The Bahamas (/bəˈhɑːməz/ (About this soundlisten)), known officially as the Commonwealth of the Bahamas,[10] is a country within the Lucayan Archipelago, in the Caribbean. The archipelagic state consists of more than 700 islands, cays, and islets in the Atlantic Ocean, and is located north of Cuba and Hispaniola (Haiti and the Dominican Republic), northwest of the Turks and Caicos Islands, southeast of the U.S. state of Florida, and east of the Florida Keys. The capital is Nassau on the island of New Providence. The designation of "the Bahamas" can refer either to the country or to the larger island chain that it shares with the Turks and Caicos Islands.[citation needed] The Royal Bahamas Defence Force describes the Bahamas territory as encompassing 470,000 km2 (180,000 sq mi) of ocean space.
The Bahamas were inhabited by the Lucayans, a branch of the Arawakan-speaking Taíno people, for many centuries.[11] Columbus was the first European to see the islands, making his first landfall in the 'New World' in 1492. Although the Spanish never colonised the Bahamas, they shipped the native Lucayans to slavery on Hispaniola. The islands were mostly deserted from 1513 until 1648, when English colonists from Bermuda settled on the island of Eleuthera.
The Bahamas became a British crown colony in 1718, when the British clamped down on piracy. After the American Revolutionary War, the Crown resettled thousands of American Loyalists in the Bahamas; they took their slaves with them and established plantations on land grants. African slaves and their descendants constituted the majority of the population from this period on. The slave trade was abolished by the British in 1807; slavery in the Bahamas was abolished in 1834. Subsequently, the Bahamas became a haven for freed African slaves. Africans liberated from illegal slave ships were resettled on the islands by The Royal Navy, while some North American slaves and Seminoles escaped to the Bahamas from Florida. Bahamians were even known to recognize the freedom of slaves carried by the ships of other nations which reached the Bahamas. Today Afro-Bahamians make up 90% of the population of 332,600.[11]
The Bahamas became an independent Commonwealth realm in 1973 with Elizabeth II as its queen.[11] In terms of gross domestic product per capita, the Bahamas is one of the richest countries in the Americas (following the United States and Canada), with an economy based on tourism and offshore finance
Etymology
The name Bahamas is most likely derived from either the Taíno ba ha ma ("big upper middle land"), which was a term for the region used by the indigenous Native Americans,[13] or possibly from the Spanish baja mar ("shallow water or sea" or "low tide") reflecting the shallow waters of the area. Alternatively, it may originate from Guanahani, a local name of unclear meaning.[14]
The word The constitutes an integral part of the short form of the name and is, therefore, capitalised. So in contrast to "the Congo" and "the United Kingdom", it is proper to write "The Bahamas". The name The Bahamas is thus comparable with certain non-English names that also use the definite article, such as Las Vegas or Los Angeles. The Constitution of the Commonwealth of The Bahamas, the country's fundamental law, capitalizes the "T" in "The Bahamas".[15]
History
Main article: History of The Bahamas
Pre-colonial era
The first inhabitants of the Bahamas were the Taino people, who moved into the uninhabited southern islands from Hispaniola and Cuba around the 800s-1000s AD, having migrated there from South America; they came to be known as the Lucayan people.[16] An estimated 30,000 Lucayans inhabited The Bahamas at the time of Christopher Columbus's arrival in 1492.[citation needed]
Arrival of the Spanish
Columbus's first landfall in what was to Europeans a 'New World' was on an island he named San Salvador (known to the Lucayans as Guanahani).[16] Whilst there is a general consensus that this island lay within the Bahamas, precisely which island Columbus landed on is a matter of scholarly debate.[16] Some researchers believe the site to be present-day San Salvador Island (formerly known as Watling's Island), situated in the southeastern Bahamas, whilst an alternative theory holds that Columbus landed to the southeast on Samana Cay, according to calculations made in 1986 by National Geographic writer and editor Joseph Judge, based on Columbus's log.[16] On the landfall island, Columbus made first contact with the Lucayans and exchanged goods with them, claiming the islands for Spain, before proceeding to explore the larger isles of the Greater Antilles.[16]
