Bahamas
 

Overview
islands, West Indies
 

Archipelago and state, northwestern edge of the West Indies, lying southeast of Florida and north of Cuba.

 

It consists of about 700 islands and numerous cays. Area: 5,382 sq mi (13,939 sq km). Population (2007 est.): 331,000. Capital: Nassau (on New Providence Island). The people are of African and European ancestry, a legacy of the slave trade. Language: English (official). Religion: Christianity (mostly Protestant; also Roman Catholic, other Christians). Currency: Bahamian dollar. Chief among the islands, from north to south, are Grand Bahama, Abaco, Eleuthera, New Providence, Andros, Cat, and Inagua; New Providence has most of the population. All are composed of coralline limestone and lie mostly only a few feet above sea level; the highest point is Mount Alvernia (206 ft [63 m]) on Cat Island. There are no rivers. The country’s market economy is heavily dependent on tourism, for which gambling is a particular attraction, and on international financial services. Most foodstuffs are imported from the U.S.; fish and rum are significant exports. The Bahamas is a constitutional monarchy with two legislative houses; its chief of state is the British monarch, represented by a governor-general, and the head of government is the prime minister. The islands were inhabited by Lucayan Tainos when Christopher Columbus sighted them on Oct. 12, 1492. Many scholars believe Columbus landed on San Salvador (Watling) Island, though others contend his first landfall was on Samana Cay or Cat Island. The Spaniards made no attempt to settle but carried out slave raids that depopulated the islands; when English settlers arrived in 1648 from Bermuda, the islands were uninhabited. They became a haunt of pirates and buccaneers, and few of the ensuing settlements prospered. The islands enjoyed some prosperity following the American Revolution, when loyalists fled the U.S. and established cotton plantations there. The islands were a centre for blockade runners during the American Civil War. Not until the development of tourism after World War II did permanent economic prosperity arrive. The Bahamas was granted internal self-government in 1964 and became independent in 1973.

 

Profile
Official name The Commonwealth of The Bahamas
Form of government constitutional monarchy with two legislative houses (Senate [16]; House of Assembly [41])
Chief of state British Monarch represented by Governor-General
Head of government Prime Minister
Capital Nassau
Official language English
Official religion none
Monetary unit Bahamian dollar (B$)
Population estimate (2008) 335,000
Total area (sq mi) 5,382
Total area (sq km) 13,939
 

Main
islands, West Indies

 

archipelago and state on the northwestern edge of the West Indies. Formerly a British colony, The Bahamas became an independent country within the Commonwealth in 1973.

 

The name Bahamas is of Lucayan Taino (Arawakan) derivation, although some historians believe it is from the Spanish bajamar, meaning “shallow water.” The islands occupy a position commanding the gateway to the Gulf of Mexico, the Caribbean Sea, and the entire Central American region. Their strategic location has given the history of The Bahamas a unique and often striking character. It was there that Christopher Columbus made his original landfall in the Americas. The subsequent fate of the peaceful original inhabitants remains one of the more tragic episodes in the development of the entire region, while the early attempts at European-dominated settlement were marked by intense national rivalries, interspersed with long periods of lawlessness and piracy. As a result, the society and culture that has evolved in The Bahamas is a distinctive blend of European and African heritages, the latter a legacy of the slave trade and the introduction of the plantation system using African slaves. The islands, lacking natural resources other than their agreeable climate and picturesque beaches, have become heavily dependent on the income generated by the extensive tourist facilities and the financial sector that have been developed, often as a result of the injection of foreign capital. The continued popularity of the islands with tourists, largely from North America, has helped to maintain a relatively high standard of living among the population, most of whom are of African descent. The capital, Nassau, is located on small but important New Providence Island.

