Bahamas

Documented Bahamian history begins with the words, "Baja Mar," the name the Spanish bestowed on the islands. This term is misleading, however; it means "shallow sea," but the islands are really mountain plateaus that emerged from the Atlantic hundreds of thousands of years ago. As they grew, they hosted countless generations of coral, which today comprise the islands' limestone base.

The "Lukku-cairi" or island people, as they called themselves, were the first settlers. Originally from South America, they meandered up through the Caribbean and finally arrived in The Bahamas around the Ninth Century AD. Known as Arawaks, they are also called "Lucayans" and "Indians"- a label bestowed by Columbus, who mistakenly thought he found the East Indies when he dropped anchor in San Salvador  in 1492.

The next phase of Bahamian history involves the Eleutheran Adventurers, English settlers who left Bermuda in 1647 searching for religious freedom. They formed the first British colony on the Island of Eleutheran and began a prosperous agricultural economy that still thrives today.

The geography of the islands attracted many well known Pirates, such as the infamous Black Beard, Henry Morgan, and Anne Bonney, who dominated the islands for the next 70 Years in what was known as "The Golden Age of Piracy." Their chief occupation was luring unsuspecting ships into the treacherous, shallow waters, then pouncing on and plundering them like insects trapped in a spider's web. Britain, which claimed islands in 1670, remained powerless against their predations for almost 50 years, until the first governor, Woodes Rogers, drove them out in 1718. Britain then recognized them as a colony.