The 1494 Treaty of Tordesillas theoretically divided the new territories between Spain and Portugal, placing the Bahamas in the Spanish sphere; however they did little to press their claim on the ground.[16] The Spanish did however make use of the native Lucayan peoples, many of whom were enslaved and sent to Hispaniola for use as forced labour.[16] The slaves suffered from harsh conditions and most died from contracting diseases to which they had no immunity; half of the Taino died from smallpox alone.[18] As a result of these depredations the population of the Bahamas was severely diminished.[19]
Arrival of the English
The English had expressed an interest in the Bahamas as early as 1629,[16] however, it was not until 1648 that the first English settlers arrived on the islands.[16] Known as the Eleutherian Adventurers and led by William Sayle, they migrated to Bermuda seeking greater religious freedom.[16] These English Puritans established the first permanent European settlement on an island which they named 'Eleuthera', Greek for 'freedom'. They later settled New Providence, naming it Sayle's Island. Life proved harder than envisaged however, and many – including Sayle – chose to return to Bermuda.[16] To survive, the remaining settlers salvaged goods from wrecks.
In 1670, King Charles II granted the islands to the Lords Proprietors of the Carolinas in North America. They rented the islands from the king with rights of trading, tax, appointing governors, and administering the country from their base on New Providence.[20][16] Piracy and attacks from hostile foreign powers were a constant threat. In 1684, Spanish corsair Juan de Alcon raided the capital Charles Town (later renamed Nassau),[21] and in 1703, a joint Franco-Spanish expedition briefly occupied Nassau during the War of the Spanish Succession.[22][23]
18th century
During proprietary rule, the Bahamas became a haven for pirates, including Blackbeard (circa 1680–1718).[24] To put an end to the 'Pirates' republic' and restore orderly government, Great Britain made the Bahamas a crown colony in 1718 under the royal governorship of Woodes Rogers.[16] After a difficult struggle, he succeeded in suppressing piracy.[25] In 1720, Rogers led local militia to drive off a Spanish attack during the War of the Quadruple Alliance.[26] In 1729, a local assembly was established giving a degree of self-governance for the English settlers.[16][27] The reforms had been planned by the previous Governor George Phenney and authorised in July 1728.[28]
During the American War of Independence in the late 18th century, the islands became a target for US naval forces under the command of Commodore Esek Hopkins; US Marines occupied Nassau for a brief period in 1776.[16] In 1782, following the British defeat at Yorktown, a Spanish fleet appeared off the coast of Nassau. The city surrendered without a fight.[16] Spain returned possession of the Bahamas to Great Britain the following year, under the terms of the Treaty of Paris.[16] Before the news was received however, the islands were recaptured by a small British force led by Andrew Deveaux.[16]
After US independence, the British resettled some 7,300 Loyalists with their African slaves in the Bahamas, including 2,000 from New York[29] and at least 1,033 whites, 2,214 blacks and a few Native American Creeks from East Florida. Most of the refugees resettled from New York had fled from other colonies, including West Florida, which the Spanish captured during the war.[30] The government granted land to the planters to help compensate for losses on the continent.[16] These Loyalists, who included Deveaux and also Lord Dunmore, established plantations on several islands and became a political force in the capital.[16] European Americans were outnumbered by the African-American slaves they brought with them, and ethnic Europeans remained a minority in the territory.
19th century
In 1807, the British abolished the slave trade.[16] During the following decades, the Royal Navy intercepted the trade; they resettled in The Bahamas thousands of Africans liberated from slave ships.