Land
Lying to the north of Cuba and Hispaniola, the archipelago comprises nearly 700 islands and cays, only about 30 of which are inhabited, and more than 2,000 low, barren rock formations. It stretches more than 500 miles (800 km) southeast-northwest between Grand Bahama Island, which has an area of 530 square miles (1,373 square km) and lies about 60 miles (100 km) off the southeastern coast of the U.S. state of Florida, and Great Inagua Island, some 50 miles (80 km) from the eastern tip of Cuba. The islands other than New Providence are known collectively as the Out (Family) Islands. They include Grand Bahama, which contains the major settlements of Freeport and West End; Andros (2,300 square miles [6,000 square km]), the largest island of The Bahamas; Abaco, or Great Abaco, (372 square miles [963 square km]); and Eleuthera (187 square miles [484 square km]), the site of one of the early attempts at colonization.

Relief and soils
The Bahamas occupies an irregular submarine tableland that rises out of the depths of the Atlantic Ocean and is separated from nearby lands to the south and west by deepwater channels. Extensive areas of flatland, generally a few feet in elevation, are the dominant topographic features of the major islands; the Bimini group (9 square miles [23 square km]), for example, has a maximum elevation of only 20 feet (6 metres). A number of islands fronting the Atlantic have a range or series of ranges of hills on the northeastern side that parallel the longer axes of the islands. These ranges are formed of sand washed ashore and blown inland by the trade winds. The newer hills adjacent to the seashore are normally sand dunes. Solidity increases toward the interior, where the particles become cemented to form Bahama limestone. Eleuthera and Long Island (230 square miles [596 square km]) have the greatest number of hills exceeding 100 feet (30 metres). The highest point in The Bahamas, Mount Alvernia, at 206 feet (63 metres), is on Cat Island (150 square miles [388 square km]). Beneath the soil, the islands are composed of limestone rock and skeletal remains of coral fossils and other marine organisms. There are no rivers, but several islands—particularly New Providence, San Salvador (63 square miles [163 square km]), and Great Inagua—have large lakes. There is abundant fresh water on Andros Island.

Climate
The Bahamian climate, mild throughout the year, is one of the great attractions of the area. The average temperature varies from the low 70s F (about 21 °C) during the winter to the low 80s F (about 27 °C) during the summer, and extremes seldom fall below the low 60s F (about 16 °C) or rise above the low 90s F (about 32 °C). The average annual rainfall is about 44 inches (1,120 mm), occurring mostly during the summer months. Prevailing winds, coming from the northeast in winter and from the southeast in summer, lend a cooling influence to a generally humid atmosphere. Tropical cyclones (hurricanes) pose a threat during the period from June to November and have occasionally caused great destruction.

Plant and animal life
Extensive and beautiful forests of Caribbean pine are found on Grand Bahama, Abaco, Andros, and New Providence islands. Hardwood forests also occur on some of the islands. Elsewhere the woody vegetation consists mostly of shrubs and low trees. Animal life is dominated by frogs, lizards, and snakes, all of them nonpoisonous, and several species of bats are found in caves along the more rocky coasts. Larger animals include the agouti, a rodent; the raccoon; the iguana; and the elegant flamingo, the national bird. All of these have been much reduced in numbers and in distribution. In addition, several animals—notably sheep, horses, and other livestock—have been introduced from Europe. The surrounding waters abound with fish and other edible marine animals, such as conch and spiny lobster (crayfish).

People
Ethnic groups, languages, and religion
Most of the population of The Bahamas is of African descent. There is a small but significant minority of mixed European and African heritage and a similar number of descendants of English pioneer settlers and loyalist refugees from the American Revolution. English is the only language native to Bahamians, although, because of the influx of Haitian immigrants since the mid-20th century, French or its Haitian Creole dialect is spoken. A high percentage of Bahamians are members of Christian churches; the majority of them are non-Anglican Protestants, with smaller proportions of Roman Catholics and Anglicans.

