A Brief History of The Bahamas

When asked in history lessons at school what madethem. Maybe they came originally from what is known
the year 1492 so special, almost every student knowstoday as Florida. What is known is that they were not
the answer. It was the year that Christopher Columbuscannibals and seemed to have been very
discovered America. The word America has differentmild-mannered.The first foreigners to settle in the
connotations in Europe and in America itself. WhenBahamas were a group of religious refugees from
people in Europe talk about America they almostEngland . They were Eleutheran Adventurers,
invariably refer to The United States of America, withpersecuted by their local church and they gave
Washington, D.C. as its capital. In Europe people areEleuthera island its name. After other groups of
not even aware of the geographical term Northsettlers 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 hisThe Bahamas the islands became a British Crown
discovery they believe that he landed somewhereColony.The ongoing animosity and sometimes outright
near Boston.In fact the place where Columbus firstwar between Spain and Great Britain gave
arrived in the Western Hemisphere was Theadventurers, many of them English and French, the
Bahamas. The Bahamas are a group of islands and itopportunity to use the islands as their base from which
was on one of them, San Salvador, where Christopherto attack Spanish ships that went to or came from the
Columbus set foot on October 12th , 1492.TheNew World. It was the natural geological formations of
Bahamas themselves were never of much interest tothe islands and their coasts that gave those pirates a
the Spanish and they never really settled there. Whatsuperb advantage and provided them with a perfect
they did do though was turn all the local residents intohiding 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 aprotecting the islands. The Bahamas, now being on
very short time.But it seems that not very manytheir own and without any official alliances, soon turned
people were living in the Bahamas, because after theirinto a haven for pirates who fought all nations and
abduction and forced slavery there was hardly anyattacked all ships independent of their origin.
evidence of civilization like abandoned houses, templesLawlessness reigned and The Bahamas became a
and ruins left. Nor was there much evidence ofby-word for crime at that time.This state of affairs
extensive agriculture or soil cultivation. Nowadays therecould obviously not continue indefinitely and in 1718
are many fruit trees on the islands, but their introductionEngland assumed responsibility again for the islands
through the Spanish can be traced back and there areand began to exterminate all pirates. Soon law and
absolutely no animals that could serve as food fororder were established again and the British Crown
human consumption. The aboriginals that used to livewas again in possession of the islands until 1973, when
there were evidently fishermen or lived on wild fruitThe Bahamas gained full independence within the
and corn.Very little is known about the originalCommonwealth of Nations.
inhabitants so that it's almost impossible to classify