The Bahamas
Friday, 11 November 2011 - 01:37 pm (CET/MEZ) Berlin | Author/Destination: Caribbean / Karibik General
Reading Time: 4 minutes
The Abaco Islands – Hope Town Lighthouse © bahamas.com
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The Bahamas officially the
Commonwealth of the Bahamas , is a nation consisting of 29 islands, 661 cays, and 2,387 islets (rocks). It is located in the Atlantic Ocean north of Cuba and Hispaniola (Dominican Republic and Haiti), northwest of the Turks and Caicos Islands, and southeast of the United States (nearest to the state of Florida). Its land area is 13,939 km2 (5,382 sq mi), with an estimated population of 330,000. Its capital is Nassau. Geographically, The Bahamas lie in the same island chain as Cuba, Hispaniola and the Turks and Caicos Islands; the designation of Bahamas refers normally to the Commonwealth and not the geographic chain.
Originally inhabited by the Lucayans, a branch of the Arawakan-speaking Taino people, The Bahamas were the site of Columbus’ first landfall in the New World in 1492. Although the Spanish never colonized The Bahamas, they shipped the native Lucayans to slavery in Hispaniola. The islands were mostly deserted from 1513 to 1648, when English colonists from Bermuda settled on the island of Eleuthera.Abaco , Acklins , Andros , Berry Islands , Bimini , Cat Island , Crooked Island and Long Cay , Eleuthera , Exuma , Grand Bahama , Harbour Island, Inagua , Long Island , Mayaguana , New Providence , Ragged Island , Rum Cay , San Salvador and Spanish Wells.
Paradise Island - Changing Of The Guard in Nassau © bahamas.com
The Bahamas became a Crown Colony in 1718 when the British clamped down on piracy. Following the American War of Independence, thousands of pro-British loyalists and enslaved Africans moved to The Bahamas and set up a plantation economy. The slave trade was abolished in the British Empire in 1807 and many Africans liberated from slave ships by the Royal Navy were settled in The Bahamas during the 19th century. Slavery itself was abolished in 1834 and the descendants of enslaved and liberated Africans form the bulk of The Bahamas’s population today.
In terms of GDP, the Bahamas is one of the richest countries in the Americas, (following Bermuda, The United States, Cayman Islands, Canada, and The British Virgin Islands) and one of the richest in the world whose population is predominantly of African origin.
Read more on
Government of the Bahamas ,
Bahamas Tourism ,
Wikitravel Bahamas and
Wikipedia Bahamas . Learn more about the
use of photos . To inform you about latest news most of the city, town or tourism websites offer a newsletter service and/or operate Facebook pages/Twitter accounts. In addition more and more destinations, tourist organisations and cultural institutions offer Apps for your Smart Phone or Tablet, to provide you with a mobile tourist guide (
Smart Traveler App by U.S. Department of State -
Weather report by weather.com -
Global Passport Power Rank -
Travel Risk Map -
Democracy Index -
GDP according to IMF, UN, and World Bank -
Global Competitiveness Report -
Corruption Perceptions Index -
Press Freedom Index -
World Justice Project - Rule of Law Index -
UN Human Development Index -
Global Peace Index -
Travel & Tourism Competitiveness Index ). If you have a suggestion, critique, review or comment to this blog entry, we are looking forward to receive your e-mail at
comment@wingsch.net . Please name the headline of the blog post to which your e-mail refers to in the subject line.
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