Settlement patterns and demographic trends
The centres of population are widely distributed on each island. Some are located leeward, where it is calm and sheltered—for example, Cat Island. Others face the north and northeastern sides, where they are exposed to the northeast trade winds—as in the case of the Abaco Cays (the cays off Abaco and Little Abaco islands). Main settlements usually occur where there is a natural harbour or at least accessibility for shipping. There has been a marked shift of population from fishing and farming villages to the centres of tourist and commercial activity. Most of the population movement has been to the islands of New Providence, Grand Bahama, and Abaco (Great Abaco). About two-thirds of the Bahamian population is concentrated on New Providence Island, which, with Grand Bahama and Abaco, has received the most internal migration.

The country’s rate of population increase is much higher than the Caribbean average, primarily because of immigration from the United States and other West Indian islands. The rate of natural population increase is about average for the Caribbean region, but both the birth and death rates are less than the average for the West Indies as a whole.

Economy
In spite of the concentration of the population in urban centres (especially Nassau and Freeport) that are devoted to tourism, the traditional pattern of small farming and fishing prevails in some villages, notably in the southeastern islands. The Bahamas has a predominantly market economy that is heavily dependent on tourism and international financial services. The gross national product (GNP) per capita is one of the highest in the region.

Agriculture and fishing
Agriculture accounts for a very small portion of the GNP and employs a comparable proportion of the workforce. Only a tiny fraction of the land is arable, and soils are shallow. Nearly all of the country’s foodstuffs are imported, largely from the United States. However, the sunny climate favours the cultivation of many fruits, including tomato, pineapple, banana, mango, guava, sapodilla (the fruit of a tropical evergreen tree), soursop, grapefruit, and sea grape. Some pigs, sheep, and cattle are raised. The small fishing industry’s catch is dominated by spiny lobster, grouper, and conch.

Resources and power
Mineral industries are limited to the production of salt and cement. Electricity is generated entirely from imported petroleum and liquefied natural gas. Power-generating stations are located throughout the islands.

Manufacturing
Manufacturing industries centre on the production of rum and other liquor. Other manufactures include cement and pharmaceuticals, and canned fruits and frozen spiny lobster are processed. The Industries Encouragement Act (1970) offers manufacturers relief from tariffs and various taxes.

Trade
Some of the country’s principal trading partners are South Korea, the United States, Brazil, Japan, and Spain. Major imports include machinery and transport equipment, food products, and mineral fuels; major exports are petroleum and rock lobster. The United States exempts certain Bahamian products from duties under the Generalized System of Preferences.

Services and finance
Tourism accounts for more than one-third of the GNP and employs about two-fifths of the workforce. It centres on New Providence and Grand Bahama islands; most tourists come from the United States. Several hundred banks and trust companies have been attracted to The Bahamas because there are no income or corporate taxes and because the secrecy of financial transactions is guaranteed. Public expenditures are constrained by the government’s dependence on indirect taxes, which are levied primarily on tourism and external trade. The national bank is the Central Bank of The Bahamas, established in 1974. The national currency is the Bahamian dollar; U.S. currency is also accepted throughout the islands.

Transportation
Nassau and Freeport and their environs have paved road systems, as do most of the inhabited islands. A fleet of small motor vessels known as mail boats carries passengers, freight, and mail between Nassau and the Out Islands. Nassau and Freeport are the country’s two main ports. Freeport also has a large container transshipment port. Numerous foreign passenger and freight ships visit Bahamian ports each year. Throughout the islands there are dozens of airports, with varying accommodations and facilities. Most of these serve only interinsular aircraft, but international airports are located at Nassau, Freeport, and Exuma, and international flights also connect with several of the other Bahamian islands.

Government and society
Constitutional framework
The constitution of The Bahamas, adopted upon independence in 1973, is patterned on the Westminster model—i.e., that of the United Kingdom. The bicameral parliament comprises the House of Assembly and the Senate, whose powers are relatively restricted compared with those of the House. The formal head of state is the British monarch, who is represented by a governor-general. The head of government is the prime minister, who is formally appointed by the governor-general. The prime minister must be a member of the House of Assembly and must be able to command a majority of its votes. House members are elected by universal adult suffrage; the members of the Senate are appointed by the governor. The term of parliament is five years, but elections may be held sooner if the prime minister is unable to retain a majority in the House or dissolves the House and calls early elections. Judicial power on the islands resides in the Court of Appeal, the Supreme Court, and magistrates’ courts.

