Bahamas - 20th Century
The colony of the Bahamas was under a British governor, who was assisted by an executive council of nine members, partly official, partly unofficial; and by a legislative council of nine members nominated by the crown. There was also a legislative assembly of 29 members, representing 15 electoral districts; the franchise being extended to white and coloured men of 21 years of age at least, resident in the colony for not less than twelve months, and possessing land of a value of £5 or more, or being householders for six months at a rental not less than £2 : 18s. in New Providence, or £1 : 4s. in other islands.
The passage of the Volstead Act (Prohibition Act) by the United States in 1919 was a bonanza for the Bahamas. The islands served as a base for United States prohibition runners, and the port of Nassau became congested once again. More conventional industries also developed, supplying sisal, conch shells for cameo brooch-making, pineapples and sponges.
The introduction of commercial aircraft in the 1930s enabled the Bahamas tourism sector to develop as a mainstay of the nation's economy. The development of tourism helped mitigate the combined impact of the United States repeal of prohibition in 1933 and a marine disease in 1938 that devastated the sponging industry. The sponge industry reached a peak in 1901 during generally lean years but collapsed in 1939 as a result of fungal diseases.
During World War II, the Bahamas prospered as Britain established two air force bases on the islands; the Royal Air Force set up a bomber base to ferry new airplanes to European combat zones and to operate a training school for flight and antisubmarine operations in the Caribbean.
Overfishing and sponge disease caused a crash in the sponging industry in the 1930s, and by the 1940s, the economic situation in the Bahamas was again so desperate that British and Bahamian officials began in earnest to develop export and subsistence fisheries to support the local population.
Spiny lobster and conch emerged as two major fisheries in the Bahamas after the 1940s. A cannery for spiny lobster, or crawfish, opened in the 1940s and the Bahamas has since grown to be the fourth largest crawfish exporter worldwide with lobster representing 95% of the value of Bahamian fisheries exports.
While lobster became a major cash crop, conch remained a subsistence fishery until the late 1960s. Conch had always been of major subsistence value for Bahamians; 18th century Loyalist settlers called the original inhabitants “conchs” for the large number of these animals they consumed. In the 1940s and 1950s, the issue of conch fishing became politicized as local officials feared that the conch population was too small to both sustain the Bahamian people and to support an export based industry.
After World War II, the Bahamas developed economically and politically. The nation began to exploit its tourism sector more fully; by the end of the 1940s, tourism had become the principal business. In the 1960s, the country also developed into an international finance center because of taxation and foreign capital movement legislation in the United States and Western Europe. In 1987 tourism and banking remained the two most important economic sectors in the Bahamas.
The Bahamas also underwent a major political transformation in the postwar era. The first political parties and trade union federations were founded in the 1950s. In 1964, after more than two centuries of British colonial rule, constitutional changes were negotiated at a conference in London; a new constitution replaced the nation's old representative government with a premier (the preindependence title for prime minister) and a cabinet.
In 1967 a bicameral legislature was established, and the first independent government was elected. Full internal self-government was achieved with the signing of the 1969 constitution; and the name of the colony was officially changed to the Commonwealth of the Bahamas. A final constitutional conference was held in 1972, paving the way for national independence. On July 10, 1973, the new independence Constitution was presented to Prime Minister Lynden 0. Pindling by Prince Charles on behalf of Queen Elizabeth II; with that, the Bahamas became a sovereign independent state.
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