The seven hundred islands of the Bahamas extend from about 1,125 kilometers (700 miles) off the coast of Florida on the northwest to near Cuba on the southeast. The islands' population in 2002 was 310,000—85 percent of which is of African heritage. Almost two-thirds of the residents live on New Providence Island, where the Bahamian capital of Nassau is located.

The original people of the Bahamas were the Arawak. Columbus made his first landing in the Bahamas, and the Spanish transported many of the Arawak to work in mines in Hispaniola and Cuba, where most of them perished. The first permanent settlement of Europeans was a group of English settlers who organized a community in 1647. The Bahamas became a British Crown Colony in 1717. Bahamians gained self-governing status in 1964 and full independence within the British Commonwealth in 1973. As a member of the commonwealth, the Bahamas recognizes the Queen Elizabeth II (b. 1926) as head...