Political process
All Bahamian citizens 18 years of age and older can vote. Bahamians, women in particular, generally remained unpoliticized until the early 1950s. Women did not obtain the franchise until 1962. Great changes also came with increased educational opportunities after the 1960s. The first female member of parliament was elected in 1982. Since that time there have been female cabinet ministers, legislators, and Supreme Court justices. The main political parties are the Progressive Liberal Party (PLP; founded 1953), which led the movement for government by the majority in the 1950s and ’60s, and the Free National Movement (FNM; 1972), which grew out of the PLP.

Education
Schooling is compulsory from age 5 to 16 and is free in government schools. Most schools are government-run, but there are also private and denominational institutions. More than nine-tenths of the population is literate.

The College of The Bahamas, established in 1974 in Nassau, offers associate and bachelor’s degrees in most areas and master’s degrees in a limited number of subjects. It also offers programs in conjunction with other universities, including the University of the West Indies, Florida International University, and the University of Miami.

Other higher-level institutions include a hotel training school sponsored by the government and the hotel industry, the Bahamas Law School of the University of the West Indies, and a campus of Sojourner-Douglass College, an institution based in Baltimore, Md., that offers undergraduate and graduate programs.

Health and welfare
Bahamians are relatively free of malnutrition and debilitating diseases, and medical problems among children are largely those involving common infections. Increasing alcohol and drug abuse, obesity, and HIV/AIDS have become concerns, and care for the aged is a mounting problem. Life expectancy increased greatly in the second half of the 20th century and is comparable to that of neighbouring Caribbean countries.

The Ministry of Health and Social Development administers public health services through community clinics throughout The Bahamas and offers home and district nursing and disease surveillance. There are several public hospitals in Nassau and Freeport, and there are rural health clinics on Grand Bahama and its surrounding cays. Privately operated hospitals are located in Nassau and Freeport. The Department of Environmental Health Services oversees the management, control, and conservation of the environment.

Although the success of the tourism and financial sectors brought about improvements in everyday economic conditions for many Bahamians, there is still an extremely uneven distribution of wealth. The situation is not helped by the fact that the poorest and least educated have the largest families and live in the most crowded and economically depressed areas. This trend very often leads to social problems, such as increases in crime and family disruption. The government has tried to address this problem by sponsoring extensive housing developments.

Cultural life
Bahamian culture is an amalgam of its African and European heritages. It has also been influenced by the peoples of the Caribbean and the Americas.

Daily life and social customs
Family life is important to most Bahamians; however, the incidence of formal marriages decreased throughout the late 20th century. An increasing number of households are headed by a single woman, usually the mother. Before the 1940s, traditionally, women tended to be stay-at-home mothers and wives. Now, as a result of increased educational opportunities and the development of the tourist industry, most women work outside the home. Moreover, by the late 20th century, Bahamian women had begun attaining top positions in public service, banking, law, medicine, politics, and other professions.

Middle- and upper-class Bahamian families usually employ a maid or domestic helper. Poorer families share the housework. Staple foods include grits, potatoes, bread, conch, fish, spiny lobster, chicken, and imported meats. National dishes are peas and rice, potato salad, macaroni and cheese, cracked conch, conch salad, fried and steamed fish, and fried chicken. Guava duff, a boiled mixture of fruit and dough that is served with a butter sauce, is a popular dessert.

