A Brief History of The Bahamas

When asked in history lessons at school what madeinhabitants so that it's almost impossible to classify
the year 1492 so special, almost every studentthem. Maybe they came originally from what is
knows the answer. It was the year that Christopherknown today as Florida. What is known is that they
Columbus discovered America. The word America haswere 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 theyBahamas were a group of religious refugees from
almost invariably refer to The United States ofEngland . They were Eleutheran Adventurers,
America, with Washington, D.C. as its capital. Inpersecuted by their local church and they gave
Europe people are not even aware of theEleuthera island its name. After other groups of
geographical term North America, which includessettlers from different parts of the world established
Canada, the U.S. and Mexico. So when asked abouttheir own settlements with their own governments in
Christopher Columbus and his discovery they believeThe Bahamas the islands became a British Crown
that he landed somewhere near Boston.In fact theColony.The ongoing animosity and sometimes outright
place where Columbus first arrived in the Westernwar between Spain and Great Britain gave
Hemisphere was The Bahamas. The Bahamas are aadventurers, many of them English and French, the
group of islands and it was on one of them, Sanopportunity to use the islands as their base from
Salvador, where Christopher Columbus set foot onwhich to attack Spanish ships that went to or came
October 12th , 1492.The Bahamas themselves werefrom the New World. It was the natural geological
never of much interest to the Spanish and theyformations of the islands and their coasts that gave
never really settled there. What they did do thoughthose pirates a superb advantage and provided them
was turn all the local residents into slaves and sendwith a perfect hiding place.When in 1697 Europe
them to the mines of San Domingo. Basically thearrived at peace through the treaty of Riswick
whole population just disappeared within a very shortEngland stopped protecting the islands. The Bahamas,
time.But it seems that not very many people werenow being on their own and without any official
living in the Bahamas, because after their abductionalliances, soon turned into a haven for pirates who
and forced slavery there was hardly any evidence offought all nations and attacked all ships independent
civilization like abandoned houses, temples and ruinsof their origin. Lawlessness reigned and The Bahamas
left. Nor was there much evidence of extensivebecame a by-word for crime at that time.This state
agriculture or soil cultivation. Nowadays there areof affairs could obviously not continue indefinitely and
many fruit trees on the islands, but their introductionin 1718 England assumed responsibility again for the
through the Spanish can be traced back and thereislands and began to exterminate all pirates. Soon law
are absolutely no animals that could serve as foodand order were established again and the British
for human consumption. The aboriginals that used toCrown was again in possession of the islands until
live there were evidently fishermen or lived on wild1973, when The Bahamas gained full independence
fruit and corn.Very little is known about the originalwithin the Commonwealth of Nations.