The Bahamas, known officially as the Commonwealth of The Bahamas, is a country within the Lucayan Archipelago of the West Indies in the Atlantic. It takes up 97% of the Lucayan Archipelago's land area and is home to 88% of the archipelago's population.

Who originally lived in the Bahamas?

The original inhabitants of the Bahamas were indigenous Taino (Arawak) who are also known as Lucayan. They originated from both Hispaniola (today Dominican Republic) and Cuba and migrated by canoe into the Bahamas, settling the entire archipelago by the 12th century of the Current Era.

When did Britain take over the Bahamas?

References to the islands first discovered by Columbus are almost nil after that time for about the next 135 years. England formally claimed The Bahamas in 1629. No settlement took place, however, until the 1640s, when religious disputes arose in Bermuda and England.