Folk customs include the asue (a collective savings association), friendly societies and lodges, a strong tradition of storytelling, and the use of bush medicine. Outstanding among traditional group activities is the premier festival and celebration, Junkanoo. Junkanoo parades, or “rush outs,” are held annually on Boxing Day and New Year’s Day in Nassau and on some of the Out Islands. Nassau’s Bay Street is the site of the largest parade, which features thousands of junkanoos, men dressed in colourful costumes fringed with crepe paper and decorated with beads, feathers, and sequins. Participants create the music and dance to the pulsating rhythms of goatskin drums, cowbells, whistles, horns, and brass instruments. Prizes are given for the best costumes, music, dance, and theme portrayal.

The arts
Bahamian folklore includes stories of a three-toed, human-faced creature called the chickcharney, the workings of obia (obeah)—a folk religion that employs witchcraft—and folktales featuring the characters of B’Booky, B’Rabbit, and B’Anansi (see trickster tale). Religious songs or spirituals are sung at important social gatherings and wakes; these include wake, or “setting up,” songs with biblical themes. Rhyming songs (spiritual and secular) are also popular. Traditional ring dances and quadrilles are still practiced, and dancing to the beat of goombay (sometimes also known as rake and scrape), calypso, or soca (a blend of traditional calypso and Indian rhythmic instruments) music is a popular pastime.

Cultural institutions
The arts, including painting, sculpture, and photography, as well as crafts, have blossomed in The Bahamas, and the country has several prominent institutions devoted to their cultivation. The Dundas Centre for the Performing Arts, in Nassau, presents dramas, musicals, and dance performances. Art and crafts can be seen at a variety of galleries, including the National Art Gallery, located in a mansion overlooking Nassau Harbour. The Department of Archives preserves public and private records and makes them accessible to the public. The Antiquities, Monuments and Museums Corporation regulates and controls antiquities, monuments, museums, and archaeology. The Bahamas Historical Society, in Nassau, operates a museum and publishes a scholarly journal.

Sports and recreation
The Bahamas is famed for its long sandy beaches, clear waters, and spectacular coral reefs. Divers flock to the islands not only to view the colourful coral gardens, sharks, rays, moray eels, and other abundant marine life but also to explore the numerous shipwrecks—a legacy of the tricky shallow waters and of the marauding pirates who once cruised the region. Snorkeling, windsurfing, deep-sea fishing, and sailing are also popular water sports, and almost every inhabited island hosts a sailing regatta or fishing tournament each year. For those who prefer less-strenuous water activities, the islands offer stretches of beautiful deserted beaches and gentle reef-protected waters. The Bahamas National Trust is concerned with the preservation of wildlife and the conservation of some two dozen national parks, including Exuma Cays Land and Sea Park (established 1959).

Many Bahamians play and follow cricket and football (soccer), as might be expected from the islands’ historical association with Britain. Basketball is growing in popularity. Bahamians also have excelled at athletics (track and field), tennis, and yachting. The Bahamas Olympic Association was formed in 1952.

History
On Oct. 12, 1492, Christopher Columbus, on his first voyage to the New World, made landfall somewhere in the Bahama Islands. It is widely held that he first landed on an island called by its native inhabitants Guanahani, which Columbus renamed San Salvador. The actual location is still in dispute; some scholars believe it is the place known today as San Salvador (sometimes called Watling Island), while others claim that the site was Samana Cay or Cat Island. Whatever the case, Columbus explored the island and others nearby and then sailed to Cuba and Hispaniola. The natives of the Bahama Islands, Lucayan Tainos who had settled the archipelago from Hispaniola by 800 ce, were a peaceful people who spoke an Arawakan language.

Although Columbus took formal possession of the islands with pomp and ceremony in the name of Spain, and under the Treaty of Tordesillas between Spain and Portugal in 1494 the islands were within the Spanish sphere, the Spanish made little attempt to settle them. Between 1492 and 1508, Spanish raiders carried off about 40,000 natives to work in the mines of Hispaniola, and the islands remained depopulated for more than a century before the first English settlement was established.

