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Bahamas Cities with Hotels
 Bahama Islands or Bahamas, officially
Commonwealth of the Bahamas, independent state, West Indies, a member of the
Commonwealth of Nations. The Bahamas comprise an archipelago of about 700
islands and islets and nearly 2400 cays and rocks, extending for about 1200 km
(about 750 mi) from a point southeast of Palm Beach, Florida, to a point off the
eastern tip of Cuba.
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Bahamas
The Biminis, the westernmost of the group, are about 97 km
(about 60 mi) east of Miami, Florida. Only about 40 of the islands are
inhabited. New Providence is economically the most important of the group and
contains more than half of the Bahamas' total population, which is about 85
percent black. The other chief islands, all of which are low-lying, include
Acklins, Andros, Cat, Crooked, Eleuthera, Grand Bahama, Great Abaco, Great
Inagua, Harbour, Long, Mayaguana, and San Salvador (Watling). The capital of the
islands is Nassau (population, 1990, 171,542), on New Providence. The only other
large town is Freeport (1980, 24,423), on Grand Bahama.
Economy
Possessing a pleasant subtropical climate and splendid
beaches, the Bahamas are one of the most popular year-round resorts in the
western hemisphere, visited annually by some 3 million tourists. Tourism
represents about 50 percent of the gross national product. Because of favorable
tax laws, the Bahamas have become an international banking center. Industrial
activity is limited; it includes the transshipment and refining of petroleum and
the production of steel pipe, pharmaceuticals, salt, rum, and shellfish. The
unit of currency is the Bahamas dollar (1 Bahamas dollar equals U.S.$1; 1990).
History
In 1492 Christopher Columbus made his first landing in the
New World in the Bahamas, on an island then inhabited by Arawak people. He named
the island San Salvador; some scientists now believe it to be Samana Cay. The
first permanent European inhabitants were not the Spanish, however, but the
British, who settled Eleuthera and New Providence about 1648. During its early
years the settlement was repeatedly attacked by the Spanish. The islands were
later the stronghold of buccaneers and pirates, notably the infamous Blackbeard.
The Bahamas were ruled by the proprietary governors of the British colony of
Carolina from 1670 to 1717, when the British crown assumed direct control of
civilian and military affairs. In 1776, during the American Revolution, Nassau
was held for a short time by American naval forces, and Spain held the islands
in 1782 and 1783; they became a British colony in 1787. When slavery was
abolished in 1834, the result was a decline in both the economy and the
population; an epidemic of cholera in the middle of the century further reduced
the populace. Prosperity returned temporarily during the American Civil War
(1861-1865), when the islands became a station for blockade-runners, and again
during Prohibition (1920-1933), when rum-runners found them a convenient base.
In 1964 Great Britain granted the Bahamas internal autonomy. Some friction
thereafter developed between white- and black-dominated political parties until
the black Progressive Liberal party (PLP) won control of the government in
general elections in 1967. Its leader, Lynden O. Pindling, then became prime
minister. Independence was achieved on July 10, 1973. Pindling held power
throughout the 1970s and 1980s, but chronic unemployment and allegations of
government corruption eventually eroded his support. In August 1992 the Free
National Movement won parliamentary elections, and Hubert Ingraham became prime
minister. Area, 13,935 sq km (5380 sq mi); population (1992 estimate) 255,000.
"Bahama Islands," Microsoft®
Encarta® 97 Encyclopedia.
© 1993-1996 Microsoft Corporation. All rights reserved.
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Anguilla • Antigua/Barbuda • Aruba • Bahamas • Barbados • Bermuda • British West Indies • British Virgin Isles • Cayman Islands • Dominica • Dominican Republic • Grenada • Guadeloupe • Haiti • Jamaica • Martinique • Puerto Rico • St Kitts & Nevis • St Lucia • St Vincent/Grenadines • Turks/Caicos Isles • Trinidad & Tobago • US Virgin Islands
Last Revised:
November 15, 2008 03:56 PM, |
