The Bahamas

The Bahamas - Is officially known as the Commonwealth of The Bahamas. The Bahamas is a North American island nation located in the Atlantic Ocean southeast of the United States; north of Cuba. Lucayan Indians inhabited the islands when Christopher Columbus first set foot in the New World on San Salvador in 1492. There were an estimated 30,000+ Lucayans at that time. British settlement of the islands began in 1647; the islands became a colony in 1783. Since attaining independence from the United Kingdom in 1973, The Bahamas have prospered through tourism and international banking and investment management. The Bahamas is one of the wealthiest Caribbean countries with an economy heavily dependent on tourism and offshore banking. Tourism together with tourism-driven construction and manufacturing accounts for approximately 60% of Gross Domestic Product and directly or indirectly employs half of the archipelago's labor force.
The seafaring Taino people moved into the uninhabited southern Bahamas from Hispaniola and Cuba around the 7th century AD. These people came to be known as the Lucayans.