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The name Bahamas is derived from the Lucayan name Bahama ('large upper middle island'), used by the Indigenous Taíno people for the island of Grand Bahama. [20] [21] Tourist guides often state that the name comes from the Spanish baja mar ('shallow sea'). Wolfgang Ahrens of York University argues that this is a folk etymology. [20]
Castaway Cay - private island and an exclusive port for Disney Cruise Line; Castle Island; Cat Island; Cat Cay; Catch Island; Catto Cay; Cave Cay, a private island in the Exumas; Cay Lobos (nearest point of The Bahamas to Cuba (Cayo Confites): 22.5 km (14 mi)) Cay One; Cay Sal Bank; Cay Santo Domingo; Cay With Low Fall; Caye a Rum; Caye de Sel ...
Lucayan National Park. The Indigenous Lucayan people's name for the island was Bahama ('large upper middle island'). [8] [9] Grand Bahama's existence for almost two centuries was largely governed by the nature of the treacherous coral reefs surrounding the island, which repelled its Spanish claimants (who largely left it alone apart from infrequent en route stops by ships for provisions) while ...
Royal Caribbean Cruises Ltd., which owns Royal Caribbean International and Celebrity Cruises, assumed the lease of the island upon acquisition of Admiral Cruises in 1988. In 2019, the island was extensively renovated by Royal Caribbean at the cost of $250 million and renamed Perfect Day at CocoCay. [9]
The island was stated to have been agriculturally prosperous in the period from 1950 to 1980. [2] This included a large crop of pineapples for export. When the Bahamas became independent from Britain in 1973, new ownership laws changed the nature of the island economy. Since then the island has become a popular tourist destination. [2]
It is located on the island of New Providence, which had a population of 246,329 in 2010, or just over 70% of the entire population of the Bahamas. [2] As of April 2023, the preliminary results of the 2022 census of the Bahamas reported a population of 296,522 for New Providence, 74.26% of the country's population. [ 4 ]
A 1520 expedition by the Spanish discovered only 11 people in The Bahamas; the Lucayans were effectively eradicated from these islands. The islands of the Bahamas, including Andros Island, remained uninhabited thereafter for approximately 130 years. [7] The Bahamas subsequently passed back and forth between Spanish and British rule for 150 years.
Columbus visited several other islands in the Bahamas before sailing to present-day Cuba and afterwards to Hispaniola. [3] The Bahamas held little interest to the Spanish except as a source of slave labor. Nearly the entire population of Lucayan (almost 40,000 people total) were transported to other islands as laborers over the next 30 years.