Capital Nassau
Largest city Nassau
Official language(s) English
Population
323,000
Currency Dollar
Calling code +1-242

Christopher Columbus's first landfall in the New World in 1492 is considered to have been on the island of San Salvador (likewise called Watling's Island), in the southeastern Bahamas. He encountered Taino (as well known as Lucayan) Amerindians and exchanged gifts with them.

Taino Indians from each northwestern Hispaniola & northeastern Cuba moved into the southern Bahamas approximately the 7th century AD and became the Lucayans. They appear to have colonised the entire archipelago along the 12th century AD. There may have been as numerous as 40,000 Lucayans living in the Bahamas when Columbus arrived.

The Bahamian Lucayans were exiled to Hispaniola as slaves, & in two decades Taino societies ceased to live as a separate population due to forced labour, warfare, disease, emigration and outmarriage.

After the Lucayans were destroyed, the Bahamian islands were abandoned until the arrival of English settlers from Bermuda in 1650. Known as the Eleutherian Adventurers, these people founded settlements on the island nowadays known as Eleuthera (from the Greek word for freedom).

The Bahamas became a British crown colony in 1718 but stayed sparsely settled down until the newly freelance United States expelled hundreds to thousands of American Tories & their slaves. numerous of those British Loyalists were given compensatory soil grants in Canada & the Bahamas. A few 8,000 loyalists & their slaves went to the Bahamas in the late 1700s from New York, Florida and the Carolinas.

The British granted the islands internal self-government in 1964 and, in 1973, Bahamians accomplished fully independence while remaining a member of the Commonwealth of Nations. Since the 1950s, the Bahamian economy has prospered based on the twin pillars of tourism and financial services.

Despite this nevertheless the country however faces significant challenges in areas such as education, healthcare, correctional facilites & wild crime & illegal in-migration. The urban renewal project has been established in recent years to facilitate impoverished urban areas in social decline in the main islands. Now, the country enjoys the third highest per capita income in the american hemisphere.

A few say the name 'Bahamas' derives caused by the Spanish for "shallow sea", baja mar. Others trace it to the Lucayan word for Grand Bahama Island, ba-ha-ma ("large upper middle soil").

Bahamian culture is a hybrid of African, European determines. Perhaps its most notable expression is a rhythmic form of music called junkanoo. Aside from the Junkanoo, other indigenous organizes of music include rake and scrape, calypso, and a unparalleled form of hymnal, acknowledge internationally through the music of Joseph Spence, who is now deceased. Marching bands are as well an significant part of life, performing at funerals, weddings & other ceremonial events.

In the lower evolved out islands - for instance known as "family islands" - crafts include basketry manufactured from palm fronds. This material, commonly called "straw", is likewise plaited into hats & bags that are popular tourist items In todays world.

Regattas are important social events in many family island colonies. They normally feature one or extra days of sailing along old-fashioned function boats, as well as an onshore festival.

A few settlements have festivals associated with the traditional crop or food of that area, such as as the "pineapple fest" in Gregory Town, Eleuthera or the "crab fest" on Andros. Other significant traditions admit story telling & the practice of Obeah.

There is no real national sport in The Bahamas. Although British sports love cricket & soccer were once popular, American influences are stronger today as can be seen given by the popularity of basketball, softball and American football. At that place are several globe class Bahamian track & field athletes.

The Bahamas has gain Olympic gold medals in sailing (Sir Durwood Knowles & Cecile Cooke - 1964), & track and athletic field (Tonique Williams-Darling - 2004, & womens relay team - 2000)