Turks & Caicos - History
The first known inhabitants of the Turks and Caicos were the Tainos (also referred to as Lucayans). It’s thought that the Tainos migrated to the islands from the south around the year 700 AD. Evidence suggests that life was simple for the Tainos. Hunting and fishing were probably the main sources of food, but limited planting also helped to sustain daily life.
These original settlers left a rich heritage of seafaring, salt raking and farming, which still lingers on today. Words such as “canoe”, Caribbean and “caicos” are derived from the Arawak language. Even the name of the country comes from these earliest inhabitants. Turks is a reference to the indigenous Turk’s head cactus and Caicos is from the Lucayan term “caya hico” meaning string of islands.
There’s not enough evidence to be certain, but it’s likely that several land animals such as a giant iguana, large nocturnal rodents, land tortoises and possibly a dwarf crocodile were native to the islands and were hunted to extinction by the Tainos. The Turks and Caicos Islands Rock Iguana is the largest indigenous animal still remaining.
For almost 700 years, the Taino and Lucayan Indians were the sole residents of the islands, settling mainly in Middle Caicos and Grand Turk. They lived peacefully and were skilled in farming, fishing and gardening. They cultivated almost 50 types of plants, some of which can still be found on undeveloped sections of the islands.
Small artefacts, mainly broken pottery shards, have been the primary source of information on these aborigine peoples. These items have been mainly found in caves or at refuse sites in some of the Caicos wetlands. Currently housed at the Turks and Caicos National Museum in Grand Turk, the Taino Duo seat and canoe paddle are two of the most interesting artefacts found. The Taino populations were annihilated after the arrival of Columbus. In 1492, Christopher Columbus landed in the New World. Although contemporary historians have believed that he landed on San Salvador in the Bahamas, some scholars believe that he actually landed on Grand Turk.
Due to Spanish slavery and disease, the last of the Tainos disappeared by the early 1500s. Shortly after Columbus arrived in 1492, the Lucayan civilization disappeared and the islands remained sparsely populated for about 30 years.
Turks & Caicos - British Colony
From the time of their discovery until the year 1678, the Turks and Caicos Islands appear to have been so little thought of that no nation saw fit either to claim or colonize them. This is when the low-lying nature of the some of the islands was utilized to produce salt. Salt was a precious commodity back then as it was used not only for flavoring food but for preserving it as well. The shallow waters surrounding the islands were ideal for salt raking but treacherous for nautical navigation and more than 1000 ships were wrecked during the journey to and from.
In that year a party of Bermudians came to the Turks Islands to establish salt ponds where they could "rake" this commodity in order to supply the needs of the colony.' These settlers did not occupy the Caicos Islands but confined their attention solely to the ponds they built on Grand Turk and on Salt Cay, coming here every year from March to November.
During this time, the salt making industry was born. Bermudians came to Turks & Caicos to rake the salt and take it back to Bermuda. For the next few hundred years, salt became the backbone of the economy. Bermudians in particular would arrive each year during the salt harvesting season. The ships they used were copied and became the Caicos Sloops, which were the only means of transportation between the scattered islands and the rest of the world.
After building their ponds and establishing themselves, the Bermudians on the Turks Islands attracted the attention first of the Spaniards of Santo Domingo, who attacked them in 1710, and afterwards of the French in Haiti, who captured the islands in 1753 and again in 1764.
From 1764 on the Turks Islands have remained in undisputed possession of the British Crown. A direct result of the French invasions of the Turks Islands was the fact that the attention of the home government was drawn to the strategic importance of these hitherto unnoticed islands.
In 1766 the Turks Islands were formally placed under the jurisdiction of the Bahaman government, it being justly urged that the southeasterly group was a geographic part of the larger archipelago. But in reality the two island groups had little in common. Legislation was conducted in the interests of the agricultural Bahamas: on the salt-producing Turks Islands the burdens of taxation fell heavily and with little compensation. Moreover, administratiou from Nassau labored under the disadvantage of poor communications, for winds and currents make navigation difficult between the groups.
During the American Revolution, Turks Island salt was in high demand by the Americans for preserving meat. Legend says that George Washington himself specifically requested it from the Continental Congress due to its high quality [In 2014 US dollars, a pound of salt could fetch as high as $258].
Until about the start of the 1900s, waterborne pathogens took more European lives during the colonial expansions than all other causes combined. Land surrounding these graves also served as a place to isolate the sick to limit the spread of disease. Many are children's graves.
Ultimately, Britain retained the island country by the end of the century as part of the Treaty of Versailles. In subsequent years the place became primarily a haven for pirates and British Loyalists fleeing the American Revolution. After the British lost the war, displaced royalists were granted land on the uninhabited Caicos Islands. Plantations were established on several islands, including Providenciales, to grow cotton. The islands soil were unable to support cotton for long, and combined with insects, drove most royalists away again. Their slaves, however, remained and are the ancestors of the native inhabitants today.
