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