Everything Everywhere Daily: History, Science, Geography & More - The Bahamas

Starting point is 00:00:00 Located just 50 miles off the coast of Miami, Florida is the country of the Bahamas. It's a large archipelago of islands covering 5,000 square miles in the Atlantic Ocean. The Bahamas are a unique country, both historically and geologically. It has a landscape unlike any other in the world, and it's been at the forefront of the European colonization of the Americas. The modern nation of the Bahamas has also taken a unique path, having achieved independence with very little in the way of natural resources. Learn more about the Bahamas.

Starting point is 00:00:30 and what makes it so special on this episode of Everything Everywhere Daily. What if your perceptions about the past were wrong? ThruLine is a podcast that takes you back in time to uncover the parts of the story that may have gone unnoticed. It effectively turned day into night. And how it shaped the world now. Time travel with us every week on the ThruLine podcast from NPR. When most people think of the Bahamas, they think of the Bahamas. think of white sand beaches and a popular tourist destination. And they're not wrong, but there's a lot

Starting point is 00:01:20 more to the country that makes it very interesting. Let's begin with the country's geography. A popular trivia question is what country other than Mexico and Canada is closest to the United States? And the answer is Russia because of two small islands in the Bering Strait. These islands are only 2.4 miles or 3.8 kilometers apart from each other. However, after Russia, the next closest country is the Bahamas. At its closest point, the island of Bimini in the Bahamas is about 52 miles or 80 kilometers from Miami Beach. The official name of the country is the Commonwealth of the Bahamas. The origin of the word Bahamas isn't known for certain, but the most popular theory is that it comes from the Spanish Bahamar, or Lower Sea, which describes the shallow water in the region.

Starting point is 00:02:13 Geographically, the Bahamas is an archipelagoic. consisting of approximately 700 islands and more than 2,000 kays and inlets, stretching over 1,000 kilometers or 620 miles in the western Atlantic Ocean. The country lies to the southeast of Florida, north of Cuba and Hispaniola, and northwest of the Turks and Kekos Islands. Although expansive in terms of total area including the sea, for example, its exclusive economic zone covers over 470,000 square kilometers, the actual land area of the Bahamas is only about 13,900 square kilometers or 5,400 square miles.

Starting point is 00:02:52 Despite the large number of islands, only about 30 to 40 are inhabited. Most of the land lies just a few meters above sea level with the highest point in the entire country, being only 63 meters or 207 feet above sea level, located at Mount Alvernia on Cat Island, which gives a whole new meaning to the term mountain. One of the biggest misconceptions about the Bahamas is that it's a car. Caribbean country. It is not. It's not located in the Caribbean Sea. It's north of the Caribbean and situated in the Atlantic. But because of its proximity to other Caribbean countries, it's often grouped with them. But strictly speaking, it isn't a Caribbean country. The Bahamas is geographically

Starting point is 00:03:34 part of the Lucayan archipelago, along with the Turks and Kekos Islands. But more on the Turks and Kekos in a bit. Another misconception about the Bahamas is that it consists of coral atolls. It does not. In fact, there are no atolls in the entirety of the Bahamas. If you just saw images of a beach in the Bahamas and a beach on a coral atoll, they do indeed look similar. They both have low-lying lands barely above sea level and have white sand beaches. If you recall from a previous episode, atolls are a ring of islands that are coral reefs, which are the remnants of once volcanic islands. The Bahamas does not have a volcanic origin, unlike other islands in the Caribbean. This can be seen on islands like Montserrat, which are currently volcanically active.

Starting point is 00:04:20 The Bahamas is one of the best developed examples of a carbonate platform system in the modern world. Its geology is dominated by limestone and ulite, a form of fine-grained calcium carbonate deposited over tens of millions of years. Calcium carbonate is the chemical that makes up seashells, coral, and limestone, and it also can be dissolved in seawater. The Bahamian archipelago lies on the Bahama platform, which formed during the Cretaceous period around 100 million years ago, on the southeastern edge of the North American continental plate. It began as a shallow, warm water marine environment where calcium carbonate precipitated out of seawater or was produced by marine organisms such as coral, mollus, or algae. When calcium carbonate becomes super saturated in the water, it can precipitate right out onto

