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Spanish slave traders later captured native Lucayan Indians to work in gold mines in Hispaniola, and within 25 years, all Lucayans perished. Without a source of slaves, the Spanish did not bother to colonize the islands. In 1647 during the time of the English Civil War, a group of Puritan religious refugees from the royalist colony of Bermuda, the Eleutheran Adventurers, founded the first permanent European settlement in The Bahamas and gave Eleuthera Island its name. Similar groups of settlers formed governments in The Bahamas, but the isolated cays sheltered pirates and wreckers through the 17th century. Charles II granted land in the Bahamas to the Lords proprietors of Carolina, but the islands were left entirely to themselves. After Charles Town was destroyed by a joint French and Spanish fleet in 1703, the local pirates proclaimed an anarchic 'Privateers' Republic' with Edward Teach— better known as Blackbeard— for chief magistrate.
But when the islands became a British Crown Colony in 1717, the first Royal Governor, a reformed pirate named Woodes Rogers, brought law and order to The Bahamas in 1718, when he expelled the buccaneers who had used the islands as hideouts. After the American RevolutionThe American Revolution refers to the series of events, ideas, and changes that resulted in the political separation of thirteen colonies in North America from the British Empire and the creation of the United States of America. The American Revolutionary the British government issued land grants to a group of British Loyalists , and the sparse population of The Bahamas tripled in a few years. the planters thought to grow cotton, but the limy soil was unsuited, and the plantations soon failed. Many of the current inhabitants are descended from the slave population brought to work on the Loyalist plantations. When the U.K. outlawed the slave trade in 1807, the Royal Navy began intercepting ships and depositing freed slaves in The Bahamas. Plantation life was finished after the emancipation of remaining slaves in 1834.
During the American Civil WarThe American Civil War was fought in the United States from 1861 until 1865 between the northern states, popularly referred to as "the U. the Union," " the North," or "the Yankees"; and the seceding southern states, commonly referred to as "the Confederat, The Bahamas prospered as a center of Confederate blockade-running, bringing out cotton for the mills of England and running in arms and munitions. After World War IWorld War I (also known as the First World War , the Great War the War of the Nations and the "War to End All Wars") was a world conflict occurring from 1914 to 1918. No previous conflict had mobilized so many soldiers, or involved so many in the field of, the islands served as a base for American rumrunners. During World War IIWorld War II was the most extensive and costly armed conflict in the history of the world, involving the great majority of the world's nations, being fought simultaneously in several major theatres, and costing tens of millions of lives. The war was fough, the Allies centered their flight training and antisubmarine operations for the Caribbean in The Bahamas. Since Havana closed to American tourists in 1961, The Bahamas has developed into a major tourist resort and at the same time the establishment of Freeport as a free trade zone (1955) developed an off-shore financial services center with a reputation for a tolerant atmosphere.
Bahamians achieved self-government through a series of constitutional and political steps, attaining internal self-government in 1964Events January January 1 Federation of Rhodesia and Nyasaland is dissolved. January 3 Senator Barry Goldwater announces that he will seek the Republican nomination for President. January 5 In the first meeting between leaders of the Roman Catholic and Ort and full independence within the Commonwealth on July 10July 10 is the 191st day (192nd in leap years) of the year in the Gregorian Calendar, with 174 days remaining. Events 48 BC Battle of Dyrrhachium, Caesar barely avoids a catastrophic defeat to Pompey in Macedonia. 1778 American Revolution: Louis XVI of Fr, 1973Events January events January 1 United Kingdom, Ireland, and Denmark enter the European Economic Community now known as the European Union January 3 Columbia Broadcasting System (CBS) sells the New York Yankees for $10 million to a 12-person syndicate led.
When Europeans first arrived, they reported the Bahamas were lushly forested. The forests were cleared during plantation days and have not regrown.
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