Etymology Bahamas is a derivative of the Spanish "baja mar" (sea bass).
History
The first step of Christopher Columbus in the New World on 12 October 1492 was done on the island of San Salvador , located in the Bahamas. He named and to thank Christ for having guided far. He met Arawak also known as Lucayens who gave his first name to the archipelago (islands Lucayas) with whom he exchanged gifts. These Indians also lived in Jamaica.
The 13 paradises of the brothers of the coast including the island of New Providence and its neighboring Eleuthera , in the center of the archipelago of the Bahamas, among the haunts of pirates, buccaneers and pirates, who had previously also held the islands Providence , further south, near the Nicaragua. Both islands had been inhabited since 1648 by the Puritans who fled English archipelago of Bermuda , including the future founder of the Bank of England and the Darien Scheme of Sir William Paterson.
The Spaniards, from Columbus, believed to have rights over the islands, it made frequent incursions and occupied intermittently.
On the death of Charles II Stuart In 1685, accession to the throne of his brother, the Duke of York , became Jacques II , was to change the status of the Bahamas. The new king demanded the cancellation of the charter of 1663 and its addenda. The expelled negotiated with the sale to benefit the Crown of England of their rights in the places they knew only through stories and maps.
When, in 1714, the Elector of Hanover, great-grand-son of Jacques I of England , ascended the throne of England, Scotland and Ireland under the name George I , his first act was to replace the representative of the former owners by a royal governor of the Bahamas. He chose Captain Woodes Rogers , whose motto in Latin sacristy immediately announced intentions: "Expulsion pirated restituta marketing." Woodes Rogers, naval officer, with known exploits during the War of Spanish Succession, was a writer at times.
Woodes Rogers had published in 1712, the story of a sailor, Alexander Selkirk , he had collected in 1709 on the uninhabited island of Mas a Tierra in the Juan Fernandez Islands , off Chile. This story was inspired in 1719 to Daniel Defoe one of the most widely read novels in any language: "The Life and Surprising Adventures of Robinson Crusoe. "
The new governor usa most of his sword from his pen. He ended the reign of pirates hanged Calico Jack and a few dozen others. Pirates hanged or deported, Great Britain had, in effect, defend the colony against the Americans, engaged since 1775 in the War of Independence led by George Washington. G. Washington sent between 1776 and 1781, several expeditions to occupy New Providence , where they found refuge and support the federalist rebels calling and took for the British royalists.
Provided with a government, legislative and deliberative assemblies, courts, public services, the Bahamas became welcoming to new settlers. In 1782, Spaniards - to whom Louis XV had given twenty years earlier, Louisiana to compensate for the loss of Florida - attacked New Providence. The island capital, there were only 1400 supporters. A fleet commanded by the governor of Cuba , Don Juan Manuel y Cagigal Montserrat , and supported by American ships, seized Nassau. It took the intervention of a small army, recruited by Carolina by a Loyalist, Colonel Andrew Devaux , to drive the occupiers and to ensure lasting peace in the archipelago.
In April 1861, when the U.S. broke the war between the states of northern and southern EU, the Bahamas became, for Southerners, a transitional arsenal. The North's victory in 1865, and the penances imposed on the South provoked a new influx of refugees, farmers ruined by the abolition of slavery. Came with their slaves, they were disappointed to learn that since August i, 1833, All Blacks landed in the Bahamas became free, enjoying as required by the Emancipation Act , the same rights as whites. Despite the law, long persisted that made racial segregation in 1885, Harbour Island , five blacks were sentenced to twenty shillings fine for having borrowed the door reserved for whites to join the Methodist church they had helped build.
The tests had so strengthened the ties between The Bahamas and the distant motherland as subjects of His Most Gracious Majesty came to seek his fortune in the islands.
Even since the independence of the colony granted without hesitation, July 10, 1973, by Great Britain, the Bahamian pride themselves to be loyal to the Crown. As all countries of the Commonwealth , the portrait of their chief of state, Queen Elizabeth II , is contained in all administrative offices.
Politics
Queen Elizabeth II is head of state and Queen of The Bahamas remains a member of the Commonwealth. She is represented in the Bahamas by a Governor-General , paid by the queen herself. The head of government is the Prime Minister ( Hubert Ingraham since May 2007 ), usually the leader of the winning party in elections to the parliament. The parliament of the Bahamas consists of two elected chambers, the Senate (with 16 members) and the House of Assembly (40 members). Elections are held every 5 years.
Population
The archipelago has 307,451 inhabitants. The Bahamas is 85% populated by blacks and mestizos.
Districts
Since 1999 , the Bahamas include 32 districts:
Geography
The Bahamas archipelago has over 700 islands and islets scattered over about 260 000 km. Only twenty of these islands are permanently inhabited. The one closest to the U.S. is only 89 km from the southeastern coast of Florida.
The largest island of the Bahamas Andros to the west. The island of New Providence , east of Andros, is the site of the capital, Nassau and accounts for two-thirds of the total population. The other important islands are Grand Bahama to the north and Inagua in the south.
Most of the islands - training of coral - are relatively flat with some low hills, the highest is Mount Alvernia on Cat Island , 63 m. The climate is local tropical , moderated by the warm waters of the Gulf Stream , with few hurricanes or tropical storms.
0.825 (high) ( 52nd ) 
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