The Bahamas was originally inhabited by the Lucayan people, an Arawakan-speaking group, when Christopher Columbus made his first landfall in the Americas on the island of San Salvador in 1492. Spanish colonizers subsequently enslaved and decimated the Lucayan population, leaving the islands largely depopulated for over a century.
The English established permanent settlements in the 17th century, and the islands later became a haven for pirates before being brought under formal British colonial control. During the American Revolution and the era of the Underground Railroad, the Bahamas received waves of Loyalist settlers and their enslaved workers, and later freed African Americans and formerly enslaved people from other islands. The Bahamas achieved independence from the United Kingdom on July 10, 1973, while remaining a member of the Commonwealth.
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