The Bahamas: Week 3 – Greta Saeger
Nationalism, defined as the support of ones nation, often leading to the discrimination of other countries and peoples.
Discrimination, defined as the unjust exclusion or prejudice agains a certain group of people or things.
Theses days the Bahamas are know as a tropical Paradise vacation location. However the history of the Bahamas is filled with discrimination, and constantly changing inhabitants.
The native people of the Bahamas are know as the Taino or Lucayan people. they inhabited the islands now know as the Bahamas when Christopher Columbus arrived on one of the island in 1492. It is estimated that there were 40,000 Lucayan people inhabiting the islands during that time. Shortly after the Spanish arrived at the islands they started enslaving, exiling, killing, and bringing disease to the local Lucayan peoples. This lead to the destruction of Lucayan civilizations. this destruction only took about 20 years and there after the islands remained deserted until British settlers arrived in 1650.
The British established settlements on the islands of Eleuthera and New Providence, however these were plundered by pirates, and the islands became a refuge for pirates intent on attacking Spanish ships.
The islands became a British crown colony in 1718, however the islands remained meagerly populated. This was until about 8,000 people were expelled from the newly independent United States. This 8,000 included both British loyalists and the africans they had enslaved and brought with them.
The Bahamas became a British colony in 1787, and slavery was outlawed in 1835. this lead to a steep decline in the population.
Over the years the Bahamas were used as refuges for both the confederates during the American civil war (1861-1865), and by alcohol smugglers during prohibition (1920-1933). tourism became a steady sores of income starting in the 1950’s. In 1964 Brian granted the Bahamas internal-self government, and in 1973 the Bahamas became independent.
Over the past 500 years, since europeans first set foot on the islands. the people of the islands have been constantly tormented and discriminated against. During this time there were times were the islands had no residents, and the Bahamas only became an independent country about 50 years. Most of the people living the in the Bahamas today are descendants of the enslaved people that were brought over in the 1700’s.
sorce: https://www.refworld.org/docid/4954ce0b30.html