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General Background
The Bahamas is an Archipelago (island chain) that stretches from Florida to Haiti.
The origin of the name of the country
The name Bahamas is traditionally believed to have been given to the Islands by Christopher Columbus who was describing the
shallow water/sea with the Spanish words: Baha Mar. However, some authoritative sources of The Bahamas claim that the name comes instead from the Lucayan name for the Grand Bahama Island. In that perspective, one can talk about linguistic assimilation of a Lucayan word rather than the
creation of the name of the Islands by Christopher Columbus. It is indeed possible that, much like in another part of the Caribbean, Columbus might have incorporated the Lucayan/indigenous name in the Spanish vocabulary. On the other hand, the large number of historical reports about the fear of the Spanish sailors to navigate the shallow waters of The Bahamas tends to lend some credence to the Baha Mar hypothesis. At the moment, we can only be certain that the name of the country, be it a creation of Columbus or a part of the Lucayan heritage, was later anglicized to Bahamas. It is an issue that is likely to have a tremendous emotional charge because of its importance in the definition of the historical identity of the Bahamian people. However, one can be confident that a well planned pluridisciplinary (ethnolinguistic, history, archeology etc.) research on the subject, powered by an inflexible commitment to find the truth, will yield a definite answer sooner or later.
(Persons interested in shedding some light on the origin of the name of The Bahamas could write their opinions along with the bibliographic references in the
community board of kwabs.com/ Millennium Cybercafe)
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A world renown destination
The Bahamas is seen by the outside world as tourist resort, a play ground for the rich and famous.
At the simple mention of the word Bahamas, people start to think of sunny beaches, beautiful blue water, luxurious hotels and casinos. Ii is indeed a very accurate picture. Millions of visitors travel to The Bahamas every year. About sixty percent of its annual income is generated through tourism and 50 percent of Bahamians work in the tourist industry.
This particular image of The Bahamas and its growth as one of the most popular tourist destinations in the world is due
to several events that happened in the 20th century.
The first one is the massive influx of investors from the United States around 1920. Around the same time, Pan American Airways instituted a daily flight from Miami to Nassau. The economic boom resulting from US capital investments lasted until the crash of the Stock Market in 1929.
The next important boost to Bahamian tourism was the arrival, before world war II, of Canadian business man, Harold Oakes. Oakes invested a lot of money in the tourist industry. None of those events was, however, as important as the appointment, in 1940, of the Duke of Windsor (former King of England) as the Governor of The Bahamas. He and the Duchess of Windsor, the former Mrs. Simpson
(for whom he gave up his crown) attracted wealthy refugees from Europe. Since then The Bahamas became a fashionable place to visit. The Hotels Encouragement Act of 1949 gave an organizational foundation to the Bahamian tourist industry.
However, The Bahamas is much more than a successful resort, it also has a reputation as an international center for banking and finance. Hundreds of banks and investments companies have operational branches in The Bahamas.
It is a prosperous country which has a population distribution of 84 percent urban and 16 percent rural.
History at a Glance
The history of the Bahamas fits well in the general schematic of the historical evolution of all the Caribbean Islands/Countries. Like everywhere in the region, the events were the following:
1. Columbus discovered an island and its Indian population.
2. The indigenous/Indian population disappeared because of slavery, disease, deportation, massacres by the Spanish
3. Places/islands that had no gold were abandoned as isla inutile.
4. Indian population is replaced by Europeans and the labor force of the Caribbean which was the
African slave.
5. The Spanish rule continues but is contested by other major European powers that sometimes replace the Spanish.
(See Caribbean History for similarities with
Jamaica,
Haiti
and the Dominican Republic
The Bahamas was the first place seen by Christopher Columbus during his first travel. In his log, Columbus said that the First Island was spotted at 2.00 AM on October 12 1492 (See
Columbus log and ships).
He called that Island San Salvador. Due to the inaccuracy of his log, about the latitude of the islands designated as island 1, island 2 etc. the exact location of his landfall is not known. Lots of research and attempts of scientific reconstruction have been done but some key data are still missing. After landing on the First Island, Columbus sailed from Island to Island looking for the Great Kahn, great cities and gold.
