Bahamas, Turks, and Caicos Islands: Difference between revisions
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The '''Commonwealth of the Bahamas, Turks, and Caicos Islands''', also known as the '''Commonwealth of the Lucayan Islands''', is a country in the Atlantic Ocean. The capital is Nassau, located in the island of New Providence.
== History ==
=== Early English Settlement ===
The English had already shown an interest in the Bahamas in 1629. It was not until 1648, however, that the first English settlers came to the islands. These settlers, known as the Eleutherian Explorers and led by William Sayle, moved into the islands, pursuing greater religious freedom. These settlers established the first settlement on the island they named 'Eleuthera'. Eventually, these settlers moved into New Providence and called it Sayle's Island after their leader. However, settlement in the islands soon proved to be hard, and the settlers had to rely on salvaged goods from wrecks to survive. Although many new settlers had arrived on the island throughout the mid-1600s, a lot of the former settlers also deserted the islands. By the 1670s, the Bahamas, Turks, and Caicos islands were abandoned completely by most of its original settlers. However, the area was still kept under the control of an English governor.
=== Rise of Piracy in the Caribbean ===
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In 1725, a new governor, William Muston, was appointed. Muston took a relatively more diplomatic approach than his predecessor, Godwin Paddley, did. He was able to secure the king's Royal Pardon for any pirates who would surrender. This tactic had worked; several pirate captains had surrendered to Muston (including Woodrow "Goldentooth" Hanzel's son), and Muston would soon commission these pirates to hunt the other privateers who evaded capture. Several of the surviving pirates, including Hanzel himself, fled to their base in Florida keys where they were outside of British naval jurisdiction. The pirate republic would still continue to operate there but their projection of power was too weak to be considered a threat. In 1755, shortly after the end of [[Prince Maurice's War]], a combined effort of the British and Spanish finally ended the pirate presence in the Florida Keys.
Over the 19th century, the islands would be administered as a single unit, known as the Bahamas, Caicos, and Turks Islands. Several land grants were given to English colonists, eventually establishing plantations. These plantations brought in a small slave population before Britain outlawed slavery in the 1830s.
In the 20th century, they achieved independence and became part of the Commonwealth of Nations.
== Demographics ==
Historically, the Bahamas, Turks, and Caicos Islands were considered a settler colony of the British. Majority of the modern-day population is of European descent (64%) and trace their roots to the English Puritans and Virginian loyalists who moved there after the independence of Virginia in the 1850s. Africans make up 34% of the population, owing to the slave population brought in by plantation owners during the late 1700s until the British outlawed the slave trade in the 1830s. Asians, Native Americans, and other ethnic groups make up 2% of the population.
{{Nations of the World}}
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