HISTORY
Bermuda is an archipelago
consisting of seven main islands and many smaller islands and
islets lying about 1,050 kilometers (650 mi.) east of North Carolina.
The main islands--with hilly terrain and subtropical climate--are
clustered together and connected by bridges; they are considered
to be a geographic unit and are referred to as the Island of Bermuda.
Bermuda was discovered in 1503 by a Spanish explorer, Juan de Bermudez, who made no attempt to land because of the treacherous reef surrounding the uninhabited islands.
In 1609, a group of British colonists led by Sir George Somers was shipwrecked and stranded on the islands for 10 months. Their reports aroused great interest about the islands in England, and in 1612 King James extended the Charter of the Virginia Company to include them. Later that year, about 60 British colonists arrived and founded the town of St. George, the oldest continuously inhabited English-speaking settlement in the Western Hemisphere. When representative government was introduced to Bermuda in 1620, it became a self-governing colony.
Due to the islands' isolation,
for many years Bermuda remained an outpost of 17th-century British
civilization, with an economy based on the use of the islands'
cedar trees for shipbuilding and the salt trade. Hamilton, a centrally
located port founded in 1790, became the seat of government in
1815.
Slaves from Africa were brought to Bermuda soon after the colony was established. The slave trade was outlawed in Bermuda in 1807, and all slaves were freed in 1834. Today, about 61% of Bermudians are of African descent.
The establishment of a formal constitution in 1968 bolstered internal self-government; debate about independence ensued, although a 1995 independence referendum was defeated. The current government re-opened the independence debate in 2004.
