The History of the Bahamas

 

        The Bahamas is an island located in the Caribbean sea, off the east code of Florida and Northeast of Cuba. It is also an archipelagic Commonwealth nation. The Bahamas has about 330,000 inhabitants with 90% of them being African descendants. Imagine with that big of a percentage, it has one wondering if African people were the first to inhabit the island or if there were people before them. 

    With that said, the Bahamas was first conquered by the Spanish. The famous explorer, Christopher Columbus, had discovered an island located southeast of the Bahamas which he later named it San Salvador Island. Then, the years went by and the British colonized the Bahamas in 1629. Up until the early 1700s, pirates wanted to establish and colonize the Bahamas. But Woodes Rogers, an English sea captain, kicked the pirates out colonized the Bahamas as a crown colony in 1718. Around the late 1700s, loyalists from Britain would move to the Bahamas along with their African slaves. Adding on to that, Haitians would migrate to the Bahamas around the mid 20th century to escape slavery and harsh treatment. 

    With years going by, the British held a conference in deciding on a new constitution for the Bahamas.  They came to a decision on allowing the Bahamas to be self governed in May 1963. On January 7, 1964 the decision finalized and became part of the commonwealth. 

    Due to the many times the Bahamas was colonized, it brought variety of culture and history to the island. Because the Bahamas is surrounded by the sea, fish, lobster, crab, etc. make many of the foods there.