Prior to the arrival of Christopher Columbus, The Bahamas was
inhabited by the Lucayan Indians, Belonging to the Arawak/Tainos family they were the gentle people who fished and farmed in a manner still practiced to day in the Family Islands. They arrived in the Bahamas around 800 A.D. and lived a peacefully existence until 1492 when Columbus landed in the Eastern Bahamas
The Spanish colonized much of the Caribbean after Columbus arrival but they never settle in The Bahamas. The
infertile soil, the lack of gold made the Bahamar
unappealing to them
However, the islands had human resources that could be used as labor. Between 1500 and 1520 the Spanish carried off all 40.000 Lucayans to work in the gold mines, the pearl fisheries and plantations.
After the deportation of all the Lucayans, the Spanish avoided the Bahamian waters because of dangerous rocks and shoals in the area. The Islands remained uninhabited for the next 100 years.
In 1629, King Charles I of England gave Sir Robert Heath the Bahamas along with
a parcel of land that later be known as the Carolinas. The first English settlers, however, did not arrive until 1648 when they fled from Bermuda to escape religious persecution..
In 1670, at the setters request, England placed the control of the Bahamas to the Lord Proprietors of the Bahamas who appointed a proprietary Governor.
After a period of turmoil due to piracy and war with the Spanish settlers of Florida, the islands started to
have some prosperity around the year 1700. This new prosperity was replaced by war in the year 1703 when France and Spain combined forces attacked Nassau to prevent the English from using it as a base for operation.
By 1706 The Bahamas had no semblance of established government. The renown Edward Teach, Blackbird, became one the pirates that took control of the island. This state of affairs came to an end through the effort of Woodes Rogers.
During the American revolution
(1775 to 1783) The Bahamas served as British base. Consequently, United States ships attacked Nassau in 1776 and 1778 and in 1782 the United States helped Spain capture Nassau. The Bahamas was officially restored to England in 1783 by the treaty of Versailles.
The next important milestone in the history of the Bahamas is the Abolition of Slavery Act of 1833 which led to the emancipation of the slaves on August 1, 1834. After serving four years as paid apprentices to their
former masters, they became legally free in 1838.
Cotton Plantation in The Bahamas
Click on the picture to see
a larger version
The emancipation of the slaves created a tremendous change in the
Bahamian economy which, since the treaty of Versailles and the arrival arrival of the English loyalist settlers from Florida in 1783, was based on cotton plantations powered by African slave labor. The cotton industry suffered its first set back in 1789 with the arrival of chenille bug that blighted the cotton crop. The second blow it received was the
abolition of the slave trade in the early eighteenhundreds. This measure
made the African Slave a rare commodity and prevented the plantation owner from acquiring new slaves.
Consequently, since the beginning of the 19 Century The Bahamas saw a migration of plantation owners and a decline of the white population. This decline get to its highest point when slavery was abolished in 1833.
The next period of prosperity came during the American Civil War 1861 to 1865. Nassau became the port of shipment of supplies to the
Confederates States because it was only two or three days away from the blockade ports of Wilmington, North Carolina and Charleston, South Carolina.
A commercial activity of the same kind but of different context gave The Bahamas an economic boost during the prohibition era. In December 1919, the United States Congress passed the Eighteenth Amendment known as the Prohibition Amendment because it prevented the sale of
Alcohol. Bootlegging became a major industry in the Bahamas.
After the Abolition of Prohibition in 1934 the economy of The Bahamas went into decline but started to get a new spur of growth with the appointment of the Duke of Windsor as Governor. The Bahamas started to become a fashionable resort and in 1949 the government passed the Hotels Encouragement Act to promote development and tourism.
In the background of this up and down of the economy, the social and
political structure of The Bahamas remained unchanged. The people of African descent which represented the majority of the nation had no political right. They gained the legal status of citizen with the Emancipation Act of 1833 but, being considered inferiors, they were treated as second class citizens. Until 1956, they were forbidden to enter theaters, hotels or restaurants. Before the quiet revolution of 1960s, a
black person was not welcome in the main shops of Nassau.