While the Turks Islands were from the first used solely for the exploitation of the salt, the Caicos Islands owed their settlement to the American War of Independence and to the agricultural establishments of the Loyalist refugees to whom lands had been granted there after the loss of their holdings in Georgia. These refugees, together with their numerous slaves, devoted their efforts exclusively to the raising of cotton. Successive hurricanes, and especially the great hurricane of 1813, together with the havoc wrought among the cotton plants by a destructive insect, put an end to the prosperity of the planters and caused the agricultural establishments to be gradually abandoned during the first twenty years of the nineteenth century. Shortly after this, the salt ponds of East Harbour, on South Caicos, were constructed, and it was speedily discovered that East Harbour would soon overshadow the other salt-producing settlements of the dependency.
In 1848, the Turks and Caicos Islands — the Caicos Islands by this time being a recognized part of the colony — were authorized to govern themselves, under the supervision of the Governor of Jamaica. From 1848 until 1874 the islands were controlled in this manner. The local method of governing did not prove a success, however, for the little colony was unable to support itself from the revenues derived from export taxes on salt. Attempts to integrate the two distinct communities failed and on January 1, 1874 after “the Great Bahamas Hurricane” devastated much of the chain of islands, the Turks & Caicos Islands became dependencies to the British Crown Colony of Jamaica.
In 1898, the London - Jamaica telegraph was completed, with Grand Turk in between. This led to the firm entrenchment of the communications industry by Cable & Wireless. It was only in 2006 that the final remnants of C&W's (now renamed LIME) monopoly were finally untangled. It was still the Turks Island salt that kept the Turks and Caicos going. In the late 19th century, attempts were made to grow sisal for rope fibers and to harvest sponges from the Caicos Bank. These failed too.
Curiously, there was one non-salt related success. A cattle ranch was established on West Caicos in the 1890s that successfully supplied Grand Turk with meat for a few years. The last large-scale scheme was put to sleep in the 1970's. A multinational oil company wanted to build a large oil refinery on West Caicos. Fortunately for the environment, they only were able to bulldoze an airstrip before the project was cancelled.
The Great War dawned on an impoverished Turks and Caicos, still depending on the salt raking industry to survive. Nevertheless, the islanders were able to raise money to purchsase an ambulance for World War I, that was used on the western front.
During World War II, the Turks and Caicos partially funded the Royal Navy frigate HMS Caicos, which was the only aircraft-detection frigate in use during the war. HMS Caicos was used in the North Sea to detect German V1 flying bombs aimed at London. The islands also managed to buy a Spitfire, and weaved mittens and other articles for the soldiers.
The Turks and Caicos also managed to be involved in a German spy operation. Shortly before the war, a group of American investors approached the Islands' commissioner with plans to build a resort. The Islanders eagerly wined and dined the investors and showed all the details of the islands. The investors left, never to be heard of again. That is, until detailed maps and information were discovered in the possession of a German spy ring by the FBI. This information led to several ships being sunk by U-boats near the islands.
On the north end of Grand Turk close to the lighthouse, much of the now abandoned US Navy’s NAVFAC 104 base was dedicated to rain water collection, as the water from wells on the island proved to be a bit too brackish for use. After the war, salt was still the only income producer and the islands were struggling economically. It wasn't even worthwhile to govern the islands separately and the UK grouped them with, at first, the Bahamas and then Jamaica.
Turks & Caicos - British Crown Colony
Jamaica won independence from Britian in 1962 and so Turks & Caicos then became a British Crown colony on its own and still is one today. The islands received a dedicated government and governor.
It was also in 1962 that American astronaut John Glenn stepped onto Grand Turk after the first space flight. Today, a replica of his spacecraft can be seen outside the Grand Turk JAGS McCartney International Airport (GDT) and the Grand Turk Cruise Center in Grand Turk.
The 1960's was the decade that first put Providenciales onto the map. Up until the 1960's, Providenciales was inhabited by less than 500 people, and there were no cars and few roads. In 1966, Provident Limited, a development company, secured an agreement with the government granting them thousands of acres of Providenciales land in exchange for roads and an airstrip. Provident Limited then sold lots and built the Turtle Cove Marina.
Providenciales remained a low-key destination until 1984 when Club Med built a new resort on the then-deserted Grace Bay Beach. This sparked the continuing surge of development that has carried Providenciales into one of the prime vacation destinations worldwide.
|
NEWSLETTER
|
| Join the GlobalSecurity.org mailing list |
|
|
|