British colonization
British interest began in 1629 when Charles I granted Robert Heath, attorney general of England, territories in America including “Bahama and all other Isles and Islands lying southerly there or neare upon the foresayd continent.” Heath, however, made no effort to settle the Bahamas. Nevertheless, in the 1640s the religious disputes among English colonists in Bermuda came to involve the Bahamas. In 1647 Capt. William Sayle, who had twice been governor of Bermuda, took the leadership of an enterprise to seek an island upon which dissidents could worship as they pleased. In July of that year the Company of Eleutherian Adventurers was formed in London “for the Plantation of the Islands of Eleutheria, formerly called Buhama in America, and the Adjacent Islands.” Sayle and about 70 prospective settlers, consisting of Bermudan religious Independents and some persons who had come from England, sailed from Bermuda for the Bahamas sometime before October 1648. The place of their landing is uncertain, but the modern belief is that they settled on Eleuthera, then known as Cigatoo. They had envisioned establishing a flourishing plantation colony, but unproductive soil, internal discord, and Spanish interference dashed their hopes. Some of the settlers, including Sayle, returned to Bermuda.

New Providence was first settled about 1666 by a new group of Bermudans. In 1663 South Carolina, on the mainland of North America, had been granted by Charles II to eight of his friends as lords proprietors, and they later appointed Sayle as South Carolina’s first governor. Both Sayle and certain of those who had interested themselves in the settlement of New Providence independently drew the attention of the lords proprietors to the possibilities of the Bahama Islands. In consequence, the duke of Albemarle and five others acquired a grant of the islands from Charles II in 1670, and they accepted nominal responsibility for the civil government. New Providence, with the largest population and a sheltered harbour, became the seat of government.

The proprietors did not take a very active interest in the settlement or development of the islands, which soon became a haven for pirates, whose depredations against Spanish ships provoked frequent and savage retaliatory raids. In 1671 the proprietors appointed John Wentworth as the first governor. Although elaborate instructions for the government of the colony were issued and a parliamentary system of government was instituted, the lot of both governor and settlers was far from easy. New Providence was often overrun by the Spaniards alone or in combination with the French, while any governor attempting to institute a semblance of law and order received short shrift from the settlers, who had found piracy the most lucrative profession. In 1684 Charles II himself intervened and required that a law be passed against the pirates, but apparently it had little effect.

Early in the 18th century, official representations were being made for direct crown control. The lords proprietors surrendered the civil and military government to the king in 1717 and leased the islands to Capt. Woodes Rogers, whom the king commissioned as the first royal governor and charged with the responsibility of exterminating pirates and establishing more stable conditions. When he arrived in 1718, armed with a disciplined troop of soldiers, about 1,000 pirates surrendered and received the king’s pardon, while eight of the unrepentant were hanged. Rogers’s measures were so effective that the colony was able to adopt the motto “Expulsis piratis restituta commercia” (“Pirates repulsed, commerce restored”).

Charles Towne was settled in 1660 and named for Charles II, but its name was changed to Nassau after William III came to the throne; the German region Nassau was a holding of William’s family. With the restoration of order following the establishment of the royal government, the settlers demanded an assembly. In 1729 Rogers, acting under authority from the crown, issued a proclamation summoning a representative assembly, and from then on, apart from brief interruptions caused by foreign invasion, the government of the colony carried on in an orderly manner.

In 1776 the town of Nassau was captured by the U.S. Navy, which was seeking supplies during the American Revolution; they evacuated after a few days. In May 1782 the colony surrendered to Spain. Although it was restored to Britain by the preliminary articles of the Peace of Paris in January 1783, it was nonetheless brilliantly recaptured in April by Col. Andrew Devaux, a loyalist commander, before news of the treaty had been received. On the conclusion of the American Revolution, many loyalists emigrated from the United States to the Bahamas under very favourable terms offered by the crown. Among the newcomers was Lord Dunmore, formerly governor of New York and of Virginia, who served as governor of the Bahamas from 1786 to 1797. The loyalists who fled to the islands brought their slaves with them, increasing the population several-fold. The cotton plantations that they developed, which used slave labour, yielded well for a few years, but the exhaustion of the soil, the depredations of insect pests, and, finally, the abolition of slavery led to their ultimate collapse. In 1787 the lords proprietors surrendered their remaining rights for £12,000.

