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Encyclopedia > History of the Bahamas

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In 1492, Christopher Columbus made his first landfall in the Western Hemisphere in The Bahamas. He encountered friendly Arawak Indians and exchanged gifts with them. Events January 2 - Boabdil, the last Moorish King of Granada, surrenders his city to the army of Ferdinand and Isabella after a lengthy siege. ... No authentic contemporary portrait of Columbus has been found; this late 19th-century engraving is one of many conjectural images For information about the director, see the article on Chris Columbus. ... The term Arawak (from aru, the Lokono word for cassava flour), was used to designate the friendly Amerindians encountered by the Spanish in the Caribbean. ... Spanish slave traders later captured native Lucayan Indians to work in gold mines in Hispaniola, and within 25 years, all Lucayans perished. Without a source of slaves, the Spanish did not bother to colonize the islands. In 1647 during the time of the English Civil War, a group of Puritan religious refugees from the royalist colony of Bermuda, the Eleutheran Adventurers, founded the first permanent European settlement in The Bahamas and gave Eleuthera Island its name. Similar groups of settlers formed governments in The Bahamas, but the isolated cays sheltered pirates and wreckers through the 17th century. Charles II granted land in the Bahamas to the Lords proprietors of Carolina, but the islands were left entirely to themselves. After Charles Town was destroyed by a joint French and Spanish fleet in 1703, the local pirates proclaimed an anarchic 'Privateers' Republic' with Edward Teach— better known as Blackbeard— for chief magistrate. Indian slavery was a practice of the Spanish from the earliest days on the Caribbean islands they first settled. ... Hispaniola (from Spanish, La Española) is the second-largest island of the Antilles, lying east of Cuba. ... Wiktionary has a definition of: Genocide Genocide has been defined as the deliberate killing of people based on their ethnicity, nationality, race, religion, or (sometimes) politics, as well as other deliberate actions leading to the physical elimination of any of the above categories. ... Events March 14 - Thirty Years War: Bavaria, Cologne, France and Sweden sign the Truce of Ulm. ... The Puritans were members of a group of radical Protestants which developed in England after the Reformation. ... Blackbeard (1680? – November 22, 1718) was the nickname of Edward Teach alias Edward Thatch, a notorious English pirate who had a short reign of terror in the Caribbean Sea between 1716 and 1718. ... But when the islands became a British Crown Colony in 1717, the first Royal Governor, a reformed pirate named Woodes Rogers, brought law and order to The Bahamas in 1718, when he expelled the buccaneers who had used the islands as hideouts. After the American Revolution the British government issued land grants to a group of British Loyalists, and the sparse population of The Bahamas tripled in a few years. The planters thought to grow cotton, but the limy soil was unsuited, and the plantations soon failed. Many of the current inhabitants are descended from the slave population brought to work on the Loyalist plantations. When the U.K. outlawed the slave trade in 1807, the Royal Navy began intercepting ships and depositing freed slaves in The Bahamas. Plantation life was finished after the emancipation of remaining slaves in 1834. Events January 4 — The Netherlands, Britain & France sign Triple Alliance March 2 — Dancer John Weaver performs in the first ballet in Britain shown in Drury Lane The Loves of Mars and Venus March 31 - Bishop Benjamin Hoadly, acting on the advice of King George begins the Bangorian Controversy by saying... Woodes Rogers, (b. ... Events May 15 - James Puckle, a London lawyer, patents the worlds first machine gun. ... Buccaneer is a term that was used in the later 17th century in the Caribbean Islands. ... Before the Revolution: The 13 colonies are in red, the pink area was claimed by Great Britain after the French and Indian War, and the orange region was claimed by Spain. ... During the American Civil War, The Bahamas prospered as a center of Confederate blockade-running, bringing out cotton for the mills of England and running in arms and munitions. After World War I, the islands served as a base for American rumrunners. During World War II, the Allies centered their flight training and antisubmarine operations for the Caribbean in The Bahamas. Since Havana closed to American tourists in 1961, The Bahamas has developed into a major tourist resort and at the same time the establishment of Freeport as a free trade zone (1955) developed an off-shore financial services center with a reputation for a tolerant atmosphere. The American Civil War was fought in the United States from 1861 until 1865 between the United States – forces coming mostly from the 23 northern states of the Union – and the newly-formed Confederate States of America, which consisted of 11 southern states that had declared their secession. ... Missing image Ypres, 1917, in the vicinity of the Battle of Passchendaele. ... Mushroom cloud from the nuclear explosion over Nagasaki rising 18 km into the air. ... Bahamians achieved self-government through a series of constitutional and political steps, attaining internal self-government in 1964 and full independence within the Commonwealth on July 10, 1973. 1964 was a leap year starting on Wednesday (link will take you to calendar). ... Flag of the Commonwealth of Nations The Commonwealth of Nations is a voluntary association of independent sovereign states, most of which were once governed by the United Kingdom and are its former colonies. ... July 10 is the 191st day (192nd in leap years) of the year in the Gregorian Calendar, with 174 days remaining. ... 1973 was a common year starting on Monday. ... When Europeans first arrived, they reported the Bahamas were lushly forested. The forests were cleared during plantation days and have not regrown. See also: history of the Caribbean history of the Americas European colonization of the Americas Spanish colonization of the Americas British colonization of the Americas history of present-day nations and states The Caribbean before the arrival of Christopher Columbus At the time of the European discovery of the islands of the Caribbean three Native American tribes lived on the islands: the Arawak in the Bahamas, Cuba and Hispaniola; the Carib, an aggressive tribe that was moving into Arawak territory and the... The history of the Americas is the collective history of North, Central and South America and the Caribbean. ... The Vikings were the first Europeans to reach the Americas, starting but then abandoning a colonisation process. ... Spanish colonization of the Americas began with the arrival in the Americas of Christopher Columbus in 1492. ... British colonization of the Americas began in the late 16th century. ... This is a list of articles on the history of the countries that still exist today. ... Reference State Dept Country Study (http://www.state.gov/r/pa/ei/bgn/1857.htm) - Includes information on the Bahamas including history. History of The Bahamas (http://www.historyofnations.net/northamerica/bahamas.html) - Essay on the history of the islands from Pre-Columbian times to recent election. Categories: Bahamas

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	Highbeam Encyclopedia - Search Results for History Bahamas (1278 words) Bahamas, The Commonwealth of The A country in the Caribbean, consisting of a group of islands in the western Atlantic Ocean, set between Florida and Hispaniola. History of the Atlantic pearl-oyster, Pinctata imbricata, industry in Venezuela and Colombia, with biological and ecological observations. Arthropods and Predation of Artificial Nests in the Bahamas: Implications for Subtropical Avifauna. History of the Bahamas: Definition and Links by Encyclopedian.com (384 words) Similar groups of settlers formed governments in The Bahamas until the islands became a British Crown Colony in 1717. During the American Civil War, The Bahamas prospered as a center of Confederate blockade-running. See also: the history of the Caribbean, Latin American History[?], history of the Americas, European colonization of the Americas, Spanish colonization of the Americas, British colonization of the Americas, history of present-day nations and states.
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