The history of the Bahamas begins with the earliest arrival of humans in the islands in the first millennium AD. The first inhabitants of the islands now known as The Bahamas were the Lucayans, an Arawakan-speaking Taino people, who arrived between about 500 and 800 from the islands of the Caribbean. Recorded history begins in 1492, when Christopher Columbus landed on the island of Guanahani, an island known as San Salvador in the Bahamas, on his first voyage. The earliest permanent European settlement occurred in 1647 on the island. The 18th century slave trade brought many Africans to the Bahamas. Their descendants constitute 85 percent of the Bahamian population. The Bahamas gained independence from the United Kingdom on July 10, 1973.
Read more about History Of The Bahamas: Pre-Columbian Period, Spanish-Lucayan Encounter, Early English Settlement, Wreckers, Privateers and Pirates, Woodes Rogers, Mid-century, Loyalists, Post-emancipation, Late-colonial Period, Post-independence Era
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