7 ATLASES

History of The Bahamas in maps

The Bahamas as it appears in 7 interactive history atlases, from 1750 to 2015: the Bahamas. Each era below lists who ruled the land and when control changed, linked to the dated map that shows it.

Open this map in the interactive atlas →

WW2 is free in full, and chapter 1 of every atlas is free. A free account opens 3 more chapters a day. Starter, at $9 a month, opens all 21 with no daily limit — see the plans.

Free printable Haiti and Kenya independence study guide, sent by email ↓

Map of Haiti in 1975, showing The Bahamas — MAP OF HAITI IN 1975

What was The Bahamas before it was The Bahamas? The sections below follow this land through every era covered by the Maps of History atlases: who ruled it, what it was called, and when control changed. Each line links to the dated map. Modern borders serve as an approximation, as each atlas says on the map itself.

The Bahamas · Industrial Revolution

c. 1750

Colony or dependency — the opening position

INDUSTRIAL REVOLUTION: EVERY CHAPTER AND MAP →

The Bahamas · Age of Revolutions

APR 1775

Britain & its empire — the opening position

AGE OF REVOLUTIONS: EVERY CHAPTER AND MAP →

The Bahamas · Haiti and Kenya independence

The Bahamas, a British colony of small islands, received Loyalist planters from the United States after 1783. They brought enslaved workers to grow cotton. North of Saint-Domingue, the islands lay across the sea lanes: they received refugees and watched the Windward Passage for ships. Slavery ended with British abolition in 1834, and the Bahamas became independent in 1973.

1789	Under colonial rule — the opening position
1975	Other states and societies

HAITI AND KENYA INDEPENDENCE: EVERY CHAPTER AND MAP →

The Bahamas (blockade runners) · American Civil War

Nassau prospered as a place where cargoes could change hands. British steamers met grey-painted blockade runners there, exchanging Enfield rifles, medicine and salt for cotton at twenty times peacetime freight rates. Fortunes were made in eighteen months; yellow fever and the collapse of 1865 followed. The trade shows how the blockade worked. It never sealed the coast, but getting a cargo through could cost the Confederacy a fortune it did not have.