In the 1820s during the period of the Seminole Wars in Florida, hundreds of North American slaves and African Seminoles escaped from Cape Florida to The Bahamas. They settled mostly on northwest Andros Island, where they developed the village of Red Bays. From eyewitness accounts, 300 escaped in a mass flight in 1823, aided by Bahamians in 27 sloops, with others using canoes for the journey. This was commemorated in 2004 by a large sign at Bill Baggs Cape Florida State Park.[31][32] Some of their descendants in Red Bays continue African Seminole traditions in basket making and grave marking.[33]
In 1818,[34] the Home Office in London had ruled that "any slave brought to The Bahamas from outside the British West Indies would be manumitted." This led to a total of nearly 300 slaves owned by US nationals being freed from 1830 to 1835.[35] The American slave ships Comet and Encomium used in the United States domestic coastwise slave trade, were wrecked off Abaco Island in December 1830 and February 1834, respectively. When wreckers took the masters, passengers and slaves into Nassau, customs officers seized the slaves and British colonial officials freed them, over the protests of the Americans. There were 165 slaves on the Comet and 48 on the Encomium. The United Kingdom finally paid an indemnity to the United States in those two cases in 1855, under the Treaty of Claims of 1853, which settled several compensation cases between the two countries.[36][37]
Slavery was abolished in the British Empire on 1 August 1834.[16] After that British colonial officials freed 78 North American slaves from the Enterprise, which went into Bermuda in 1835; and 38 from the Hermosa, which wrecked off Abaco Island in 1840.[38] The most notable case was that of the Creole in 1841: as a result of a slave revolt on board, the leaders ordered the US brig to Nassau. It was carrying 135 slaves from Virginia destined for sale in New Orleans. The Bahamian officials freed the 128 slaves who chose to stay in the islands. The Creole case has been described as the "most successful slave revolt in U.S. history".[39]
These incidents, in which a total of 447 slaves belonging to US nationals were freed from 1830 to 1842, increased tension between the United States and the United Kingdom. They had been co-operating in patrols to suppress the international slave trade. However, worried about the stability of its large domestic slave trade and its value, the United States argued that the United Kingdom should not treat its domestic ships that came to its colonial ports under duress as part of the international trade.[citation needed] The United States worried that the success of the Creole slaves in gaining freedom would encourage more slave revolts on merchant ships.
During the American Civil War of the 1860s, the islands briefly prospered as a focus for blockade runners aiding the Confederate States.[40][41]
Early 20th century
The early decades of the 20th century were ones of hardship for many Bahamians, characterised by a stagnant economy and widespread poverty.[16] Many eked out a living via subsistence agriculture or fishing
In August 1940, the Duke of Windsor was appointed governor of the Bahamas. He arrived in the colony with his wife, the Duchess. Although disheartened at the condition of Government House, they "tried to make the best of a bad situation".[42] He did not enjoy the position, and referred to the islands as "a third-class British colony".[43] He opened the small local parliament on 29 October 1940. The couple visited the "Out Islands" that November, on Axel Wenner-Gren's yacht, which caused controversy;[44] the British Foreign Office strenuously objected because they had been advised by United States intelligence that Wenner-Gren was a close friend of the Luftwaffe commander Hermann Göring of Nazi Germany.[44][45]
