Bahamas: 20th Century Developments

The Bahamas entered the twentieth century as a British Crown Colony governed by a small, largely white merchant elite based in Nassau, often referred to as the "Bay Street Boys." The islands' economy, historically dependent on sponging, agriculture, and blockade-running during the American Civil War, shifted toward tourism as steamship and later air travel brought growing numbers of American visitors. Prohibition in the United States during the 1920s briefly turned Nassau into a hub for rum-running, adding another layer to the colony's tourism-driven economy.

Political change accelerated after World War II, as the Black Bahamian majority pushed for greater representation. The Progressive Liberal Party, founded in 1953, became the main vehicle for this movement, and lawyer Lynden Pindling rose to lead it in 1961. Pindling and the PLP campaigned against the entrenched white oligarchy, achieving majority rule in the 1967 general election, a result widely seen as a turning point in Bahamian history. A new constitution in 1969 granted full internal self-government and renamed the territory the Commonwealth of the Bahamas.

Full independence from Britain followed on July 10, 1973, with Pindling serving as the first prime minister of the newly independent nation. The remaining decades of the century saw the Bahamian economy diversify further into offshore banking and financial services alongside its established tourism sector, while Pindling and the PLP retained power until 1992, when the opposition Free National Movement won a landmark election. By the century's end, the Bahamas had established itself as a stable, tourism-dependent democracy within the Commonwealth of Nations.