Starting point is 00:05:12 the seafloor. Over time, these carbonate sediments accumulated in thick sequences, eventually compacting into limestone. During the place-to-scene glaciation, over the last two and a half million years, sea levels fell dramatically, sometimes more than 100 meters below present day, exposing much of the Bahama banks. This exposure led to the development of karst topography, a hallmark of Bahamian geology. karst processes driven by rainwater dissolving calcium carbonate created extensive networks of caves, sinkholes, and blue holes, which are submerged vertical caves found both inland and offshore. The Bahamas has some of the world's deepest blue holes, such as Dean's Blue Hole on Long Island,

Starting point is 00:05:59 which is over 200 meters or 660 feet deep. I actually got to visit Dean's Blue Hole during a visit to Long Island. It's literally a circular hole that just goes down. It's a popular spot for free divers who want to see how far they can dive without any supplemental oxygen. A sport I have absolutely no desire to ever participate in. When sea levels rose again following the glacial periods, these karst features were submerged, preserving them beneath shallow tropical seas. Many blue holes in underwater caves in the Bahamas still remain poorly explored.

Starting point is 00:06:35 The Bahamas are still actively accumulating carbonate sediments today. On a satellite image of the Earth, the Bahamas is one of the easiest countries to identify because of the distinctive light blue color of the water surrounding it. Now to shift gears to look at history. Before the arrival of the Europeans, the Bahamas were inhabited by the Lucayan people, a branch of the Taino who migrated northward from the islands of the Greater Antilles. They settled the islands as early as the 9th century. The Leukeans were skilled seafarers, farmers, and artisans,

Starting point is 00:07:11 and they lived in a matrilineal society. It's estimated that around 30,000 Leukeans inhabited the islands by the late 15th century, practicing a subsistence lifestyle based on fishing, farming, and gathering. The Bahamas has a unique claim to fame. It was the first place where Columbus set foot in the Americas on his first voyage in 1492. On the morning of October 12th of 1492, after 33 days at sea from the Canary Islands, Columbus and his crew cited land. He named the island San Salvador or Holy Savior in gratitude.

Starting point is 00:07:46 The native Lucan people called the island Guanahani. Columbus described the island as lush green and inhabited by friendly people. His landing marked the first known European contact with the indigenous people of the Caribbean, although it certainly wouldn't be the last. Columbus did not stay long on Guantanani. After taking possession of the island for Spain and planting the flag, he explored its surroundings and moved on. It isn't known exactly which island was Guantanani. The current San Salvador island, formerly known as Watling Island, is the officially recognized site by the Bahamas government and is most traditionally accepted. It was actually renamed San Salvador in 1925 to reflect this belief. Researchers and historians have identified other islands as possible locations, including Samanakei, Planakay, Cat Island, and Grand Turk Island. While we don't know the location for certain, looking at a map, San Salvador seems a good candidate, simply because it's located further northeast than the rest of the archipelago, and it seems like the island most likely to be encountered when sailing from Europe.

Starting point is 00:08:56 Despite being visited by Columbus and claimed by Spain, the Spanish never bothered to colonize the Bahamas. Instead, it was the English who would later colonize the islands. In 1648, a group of English Puritans known as Elyutheran adventurers sailed from Bermuda seeking religious freedom and settled on the island, which they dubbed Elyuthera. They attempted to establish a self-governing community based on democratic principles, although they faced hardship, famine, and internal conflict. During the late 17th and early 18th centuries, the Bahamas became a notorious haven for pirates due to its shallow waters, countless islands, and lack of effective government. Nassau, the capital, became the Pirate Republic's epicenter. Infamous pirates such as Edward Teach, aka Blackbeard, operated out of the Bahamas.

