The earliest arrival of humans in the islands now known as The

Bahamas was in the first millennium AD. The first inhabitants of the islands
were the Lucayans, an Arawakan-speaking Taino people, who arrived
between about 500 and 800 AD from other islands of the Caribbean. Their
ancestors came from mainland South America, where Arawakan-language
peoples were present in most territories, and especially along the
northeastern coast. Bahamian descendents were mostly from North and
South Africa.
Recorded history began on 12 October 1492, when Christopher
Columbus landed on the island of Guanahani, which he renamed San
Salvador Island on his first voyage to the New World. The earliest
permanent European settlement was in 1648 on Eleuthera. During the 18th
century slave trade, many Africans were brought to the Bahamas as slaves
to work for free. Their descendants now constitute 85% of the Bahamian
population. The Bahamas gained independence from the United
Kingdom on July 10th, 1973.