HISTORY
In 1492, Christopher Columbus
made his first landfall in the Western Hemisphere at either Samana
Cay or San Salvador Island in The Bahamas. Spanish slave traders
later captured native Lucayan Indians to work in gold mines in
Hispaniola, and, within 25 years, all Lucayans perished. In 1647,
a group of English and Bermudan religious refugees, the Eleutheran
Adventurers, founded the first permanent European settlement in
The Bahamas and gave Eleuthera Island its name. Similar groups
of settlers formed governments in The Bahamas until the islands
became a British crown colony in 1717.
The late 1600s to the early 1700s were the golden age for pirates and privateers. Many famous pirates--including Sir Francis Drake and Blackbeard--used the islands of The Bahamas as a base. The numerous islands and islets with their complex shoals and channels provided excellent hiding places for the plundering ships near well-traveled shipping lanes. The first Royal Governor, a former pirate named Woodes Rogers, brought law and order to The Bahamas in 1718 when he expelled the buccaneers.
During the American Revolution, American colonists loyal to the British flag settled in The Bahamas. These Loyalists and new settlers from Britain brought Colonial building skills and agricultural expertise. Until 1834, when Britain abolished slavery, they also brought slaves, importing the ancestors of many modern Bahamians from Western Africa.
Proximity to the U.S. continued to provide opportunity for illegal shipping activity. In the course of the American Civil War, The Bahamas prospered as a center of Confederate blockade-running. During Prohibition, the islands served as a base for American rumrunners. Today, The Bahamas is a major transshipment point for narcotics on the way to the U.S.
Bahamians achieved self-government through a series of constitutional and political steps, attaining internal self-government in 1964 and full independence within the Commonwealth on July 10, 1973. Since independence, The Bahamas has continued to develop into a major tourist and financial services center.