Starting point is 00:09:47 From roughly 1706 to 1718, Nassau was effectively ruled by these pirates in what became known as the Republic of Pirates. a loosely organized anarchic society defying European powers. In 1718, however, the British Crown reasserted control over the islands by appointing Woods Rogers as the first royal governor. Rogers offered a royal pardon to pirates who surrendered and launched military actions against those who resisted. He successfully restored order and established a functioning colonial government, marking the start of firm British colonial rule. During the 18th century, the Bahamas became integrated into the transatlantic slave economy. Enslaved Africans were brought to the islands to work on cotton plantations,

Starting point is 00:10:32 although the rocky soil and limited fresh water made plantation agriculture difficult compared to other Caribbean colonies. Following the American Revolutionary War, thousands of loyalists fled to the Bahamas bringing their slaves with them. This migration significantly increased the population and entrenched the plantation system, although again it was never as economically successful as in Jamaica or Barbados. Slavery was abolished in the British Empire in 1834, and freed Bahamians of African descent began to build communities and started to exert social influence. In the 19th century, the Bahamas became a key point in Britain's efforts to suppress the Atlantic slave trade. The Royal Navy often brought liberated Africans to the islands. The economy remained limited, relying on subsistence fishing, farming, and later wrecking,

Starting point is 00:11:19 salvaging goods from ships on the reef surrounding the archipelago. During the American Civil War, the Bahamas saw a brief economic boom as a center for blockade running. Ships from Nassau delivered supplies to the Confederacy and returned with cotton. Similarly, during prohibition in the United States, the islands became a key point for rum running, again bringing limited prosperity. Despite these brief booms, the Bahamas remained relatively poor and underdeveloped. Education and infrastructure were limited and political power was concentrated. One of the reasons for the poverty of the Bahamas was the almost complete lack of resources.

Starting point is 00:11:57 As everything is sand and limestone, there's no mineral wealth, oil, or timber. In the 20th century, a movement for political reform and greater rights for the majority black population gained strength. In 1953, the Progressive Liberal Party was formed, becoming the first organized political party in the Bahamas and, at a advocating for majority rule. By the 1960s, momentum for self-government accelerated. In 1964, the Bahamas achieved internal self-governance, with Britain retaining control of foreign affairs, defense, and internal security. By 1967, the PLP under Lyndon Pindling won national elections, marking the beginning of majority rule. Independence was declared on July 10, 1973, and Lyndon Pindling became the first prime minister of the Bahamas.

Starting point is 00:12:46 Since independence, despite its lack of natural resources, the Bahamas has developed into one of the wealthiest nations in the Caribbean on a per capita basis. This is primarily due to tourism, financial services, and its proximity to the United States. Nassau and Freeport became major hubs for cruise ships and international banking. I want to end this episode by going back to something I mentioned before, the Turks and Caicos. These islands are currently a British territory south of the Bahamas. However, they're geographically and culturally quite similar to the Bahamas. Why weren't these two territories joined together to become a single country at independence? Historically, the Turks and Kekos were sometimes administered separately and sometimes under the jurisdiction of the Bahamas.

Starting point is 00:13:35 However, in 1959, just 14 years before the Bahamas became independent, the Turks and Kekos were made a separate crown colony with their own governor, initially shared with Jamaica. When Jamaica gained independence in 1962, the Turks and Kekos Islands became a separate British dependency. This separation remained when the Bahamas became independent. Geographically and historically, they should be one country, but due to political circumstances at the time of independence, today they're separate. There has been talk of the Turks and Kekos joining the Bahamas, perhaps as an autonomous region, but so far nothing has happened. The Bahamas is a great place to visit.

Starting point is 00:14:18 If you ever do get the chance to go, remember that it isn't all white sand beaches. It does have that, but it's also a place with a unique history and some of the world's most interesting geology. The executive producer of Everything Everywhere Daily is Charles Daniel. The associate producers are Austin Oaken and Cameron Kiefer. Before I get to their view, I have a correction to make.

Starting point is 00:14:42 As many of you have pointed out, when I gave a list of battles from the Eastern Theater of the American Civil War, I had the Battle of Shiloh on the list. Shiloh, of course, was not in the Eastern Theater, but it was in the West. It took place in southwestern Tennessee. So with that, today's review comes from listener Josh Wilson 816 over on Apple Podcasts in the United States. They write, great podcast.

Starting point is 00:15:07 I don't think people understand just how hard doing a daily podcast has to be. We're getting many hours of hard work crammed into a 17-minute two. sign up for the Patreon already. Well, thanks, Josh. It's a lot of work, but after several years I like to think I've gotten pretty good at it. The first 1,000 episodes are always the hardest. Remember, if you leave a review or send me a boostagram, you too can have it right on the show.

Everything Everywhere Daily: History, Science, Geography & More - The Bahamas

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