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Caribbean Islands THE BAHAMAS
COUNTRY PROFILE: The Bahamas
Official Name: of the Bahamas
Term for Citizens:
Status: 1973
Form of Government: democracy and constitutional
monarchy
GEOGRAPHY
Size: sq. km.
Topography: low-lying islands
Climate:
POPULATION
Total estimated in 1986:
Annual growth rate (in percentage) in 1973-83:
Life expectancy at birth in 1984:
Adult literacy rate (in percentage) in 1984:
Language: some Haitian creole
Ethnic groups: (85 percent), white (15 percent)
Religion: Anglican, Baptist, or Roman Catholic
ECONOMY
Currency: Bahamian dollar (B$)
Exchange rate: B$1.00=US$1.00
Gross domestic product (GDP) in 1985: billion
Per capita GDP in 1985 of GDP (in percentage) in 1985:
Tourism and finance services
NATIONAL SECURITY
Armed forces personnel: personnel
The Bahamas stands out among the Commonwealth Caribbean nations
because of its relative wealth and prosperity, political stability,
and close proximity to the United States. The Bahamas also bears
the distinction of being the first of the Caribbean islands
discovered by Columbus in 1492 on his first transatlantic voyage in
search of a new route to India. Several islands in the Bahamas have
been named as Columbus's first landing site in the Caribbean, but
until very recently, Watling Island was the most widely accepted
location; in 1926 it was renamed San Salvador, the name bestowed by
Columbus himself. In 1986, however, after an extensive five-year
investigation, a National Geographic Society team announced that
Samana Cay, a small isolated island in the far eastern Bahamas, was
the most probable location of Columbus's first landfall.
Upon his arrival, Columbus encountered natives known as
Lucayans, related to the Arawak Indians (see The Pre-European
Population, ch. 1). Within a quarter of a century, however, the
Lucayans had been decimated, the result of diseases brought by the
Europeans and of having been forced to work in the mines of
Hispaniola (the island containing present-day Haiti and the
Dominican Republic). For the next century, the Bahamas was a
forgotten colony. Attention was focused instead on the mineral
wealth of the other Caribbean islands.
The first permanent settlement was not established until 1649,
when Puritans from the English colony of Bermuda founded Eleuthera,
which in Greek means "place of freedom." The colonists, known as
Eleutheran Adventurers, set out to establish a colony where they
could practice their religion freely, as in the colonies settled by
the Pilgrims in New England. In 1666 other English settlers
established a colony on New Providence and founded Charlestown,
which was renamed Nassau near the end of the seventeenth century.
Throughout the seventeenth century, the islands served as a
favorite base for pirates, but after the era of piracy came to a
close in 1718, commerce was restored to the settlement.
British loyalists and their slaves arrived from the mainland
colonies in the wake of the British defeat in the American
Revolution. In the 1780s, the population of New Providence tripled,
and the first substantial settlement was made on Great Abaco
Island. Cotton plantations were established as the southern life of
the North American mainland colonies was reproduced in the Bahamas.
However, the Abolition of Slavery Act of 1833 and the termination
of post-abolition apprenticeships and indentured servanthood in
1838 marked the end of slavery in the Bahamas (see The PostEmancipation Societies, ch. 1). The Bahamian economy prospered
during the United States Civil War, as Nassau served as an
important base for blockade-running by the Confederate States. The
war's end, however, set in motion an economic tailspin that lasted
for the next half-century. Little economic development occurred
other than in the areas of sponging, pineapple cultivation, and
tourism.
The passage of the Volstead Act (Prohibition Act) by the United
States in 1919 was a bonanza for the Bahamas. The islands served as
a base for United States prohibition runners, and the port of
Nassau became congested once again. The introduction of commercial
aircraft in the 1930s enabled the Bahamas tourism sector to develop
as a mainstay of the nation's economy. The development of tourism
helped mitigate the combined impact of the United States repeal of
prohibition in 1933 and a marine disease in 1938 that devastated
the sponging industry. During World War II, the Bahamas prospered
as Britain established two air force bases on the islands; the
Royal Air Force set up a bomber base to ferry new airplanes to
European combat zones and to operate a training school for flight
and antisubmarine operations in the Caribbean.
After World War II, the Bahamas developed economically and
politically. The nation began to exploit its tourism sector more
fully; by the end of the 1940s, tourism had become the principal
business. In the 1960s, the nation also developed into an
international finance center because of taxation and foreign
capital movement legislation in the United States and Western
Europe. In 1987 tourism and banking remained the two most important
economic sectors in the Bahamas.
The Bahamas also underwent a major political transformation in
the postwar era. The first political parties and trade union
federations were founded in the 1950s. In 1964, after more than two
centuries of British colonial rule, constitutional changes were
negotiated at a conference in London; a new constitution replaced
the nation's old representative government with a premier (the
preindependence title for prime minister) and a cabinet. In 1967 a
bicameral legislature was established, and the first independent
government was elected. Full internal self-government was achieved
with the signing of the 1969 constitution; and the name of the
colony was officially changed to the Commonwealth of the Bahamas.
A final constitutional conference was held in 1972, paving the way
for national independence. On July 10, 1973, the new independence
Constitution was presented to Prime Minister Lynden O. Pindling by
Prince Charles on behalf of Queen Elizabeth II; with that, the
Bahamas became a sovereign independent nation.
Data as of November 1987
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