As in the Caribbean generally, the Bahama Islands experienced a number of slave revolts during the years leading to abolition. Efforts made by the assembly in the early 19th century to thwart the attempts of the executive to ameliorate conditions for the slaves continued until the United Kingdom Abolition Act came into force in the colony on Aug. 1, 1834; full emancipation came in 1838. A legislative council was created by royal letters patent in 1841.

Following emancipation, the general condition of the West Indies was one of poverty and disillusionment. Former slaves and ex-masters struggled to exist. Many took to subsistence farming, and others remained on the land of their former owners and worked on the share system. There was hardly any circulation of money in the Out Islands, and many communities were tied by a system of payment in truck—that is, payment in kind. Considerable wealth poured into the islands as the result of blockade-running during the American Civil War (1861–65) and the handling of liquor during Prohibition in the 1920s in the United States (see prohibition). This activity made no lasting contribution to the islands, however, nor did it establish any firm economic base. Before and after these periods, many attempts were made to grow pineapples, citrus fruits, tobacco, tomatoes, and sisal for export, but, despite initial promise, all failed. Sponge fishing also collapsed in 1938. Finally, after World War II, strenuous efforts to establish tourism as the basis of the economy were strikingly successful, transforming the economic and social structure of the islands.

Independence
Politically, Bahamians have had considerable control over their affairs since the first assembly in 1729. In May 1963 a conference was held in London to consider a new constitution for the islands. It was then agreed that the colony should have full internal self-government, the governor retaining reserved powers only for foreign affairs, defense, and internal security. The new constitution came into force on Jan. 7, 1964, and constitutional advances in 1969 brought the country to the verge of complete self-government.

Party politics had emerged in 1953, when the Progressive Liberal Party (PLP) was formed by Bahamians of African descent to oppose the group in power, who in 1958 responded with a party of their own, the United Bahamian Party (UBP), controlled by British-descended politicians. As the political battle progressed, the PLP raised the cry for majority rule. The climax came after the general elections of 1967, when the PLP, under the leadership of Lynden Pindling, was able to form a government with a slight majority.

In general the PLP advocated stricter government control of the economy, increasing Bahamian ownership of business enterprises and the replacement of foreign workers by Bahamians. Although the move toward self-government received bipartisan support, some factions advocated that total independence should come later than 1973, the year targeted by the PLP government. In 1969 the name Commonwealth of the Bahama Islands was adopted, but upon independence, on July 10, 1973, the official form became The Commonwealth of The Bahamas. The PLP maintained its position as the majority party after independence. The main opposition was formed by the Free National Movement (FNM), established in 1972 through a merger between the UBP and alienated anti-independence PLP members calling themselves the Free PLP. The government embarked on programs to improve economic development, increase the standard of living, and halt the rising unemployment rate. The Bahamas is a member of the Caribbean Community and Common Market (Caricom; joined 1983), the United Nations (1973), UNESCO (1981), the Organization of American States (1982), and the Commonwealth (1973). Alleged collusion with drug traffickers by members of the government became a major issue and threatened PLP power in the late 1980s. Another serious, and ongoing, problem has been the periodic arrival of waves of legal and illegal immigrants from Haiti, placing a strain on social and economic resources. In the August 1992 general elections, the FNM swept into power, winning 31 of the 49 seats in the House of Assembly. The party increased its majority in the 1997 elections, winning 35 of the 40 seats. The PLP regained ascendancy in the 2002 elections but was again swept out by the FNM in 2007.

E. Paul Albury
David Russell Harris
Gail Saunders