Though the work of the PLP (
see politics ) and the tenacity of a man named Lynden Oscar Pindling , black Bahamians gained their full civil and social right. They made it from the plantation house to the State House in
1968.
The move toward national independence and civil right through political empowerment started with the creation of the (Progressive Liberal Party) PLP in 1953 by William Cartwright.
As a result of the action of the PLP, England grants The Bahamas internal self government in 1964.
On July 10 1973, The Bahamas became an independent nation.
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Geography
The Bahamian archipelago includes 700 low-lying islands, and over 2,000
cays (pronounced "keys"). They extend 200 miles (320 km) from east to west and 550 miles (880 km) from north to south. Although this area covers more than 100.000 square miles (260.000 square kilometers), only 5382 square miles (13993 square kilometers) is land, roughly the size of Jamaica. This chain of islands straddle the Tropic of Cancer.
The Bahamas in relation to Cuba, Florida and Hispagnola
The islands are flattened peaks of great underwater mountain range. The deep channels between the islands are vast valleys that drop as 10.000 feet (3030 meters) to the ocean floor.
One could see these geologic features of the Bahamas in the bathymetric picture below. The depth of the water (bathymetric) and the elevation of the
land (altimetric) from the sea floor is represented on a color scale that varies between dark blue(-6000 feet) and light brown (+4000).
The bathymetric colors of the Bahamas
vary between light green for the shallow water areas and dry land to dark blue for deep water. The color change gradually to light blue/green and to blue (south east) in the channels between the plateau that sustain the islands. The range could
therefore be deducted as being between about 200 feet above sea level to more than 6000 feet below the sea level.
Bathymetric map of the Caribbean Basin
showing The Bahamas (top center)
Colors scale: from dark blue - 6000 feet below sea level
to light brown +4000 feet above sea level
click on the picture
to see a larger version
The bathymetric map above shows the entire caribbean basin. It confirms
the fact that the Bahamas Islands are low lying.
By comparing the colors of The Bahamas Islands to those of Cuba (south) and the island of Kyskeya (Hispagnola) (Haiti and the Dominican Republic) (south east) one can see that those Islands/Countries have light brown areas which indicate an elevation of more than 4000 feet above sea level
Among The Bahamas Islands, Mount Alvernia
which the highest hill
on Cat Island measures 206 feet. Most islands have a maximum height of 100 feet.
The Islands
The whole archipelago extends for about 600 miles SE from the Mantanilla shoal off the coast of Florida to 50 miles N of Haiti. Some of the smaller cays are privately owned but most of them are uninhabited.
Nassau, the capital, on New Providence Island, is 184 miles by air from Miami. Freeport, on Grand Bahama island is 60 miles from Florida.
The other islands, known as the "Family Islands", or "Out Islands", include Bimini, the Berry Islands, Abaco, Eleuthera, the Exumas, Andros, Cat Island, Long Island, San Salvador, Rum Cay, Inagua, Acklins and Crooked Island.
Map of The Bahamas Islands
Click on the map
to see a larger picture
The islands are made up of limestone over 5,000 metres deep, most of it
Oolite, laid down for more than 150 million years on a gradually sinking sea bed. New material accumulated constantly and the seas of the Bahamas Platform remained remarkably shallow, often only a few metres deep.
From the air, the different shades of turquoise, ultramarine and blue in these shallow waters are spectacular. On land, the soil is thin and infertile except for a few pockets of fertile soil. In many places, bare limestone
rock is exposed at the surface while most of the land is swampy, impenetrable and uninhabitable. There are many large cave systems, including the impressive blue holes, formed when sea levels were lower.
There are no rivers or streams on any of the islands, but there is some fresh water, found close to the surface but resting on underlying salt water. If wells are drilled too deep, they produce brackish or salt water. Andros
has a surplus of fresh water, which is barged to Nassau. Most people drink bottled water. Desalination plants will probably solve this problem in the future.
