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Like other areas of the Caribbean, it has a romantic and bloody history of foreign occupation, piracy, slavery and smuggling. But Nassau's rich history is really the history of the Bahamas as a whole: one of resilience and pride.
Until 1492, when Columbus "discovered" America, Bahamians lived a straightforward life, relying on the bountiful sea and the island land. But in the mid 1500s the Spanish decided they had found a slave-labor force easily put to work which led to the near depopulation of the islands.
In the mid 1600s, English settlers in other Caribbean Islands realized that Nassau's proximity to the recently settled New World provided opportunities. The settlers wanted to use Nassau for shipping and trade, as well as a launch point to the New World to escape from England's religious persecution.
Unfortunately piracy also became common around the same time, and lasted for more than a century. With numerous hiding places in the remote and densely vegetated islands, along with a proximity to mainland North America the buccaneers had found the ideal location.
In 1756, the Seven Years War broke out and trade positively flourished.But when the war ended in 1763 the black-market economy faltered. Piracy again became the primary economic market, including the likes of Blackbeard. Life became tough and difficult for those who weren't pirates.
When the slave trade was discovered, in the 1800s, and Nassau/Paradise Island and other islands were used as weigh stations for ships transporting slaves to North America. The large ships could only steam or sail for a few days at a time which made Nassau a perfect stopover to the United States. That meant Nassau's maritime workers flourished. But when Civil War in the United States ended, it ended Nassau's prosperity. Residents turned to working the wrecks from the fleets that sank decades or centuries earlier.
Nassau's economy was unwittingly revived again when the United States enacted Prohibition in 1919. Nassau gained a lively and profitable liquor bootlegging industry. But when prohibition was repealed in 1933 Nassau's prosperity came to an end.
However Nassau was always able to rebound from adversity again. And like its pirate, slave-trading, bootlegging past, it did so through illicit means, by becoming a stop-off point for drug runners and for setting up offshore corporations so illegally gotten gains could be hidden.
But that is only part of the story. In 1973, the islands gained their independence from England, although they remain a part of the British Commonwealth. This is similar to Puerto Rico, which remains a part of the United States, but has autonomy. Following independence in 1973, Bahamians in general, and in Nassau especially, started exploited the jewel they lived on. No longer would the islands rely on shipping, legal and otherwise, alone. They could rely on the millions of people curious about this most beautiful collection of Caribbean Islands.
They would accept and cater to the tourists.
Yes, the Bahamas are still an attraction to the smuggler. Downed DC-3s litter the waters surrounding the islands, remnants of cocaine shipments gone bad in the 1970s and 1980s. But now they are attractions, wrecks to explore for the scuba divers who want to get up close and personal with the tropical fish and stunning coral.
But that's not all. Other nations may have their gambling palaces, but there are few places besides Nassau where one can bask in the sun of the tropics by day while fulfilling one's passion for betting at night. Of course, shopping, a fun nightlife and the rest of the trappings of an island paradise await as well.
With a thriving tourism economy and a government that recognizes that environmental protection is crucial to that economy, the Nassau residents may have finally discovered that their islands' natural beauty is attraction enough.
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