The Duke was praised at the time for his efforts to combat poverty on the islands. A 1991 biography by Philip Ziegler, however, described him as contemptuous of the Bahamians and other non-European peoples of the Empire. He was praised for his resolution of civil unrest over low wages in Nassau in June 1942, when there was a "full-scale riot".[46] Ziegler said that the Duke blamed the trouble on "mischief makers – communists" and "men of Central European Jewish descent, who had secured jobs as a pretext for obtaining a deferment of draft".[47] The Duke resigned from the post on 16 March 1945.[48][49]
Post-Second World War
Modern political development began after the Second World War. The first political parties were formed in the 1950s, split broadly along ethnic lines - the United Bahamian Party (UBP) representing the English-descended Bahamians (known informally as the 'Bay Street Boys'),[50] and the Progressive Liberal Party (PLP) representing the Afro-Bahamian majority.[16]
A new constitution granting The Bahamas internal autonomy went into effect on 7 January 1964, with Chief Minister Sir Roland Symonette of the UBP becoming the first Premier.[51]:p.73[52] In 1967, Lynden Pindling of the PLP became the first black Premier of the Bahamian colony; in 1968, the title of the position was changed to Prime Minister. In 1968, Pindling announced that The Bahamas would seek full independence.[53] A new constitution giving The Bahamas increased control over its own affairs was adopted in 1968.[54] In 1971, the UBP merged with a disaffected faction of the PLP to form a new party, the Free National Movement (FNM), a de-racialised, centre-right party which aimed to counter the growing power of Pindling's PLP.[55]
The British House of Lords voted to give The Bahamas its independence on 22 June 1973.[56] Prince Charles delivered the official documents to Prime Minister Lynden Pindling, officially declaring The Bahamas a fully independent nation on 10 July 1973.[57] It joined the Commonwealth of Nations on the same day.[58] Sir Milo Butler was appointed the first governor-general of the Bahamas (the official representative of Queen Elizabeth II) shortly after independence.
Post-independence
Shortly after independence, The Bahamas joined the International Monetary Fund and the World Bank on 22 August 1973,[59] and later the United Nations on 18 September 1973.[60]
Politically, the first two decades were dominated by Pindling's PLP, who went on to win a string of electoral victories.[16] Allegations of corruption, links with drug cartels and financial malfeasance within the Bahamian government failed to dent Pindling's popularity.[16] Meanwhile, the economy underwent a dramatic growth period fuelled by the twin pillars of tourism and offshore finance, significantly raising the standard of living on the islands.[16] The Bahamas' booming economy led to it becoming a beacon for immigrants, most notably from Haiti.[16]
In 1992, Pindling was unseated by Hubert Ingraham of the FNM.[51]:p.78 Ingraham went on to win the 1997 Bahamian general election, before being defeated in 2002, when the PLP returned to power under Perry Christie.[51]:p.82 Ingraham returned to power from 2007-2012, followed by Christie again from 2012-17.[16] With economic growth faltering, Bahamians re-elected the FNM in 2017, with Hubert Minnis becoming the 4th Prime Minister
The Bahamas were inhabited by the Lucayans, a branch of the Arawakan-speaking Taíno people, for many centuries.[11] Columbus was the first European to see the islands, making his first landfall in the 'New World' in 1492. Although the Spanish never colonised the Bahamas, they shipped the native Lucayans to slavery on Hispaniola. The islands were mostly deserted from 1513 until 1648, when English colonists from Bermuda settled on the island of Eleuthera.
