Located only 50 miles off of the east coast of South Florida and north of the islands of Cuba and Haiti, in the western Atlantic Ocean, The Bahamas comprises an archipelago of more than 700 islands and 2,000 cays extending across an area of approximately 80,000 square miles.

Prior to the arrival of Christopher Columbus in 1492, the Islands of
The Bahamas were inhabited by the Lucayan Indians. The Spanish never
settled in The Bahamas, but enslaved the Lucayan Indians.


After their disappearance from The Bahamas, the island
of Eleuthera was settled by English settlers from Bermuda seeking religious freedom. The Islands became a British Colony in 1717. Following the American Revolutionary War in 1776, some 6000 American Loyalists and their slaves settled The Bahamas.

The American Civil War brought great prosperity to The Bahamas, serving
as a transfer point for munitions and medical supplies to be run through the northern blockade of the Confederate ports in exchange for cotton as the
main commodity.

The Bahamas again prospered through the prohibition era in the United States, supplying liquor for American rumrunners.

Since then, The Bahamas has become one of the
world’s premier vacation destinations.
In 1950, about 40,000 visitors spent their winters
in The Bahamas. Today, more than 4.0 million visitors vacation throughout the Islands throughout the year.

The Bahamas achieved independence from Great Britain in 1973, and now is a fully self-governed member of the Commonwealth and a member of the United Nations, the Caribbean Community (CARICOM) and the Organization of American States (OAS).