Page 1 - 2010-0500_BWISC-London2010_FodenRichard_TurksIslands

Turks Islands

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J.:J "~~. CARTE'fj~E s
A BRIEF CHRONOLOGICAL HISTORY
( - I SLES T URQU E S

700 - 1492 : The islands were first reached and inhabited , Echelle
by Taino and Arawak Indians some time in the second half of the o-lme LT~'lte ~ , .
Jiii I I I
first Millennium A.O. J . .L

1492 - 1670's: Although not fully substantiated, a reasonable
argument can be made that Columbus's landfall was at Hawk's
Nest Bay on Grand Turk. By the time of Ponce de Leon's
documented arrival there in 1512, the local Indian (Lucayan)
population had already been all but wiped out. From the start of
the 17th century, Bermudan privateers were regularly calling
upon the islands to gather salt from the naturally formed
salinas, with the first permanent settlement stated to date from
1678.

1670's - 1780's: During a period of significant pirate activity,
various attempts were made to take formal control of the TT/.,
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Islands - either politically as by the Bermudans, or by force by IO :?
the invading Spanish (1710) and the French (1753-4, and again .;:~
in the late 1770's) - but it was the Bahamas who gained legal
jurisdiction in 1766. _)

1780's - 1815: In 1783, a young Nelson, in HMS Albemarle,
makes an unsuccessful attempt to remove a French garrison
which had taken control of the fort at Fire Hill. The Islands are
restored to Great Britain under Treaty of Versailles. In late
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1780's, loyalists from the wars in America are rewarded with :z.5
land grants on the Caicos Islands but their efforts to establish
agricultural crops meet with little success.

1815 - 1873 : Return to focus on traditional salt industry but
growing dissatisfaction with the Bahamian government and their
fiscal policy leads to separation in 1848 and creation of a
Presidency under the supervision of Jamaica. Introduction of
postage stamps in 1867.
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1873 - 1900 : Annexed to Jamaica in 1873. From a philatelic --
point of view, officially become Turks & Caicos Islands in 1900.
Population still less than 5'000.