The Bahamas became a British crown colony in 1718, when the British clamped down on piracy. After the American Revolutionary War, the Crown resettled thousands of American Loyalists in the Bahamas; they took their slaves with them and established plantations on land grants. African slaves and their descendants constituted the majority of the population from this period on. The slave trade was abolished by the British in 1807; slavery in the Bahamas was abolished in 1834. Subsequently, the Bahamas became a haven for freed African slaves. Africans liberated from illegal slave ships were resettled on the islands by The Royal Navy, while some North American slaves and Seminoles escaped to the Bahamas from Florida. Bahamians were even known to recognize the freedom of slaves carried by the ships of other nations which reached the Bahamas. Today Afro-Bahamians make up 90% of the population of 332,600.[11]
The Bahamas became an independent Commonwealth realm in 1973 with Elizabeth II as its queen.[11] In terms of gross domestic product per capita, the Bahamas is one of the richest countries in the Americas (following the United States and Canada), with an economy based on tourism and offshore finance
Etymology
The name Bahamas is most likely derived from either the Taíno ba ha ma ("big upper middle land"), which was a term for the region used by the indigenous Native Americans,[13] or possibly from the Spanish baja mar ("shallow water or sea" or "low tide") reflecting the shallow waters of the area. Alternatively, it may originate from Guanahani, a local name of unclear meaning.[14]
The word The constitutes an integral part of the short form of the name and is, therefore, capitalised. So in contrast to "the Congo" and "the United Kingdom", it is proper to write "The Bahamas". The name The Bahamas is thus comparable with certain non-English names that also use the definite article, such as Las Vegas or Los Angeles. The Constitution of the Commonwealth of The Bahamas, the country's fundamental law, capitalizes the "T" in "The Bahamas".[15]
History
Main article: History of The Bahamas
Pre-colonial era
The first inhabitants of the Bahamas were the Taino people, who moved into the uninhabited southern islands from Hispaniola and Cuba around the 800s-1000s AD, having migrated there from South America; they came to be known as the Lucayan people.[16] An estimated 30,000 Lucayans inhabited The Bahamas at the time of Christopher Columbus's arrival in 1492.[citation needed]
Arrival of the Spanish
Columbus's first landfall in what was to Europeans a 'New World' was on an island he named San Salvador (known to the Lucayans as Guanahani).[16] Whilst there is a general consensus that this island lay within the Bahamas, precisely which island Columbus landed on is a matter of scholarly debate.[16] Some researchers believe the site to be present-day San Salvador Island (formerly known as Watling's Island), situated in the southeastern Bahamas, whilst an alternative theory holds that Columbus landed to the southeast on Samana Cay, according to calculations made in 1986 by National Geographic writer and editor Joseph Judge, based on Columbus's log.[16] On the landfall island, Columbus made first contact with the Lucayans and exchanged goods with them, claiming the islands for Spain, before proceeding to explore the larger isles of the Greater Antilles.[16]
The 1494 Treaty of Tordesillas theoretically divided the new territories between Spain and Portugal, placing the Bahamas in the Spanish sphere; however they did little to press their claim on the ground.[16] The Spanish did however make use of the native Lucayan peoples, many of whom were enslaved and sent to Hispaniola for use as forced labour.[16] The slaves suffered from harsh conditions and most died from contracting diseases to which they had no immunity; half of the Taino died from smallpox alone.[18] As a result of these depredations the population of the Bahamas was severely diminished.[19]
Arrival of the English
The English had expressed an interest in the Bahamas as early as 1629,[16] however, it was not until 1648 that the first English settlers arrived on the islands.[16] Known as the Eleutherian Adventurers and led by William Sayle, they migrated to Bermuda seeking greater religious freedom.[16] These English Puritans established the first permanent European settlement on an island which they named 'Eleuthera', Greek for 'freedom'. They later settled New Providence, naming it Sayle's Island. Life proved harder than envisaged however, and many – including Sayle – chose to return to Bermuda.[16] To survive, the remaining settlers salvaged goods from wrecks.