The Bahamas was described by George Washington as the islands of perpetual June. The weather can be pleasant in the winter season although cold fronts from the North American continent can bring strong N winds, heavy rain and surprisingly low temperatures. The summer months
are hot, humid and often windless, with frequent thunderstorms
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Population
About 40 of the islands are occupied but only 15 islands have been
developed. They have a total population of about 287,000; about two thirds live in New Providence and 16% in Grand Bahama. In the populated areas the population density is about 50 people per square mile.
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Politics
The Bahamas has a long history of representative democratic government which began in 1671. The government was supposed to represent all the people of the Bahamas in theory but in practice it favored the white minority.
It was not a true representative government but system of power sharing between the plantation owners over the black majority of the country.
Although in 1807 the free blacks were granted the right to vote and slavery was abolished in 1833, The Bahamas remained, until the quiet revolution of nineteen sixties, a country dominated by the structure it inherited from colonization and slavery.
In 1953, William Cartwright formed The Progressive Liberal Party dedicated to working for the Good of all Bahamians. Cartwright was a mulatto who, as a real estate agent, a newspaper publisher, a member of
the parliament, was a very influential person. One of of the first recruit was a young black lawyer named Lynden Oscar Pindling who had just finished his training in London. Pindling was the man who led the Bahamas to equality and Independence.
As a reaction to the increasing popularity of the PLP white business owner created the United Bahamian Party (UBP) which was nicknamed Use Black People party by the black Bahamians.
In the late fifties a significant political event happened and changed the sociopolitical landscape of The Bahamas forever . The event was a strike by the taxi drivers. The leading event was the blockage of the access to the Airport in November 1957 by the Taxi Cab Union. The general strike was declared, in January 1958 and was joined by the hotel and construction workers. Nassau was paralyzed for 19 days. The strike
achieved its political objective which was to prevent the UBP controlled government to grant an airport-hotel monopoly to tour buses owned by the white business owners also known as the Bay Street Boys.
Embolden by the success of the strike, the black masses of The Bahamas placed their their political weigh behind the PLP. The wind of political change through the implementation of wider voting right gained momentum. The tireless work of the PLP and the unyielding devotion of a
woman named Doris Johnson, who led the women suffrage movement, the UBP controlled government finally gave the right to vote to women and those who did not own property. The door to the participation of the masses into the political process was open. Through this door the PLP became the Majority party in 1968 and gradually led the country to independence on June 10 1973.
Through a new constitution the voting right of all people was guaranteed.
A governor appointed by the Queen of England became the official head of State whose actions were limited to those advised by the government's ministers.
The Commonwealth of The Bahamas became a free nation within the Commonwealth of nations who has a bicameral ( two chambers) parliamentary form of government headed bay a Prime Minister. It has two major political parties the PLP and the the FNM (Free National movement)
which started when the opponents of the independence transformed the UBP.
The Bahamian Parliament has a House of Assembly which has 40 representatives elected by citizens, a Senate of 16 members appointed by the governor, prime minister and opposition leader.
The judicial system is headed by three appointed judges presiding over the Court of Appeals which is the nation highest court.
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Culture
The culture of the Bahamas is defined by the influence of European
traditions and religions mixed with the African cultural heritage. Anglicanism was the first European religion introduced in The Bahamas.
Today 20% of the people are Anglican, 50% belong to other Protestant faith and 19% are Roman Catholic. Under this facade of respectable Christian practices, Bahamian of African descent have kept a belief system which supports the existence of the Obeah religion. The Obeah/voodoo is found in several other island/nations. The African base of
the culture is also found in the music of The Bahamas and the Junkanoo festival .
One can even see the influence of the African tradition in the tales of fancy of The Bahamas.
One such tale is a popular Inagua legend surrounding Henri Christophe, the Haitian revolutionary, one of the founding fathers of Haiti, who proclaimed himself King in 1811 and committed suicide in 1820. Many Islanders claimed that he escaped to Inagua and hid in its dense forest. In
1920, American playwright Eugene O' Neil used this legend as the basis for his Emperor Jones play.
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