Bahamas

In 1670, the Bahamas were granted by Charles II of England to a group of large landowners, whose rights were often threatened by the Spanish and pirates. In 1718, the King of England sent a governor there, and some settlers began cultivating fruit trees. During the American War of Independence, a group of loyalists arrived with their slaves, which promoted agricultural progress, particularly in cotton. After a brief period of American and Spanish control, the islands were reclaimed by the British crown by the English fleet in 1783. In 1940, Britain leased a naval base on Mayaguana Island to the United States for 99 years.

The constitutional development of the Bahamas has been slow; in May 1963, the London government approved a law (which came into effect in 1964) granting the Bahamas self-government, though under the authority of the governor, a representative of the British crown. However, the reform was delayed partly due to the lack of maturity and political organization among the indigenous population, which had long been subject to a few landowning families. It was only in July 1973 that the islands achieved independence within the Commonwealth (according to the Constitution of the same year, the head of state remains the British sovereign, represented by a governor-general), under the leadership of Premier Lynden O. Pindling, leader of the Progressive Liberal Party (PLP), which represented the black majority of the population and held moderate views, favoring close relations with the United States.