In 1670, King Charles II granted the islands to the Lords Proprietors of the Carolinas in North America. They rented the islands from the king with rights of trading, tax, appointing governors, and administering the country from their base on New Providence.[20][16] Piracy and attacks from hostile foreign powers were a constant threat. In 1684, Spanish corsair Juan de Alcon raided the capital Charles Town (later renamed Nassau),[21] and in 1703, a joint Franco-Spanish expedition briefly occupied Nassau during the War of the Spanish Succession.[22][23]
18th century
During proprietary rule, the Bahamas became a haven for pirates, including Blackbeard (circa 1680–1718).[24] To put an end to the 'Pirates' republic' and restore orderly government, Great Britain made the Bahamas a crown colony in 1718 under the royal governorship of Woodes Rogers.[16] After a difficult struggle, he succeeded in suppressing piracy.[25] In 1720, Rogers led local militia to drive off a Spanish attack during the War of the Quadruple Alliance.[26] In 1729, a local assembly was established giving a degree of self-governance for the English settlers.[16][27] The reforms had been planned by the previous Governor George Phenney and authorised in July 1728.[28]
During the American War of Independence in the late 18th century, the islands became a target for US naval forces under the command of Commodore Esek Hopkins; US Marines occupied Nassau for a brief period in 1776.[16] In 1782, following the British defeat at Yorktown, a Spanish fleet appeared off the coast of Nassau. The city surrendered without a fight.[16] Spain returned possession of the Bahamas to Great Britain the following year, under the terms of the Treaty of Paris.[16] Before the news was received however, the islands were recaptured by a small British force led by Andrew Deveaux.[16]
After US independence, the British resettled some 7,300 Loyalists with their African slaves in the Bahamas, including 2,000 from New York[29] and at least 1,033 whites, 2,214 blacks and a few Native American Creeks from East Florida. Most of the refugees resettled from New York had fled from other colonies, including West Florida, which the Spanish captured during the war.[30] The government granted land to the planters to help compensate for losses on the continent.[16] These Loyalists, who included Deveaux and also Lord Dunmore, established plantations on several islands and became a political force in the capital.[16] European Americans were outnumbered by the African-American slaves they brought with them, and ethnic Europeans remained a minority in the territory.
19th century
In 1807, the British abolished the slave trade.[16] During the following decades, the Royal Navy intercepted the trade; they resettled in The Bahamas thousands of Africans liberated from slave ships.
In the 1820s during the period of the Seminole Wars in Florida, hundreds of North American slaves and African Seminoles escaped from Cape Florida to The Bahamas. They settled mostly on northwest Andros Island, where they developed the village of Red Bays. From eyewitness accounts, 300 escaped in a mass flight in 1823, aided by Bahamians in 27 sloops, with others using canoes for the journey. This was commemorated in 2004 by a large sign at Bill Baggs Cape Florida State Park.[31][32] Some of their descendants in Red Bays continue African Seminole traditions in basket making and grave marking.[33]
In 1818,[34] the Home Office in London had ruled that "any slave brought to The Bahamas from outside the British West Indies would be manumitted." This led to a total of nearly 300 slaves owned by US nationals being freed from 1830 to 1835.[35] The American slave ships Comet and Encomium used in the United States domestic coastwise slave trade, were wrecked off Abaco Island in December 1830 and February 1834, respectively. When wreckers took the masters, passengers and slaves into Nassau, customs officers seized the slaves and British colonial officials freed them, over the protests of the Americans. There were 165 slaves on the Comet and 48 on the Encomium. The United Kingdom finally paid an indemnity to the United States in those two cases in 1855, under the Treaty of Claims of 1853, which settled several compensation cases between the two countries.[36][37]
Slavery was abolished in the British Empire on 1 August 1834.[16] After that British colonial officials freed 78 North American slaves from the Enterprise, which went into Bermuda in 1835; and 38 from the Hermosa, which wrecked off Abaco Island in 1840.[38] The most notable case was that of the Creole in 1841: as a result of a slave revolt on board, the leaders ordered the US brig to Nassau. It was carrying 135 slaves from Virginia destined for sale in New Orleans. The Bahamian officials freed the 128 slaves who chose to stay in the islands. The Creole case has been described as the "most successful slave revolt in U.S. history".[39]
These incidents, in which a total of 447 slaves belonging to US nationals were freed from 1830 to 1842, increased tension between the United States and the United Kingdom. They had been co-operating in patrols to suppress the international slave trade. However, worried about the stability of its large domestic slave trade and its value, the United States argued that the United Kingdom should not treat its domestic ships that came to its colonial ports under duress as part of the international trade.[citation needed] The United States worried that the success of the Creole slaves in gaining freedom would encourage more slave revolts on merchant ships.
