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The Commonwealth of the Bahamas is an independent English-speaking nation in the West Indies. An archipelago of 700 islands and cays, the Bahamas is located in the Atlantic Ocean, east of Florida and the United States, north of Cuba and the Caribbean, and northwest of the British dependency of the Turks and Caicos Islands.
History Christopher Columbus' first landfall in the New World was on the island of San Salvador, also called Watling's Island, in the south part of Bahamas where he encountered the indigenous Tainos (commonly known as the Lucayan) and exchanged gifts with them. Taino Indians from the north part of Hispaniola and north part of Cuba moved into the south area of The Bahamas in maybe the 7th century and became the Lucayans. It seems as though they settled by the 12th century AD. There were maybe 40,000 Lucayans living in the Bahamas when Columbus came through. The Bahamian Lucayans were taken to Hispaniola as slaves, and in two decades, many Lucayan societies stopped existing because of forced labour, warfare, disease, emigration and outmarriage. After the Lucayans were gone, the Bahamian islands were left alone with no one in them until the English settlers came from Bermuda in 1650. They were the Eleutherian Adventurers, those people established settlements on the island that was then called Eleuthera. The Bahamas became a British crown colony in 1718. Some 8,000 loyalists and their slaves moved to the Bahamas in the late 1700s from New York, Florida and the Carolinas. The British made the islands internal self-government in 1964 and, in 1973, Bahamians got full independence while staying 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 however the country still faces significant challenges in areas such as education, healthcare, correctional facilites and violent crime and illegal immigration. The urban renewal project has been launched in recent years to help impoverished urban areas in social decline in the main islands. Today, the country enjoys the third highest per capita income in the western hemisphere. Some say the name 'Bahamas' derives from the Spanish for "shallow sea", baja mar. Others trace it to the Lucayan word for Grand Bahama Island, ba-ha-ma ("large upper middle land"). Geography and climate
Government and politics The Bahamas is an independent country and member of the Commonwealth of Nations. Political and legal traditions closely follow those of the United Kingdom. The Queen of the United Kingdom is the ceremonial head of state, represented by a Bahamian governor-general. Prime Minister is the head of government and is the leader of the party with the most seats in the elected House of Assembly. The upper house - or Senate - is appointed. Executive power is exercised by the cabinet. Legislative power is vested in both the government and the two chambers of parliament. The party system is dominated by the centre-left Progressive Liberal Party and the centre-right Free National Movement. A handful of splinter parties have been unable to win election to parliament, despite a feeling among many Bahamians that both the FNM and the PLP are strikingly similar in their approach. These parties include the Bahamas Democratic Movement, the Coalition for Democratic Reform and the Bahamian Nationalist Party. Constitutional safeguards include freedom of speech, press, worship, movement, and association. The Bahamas is a member of the Caribbean Community. The Judiciary is independent of the executive and the legislature. Jurisprudence is based on English common law. Economy The Bahamas is a stable, developing nation with an economy heavily dependent on tourism and offshore banking. The Bahamas is generally reckoned to be one of the leading offshore financial centres. Tourism alone accounts for more than 60% of GDP and directly or indirectly employs almost half of the labour force. Steady growth in tourism receipts and a boom in construction of new hotels, resorts, and residences have led to solid GDP growth in recent years. Manufacturing and agriculture together contribute approximately a tenth of GDP and show little growth, despite government incentives aimed at those sectors. Overall growth prospects in the short run rest heavily on the fortunes of the tourism sector, which depends on growth in the United States, the source of the majority of tourist visitors. Not everyone has benefitted from the prosperity of recent years; unemployment remains at 10%. The poverty rate of 9% however, is low compared to other Caribbean countries. The Bahamian and United States dollars are both distributed on a 1:1 exchange. The Bahamian population is from approximately 85% African descendency, followed by 12% Caucasian descendency. Other minorities include Asians and Hispanics at 3%. Many Bahamian Caucasians are concentrated on Abaco Island, Spanish Wells, Harbour Island, Long Island, and the Montagu Bay district of New Providence (just to the east of Nassau). There are also a significant number of non-citizen Caucasian expatriates from the United States and Europe. The official language is English, spoken by nearly all inhabitants, though many speak a patois form of it. A considerable number of immigrants also speak Haitian Creole, Spanish and Portuguese. A strongly religious country, there are more places of worship per person in the Bahamas than any other nation in the world. The islands are overwhelming Protestant Christian (over 80%). Baptists form the largest denomination (about one third), followed by the Anglican and Roman Catholic churches. A few people, especially in the southern and eastern islands, practice Obeah, a spiritistic religion similar to Voodoo. While well-known throughout the Bahamas, Obeah is shunned by many people. Voodoo is practiced, but almost exclusively by the large number of immigrants from Haiti, Cuba, Dominican Republic and Jamaica. Culture and sports Bahamian culture is a hybrid of African and European influences. Perhaps its most famous expression is a rhythmic form of music called junkanoo. Aside from Junkanoo, other indigenous forms of music include rake and scrape, calypso, and a unique form of hymnal, known internationally through the music of Joseph Spence, who is now deceased. Marching bands are also an important part of life, playing at funerals, weddings and other ceremonial events. In the less developed out islands - sometimes called "family islands" - crafts include basketry made from palm fronds. This material, commonly called "straw", is also plaited into hats and bags that are popular tourist items today. Regattas are important social events in many family island settlements. They usually feature one or more days of sailing by old-fashioned work boats, as well as an onshore festival. Some settlements have festivals associated with the traditional crop or food of that area, such as the "Pineapple Fest" in Gregory Town, Eleuthera or the "Crab Fest" on Andros. Other significant traditions include story telling and the practice of Obeah. There is no real national sport in the Bahamas. Although British sports like cricket and soccer were once popular, American influences are stronger today as can be seen from the popularity of basketball, softball and American football. There are several world class Bahamian track and field athletes. The Bahamas have won Olympic gold medals in sailing (Sir Durwood Knowles and Cecile Cooke - 1964), and track and field (Tonique Williams-Darling - 2004, and women's relay team - 2000). See also General history Economic history Social history | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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