The Bahamas, formally known as the Bahamas Commonwealth[12], is a nation within the West Indies Lucayan Archipelago in the Atlantic. It occupies 97% of the land area of the Lucayan Archipelago and is home to 88% of the archipelago population. The archipelagic state consists of more than 700 islands, cays and islets in the Atlantic Ocean and is located north of Cuba and northwest of the island of Hispaniola (split between Haiti and the Dominican Republic) and the Turks and Caicos Islands, southeast of the United States of Florida and east of the Florida Keys. New Providence Island's capital is Nassau. The Royal Bahamas Defense Force characterises the territory of the Bahamas as covering 470,000 km2 of maritime area.
The Lucayans, an Arawakan-speaking TaÃno branch, occupied the Bahama Islands for many years.
[13] [13] Columbus was the first European to visit the islands, making his first New World touchdown in 1492. Later, the Spanish deported the native Lucayans to Hispaniola and enslaved them, following which the Bahama Islands were mainly desolate from 1513 until 1648, when English Bermuda colonists landed on Eleuthera Island.
The Bahamas became a British crown colony in 1718, when the British pirated. The Crown evacuated thousands of American loyalists to the Bahamas after the American Revolutionary War, taking enslaved people with them, and establishing plantations on land concessions. From this time on, African enslaved people and their descendants represented most of the population. British outlawed slave trade in 1807; Bahamas slavery was banned in 1834. The Bahamas became a sanctuary for liberated African slaves. The Royal Navy relocated Africans rescued from illegal slave ships on the islands, while some slaves and seminols from Florida fled to the Bahamas. Bahamians were even known to recognise the release of enslaved individuals transported by other nations' ships to the Bahamas. Afro-Bahamians nowadays make up 90% of 332,634 people. [13] [13]
In 1973, the kingdom obtained government independence commanded by Sir Lynden O. Pindling, with Elizabeth II as his queen.
[13] [13] In terms of per capita gross domestic product, The Bahamas is one of America's richest countries (after the United States and Canada), with tourism-based economy and offshore banking. [14] [14]
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