen or lived on wild fruit | | | | The Bahamas gained full independence within the |
| and corn.Very little is known about the original | | | | Commonwealth of Nations. |
| inhabitants so that it's almost impossible to classify | | | | |