During the American Civil War of the 1860s, the islands briefly prospered as a focus for blockade runners aiding the Confederate States.[40][41]
Early 20th century
The early decades of the 20th century were ones of hardship for many Bahamians, characterised by a stagnant economy and widespread poverty.[16] Many eked out a living via subsistence agriculture or fishing
In August 1940, the Duke of Windsor was appointed governor of the Bahamas. He arrived in the colony with his wife, the Duchess. Although disheartened at the condition of Government House, they "tried to make the best of a bad situation".[42] He did not enjoy the position, and referred to the islands as "a third-class British colony".[43] He opened the small local parliament on 29 October 1940. The couple visited the "Out Islands" that November, on Axel Wenner-Gren's yacht, which caused controversy;[44] the British Foreign Office strenuously objected because they had been advised by United States intelligence that Wenner-Gren was a close friend of the Luftwaffe commander Hermann Göring of Nazi Germany.[44][45]
The Duke was praised at the time for his efforts to combat poverty on the islands. A 1991 biography by Philip Ziegler, however, described him as contemptuous of the Bahamians and other non-European peoples of the Empire. He was praised for his resolution of civil unrest over low wages in Nassau in June 1942, when there was a "full-scale riot".[46] Ziegler said that the Duke blamed the trouble on "mischief makers – communists" and "men of Central European Jewish descent, who had secured jobs as a pretext for obtaining a deferment of draft".[47] The Duke resigned from the post on 16 March 1945.[48][49]
Post-Second World War
Modern political development began after the Second World War. The first political parties were formed in the 1950s, split broadly along ethnic lines - the United Bahamian Party (UBP) representing the English-descended Bahamians (known informally as the 'Bay Street Boys'),[50] and the Progressive Liberal Party (PLP) representing the Afro-Bahamian majority.[16]
A new constitution granting The Bahamas internal autonomy went into effect on 7 January 1964, with Chief Minister Sir Roland Symonette of the UBP becoming the first Premier.[51]:p.73[52] In 1967, Lynden Pindling of the PLP became the first black Premier of the Bahamian colony; in 1968, the title of the position was changed to Prime Minister. In 1968, Pindling announced that The Bahamas would seek full independence.[53] A new constitution giving The Bahamas increased control over its own affairs was adopted in 1968.[54] In 1971, the UBP merged with a disaffected faction of the PLP to form a new party, the Free National Movement (FNM), a de-racialised, centre-right party which aimed to counter the growing power of Pindling's PLP.[55]
The British House of Lords voted to give The Bahamas its independence on 22 June 1973.[56] Prince Charles delivered the official documents to Prime Minister Lynden Pindling, officially declaring The Bahamas a fully independent nation on 10 July 1973.[57] It joined the Commonwealth of Nations on the same day.[58] Sir Milo Butler was appointed the first governor-general of the Bahamas (the official representative of Queen Elizabeth II) shortly after independence.
Post-independence
Shortly after independence, The Bahamas joined the International Monetary Fund and the World Bank on 22 August 1973,[59] and later the United Nations on 18 September 1973.[60]
Politically, the first two decades were dominated by Pindling's PLP, who went on to win a string of electoral victories.[16] Allegations of corruption, links with drug cartels and financial malfeasance within the Bahamian government failed to dent Pindling's popularity.[16] Meanwhile, the economy underwent a dramatic growth period fuelled by the twin pillars of tourism and offshore finance, significantly raising the standard of living on the islands.[16] The Bahamas' booming economy led to it becoming a beacon for immigrants, most notably from Haiti.[16]
In 1992, Pindling was unseated by Hubert Ingraham of the FNM.[51]:p.78 Ingraham went on to win the 1997 Bahamian general election, before being defeated in 2002, when the PLP returned to power under Perry Christie.[51]:p.82 Ingraham returned to power from 2007-2012, followed by Christie again from 2012-17.[16] With economic growth faltering, Bahamians re-elected the FNM in 2017, with Hubert Minnis becoming the 4th Prime Minister
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