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