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WORLD FACTBOOK (US)
Introduction: Lucayan Indians inhabited the islands when Christopher COLUMBUS first set foot in the New World on San Salvador in 1492. British settlement of the islands began in 1647; the islands became a colony in 1783. Since attaining independence from the UK in 1973, The Bahamas has prospered through tourism and international banking and investment management. Because of its geography, the country is a major transshipment point for illegal drugs, particularly shipments to the US and Europe, and its territory is used for smuggling illegal migrants into the...
COUNTRY BRIEF (AU)
Economic Overview: The economy of the Bahamas is heavily dependent on the tourism and off-shore banking sectors. Tourism alone, directly or indirectly, employs around 60 per cent of the country's workforce.
Economic growth is interlinked with the performance of the US economy, which is the major source of tourism for the Bahamas. Tourism-related construction is the mainstay of the economy, and the construction sector is expected to benefit from numerous tourist-related investment programs.
The Bahamas relies heavily on customs duties for revenue and, as a consequence, treats the issue of free trade cautiously. The ...
BACKGROUND NOTES (US)
History: In 1492, Christopher Columbus made his first landfall in the Western Hemisphere in The Bahamas. Spanish slave traders later captured native Lucayan Indians to work in gold mines in Hispaniola, and within 25 years, all Lucayans perished. In 1647, a group of English and Bermudan religious refugees, the Eleutheran Adventurers, founded the first permanent European settlement in The Bahamas and gave
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COUNTRY PROFILE (UK)
History: In 1492, Christopher Columbus made his first landfall in the Western Hemisphere in The Bahamas. Spanish slave traders later captured native Lucayan Indians to work in the gold mines in Hispaniola, and within 25 years, all Lucayans perished. In 1647, a group of English and Bermudan religious refugees, the Eleutheran Adventurers, founded the first permanent European settlement in the Bahamas and gave Eleuthera Island its name. Similar groups of settlers formed governments in the Bahamas until the islands became a British Crown Colony in 1717. The first Royal Governor, a former pirate named Woodes Rogers, brought law and order to the Bahamas in
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COUNTRY STUDIES (US)
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