History of the Turks and Caicos Islands
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Before European colonization, the Turks and Caicos Islands were inhabited by Taíno and Lucayan peoples.
The first recorded European sighting of the islands now known as the Turks and Caicos occurred in 1512.
Pre-colonial history
Long before
For almost 700 years, the
Another peculiarity that has been passed down through the generations is a love of shellfish, particularly conch – which is actually available in abundance to this day, thanks to the work of the Caicos Conch farm, the only commercial conch farm in the world. It closed after damages caused by Hurricane Irma and Hurricane Maria in 2017.[4]
Colonial history prior to settlement
Shortly after Columbus arrived in 1492, the Lucayan civilization disappeared and the islands remained sparsely populated for about 30 years.
The island Caico[s] received its name from the Lucayan caya hico, meaning 'string of islands'.[5][6] The Turks Islands were named after the Turk's cap cactus, Melocactus intortus, whose red cephalium resembles the fez hat worn by Turkish men in the late Ottoman Empire.[5][6]
During the second half of the XVI century the salt making industry was born.
The first recorded European sighting of the islands now known as the Turks and Caicos occurred in 1512.[1] During the 16th, 17th and 18th centuries, the islands passed from Spanish, to French, to English (subsequently British) control, but none of the three powers ever established any settlements. In 1709, an early British colonist, Bernard Caicos, settled on the island.
From about 1690 to 1720, pirates hid in the cays of the Turks and Caicos Islands, attacking Spanish treasure galleons en route to Spain from Cuba, Hispaniola, and the Spanish possessions in Central America and Peru. The islands were not fully colonised until 1681, when salt collectors from Bermuda built the first permanent settlement on Grand Turk Island.
The salt collectors were drawn by the shallow waters around the islands that made salt mining a much easier process than in Bermuda. They occupied the Turks only seasonally, for six months a year, however, returning to Bermuda when it was no longer viable to rake salt. Their colonization established the British dominance of the archipelago that has lasted into the present day. Huge numbers of trees were felled by the Bermudians to discourage rainfall that would adversely affect the salt mining operation. This deforestation has yet to be repaired. Most of the salt mined in the Turks and Caicos Islands was sold through Bermudian merchant houses on the American seaboard, including in
The agricultural industry sprung up in the islands in the late 1780s after 40 Loyalists arrived after the end of the American Revolution, primarily from Georgia and South Carolina. Granted large tracts of land by the British government to make up for what they lost in the American colonies, the Loyalists imported well over a thousand slaves and planted vast fields of sisal, harvested for its stiff fibre used in making various products such as rope.
Though in the short term highly successful, the cotton industry quickly went into decline, with
Bermudian century
In 1706, the French and the Spanish briefly captured the Turks and Caicos Islands from the Bermudians. Four years later the British reclaimed the islands for Bermuda but in subsequent years the place became primarily a haven for pirates and British Loyalists fleeing the
Spanish and French forces seized the Turks in 1706, but Bermudian forces expelled them four years later in what was probably Bermuda's only independent military operation. The Bermudian privateer, the Rose, under the command of Captain Lewis Middleton, attacked a Spanish and a French privateer holding a captive English vessel. Defeating the two enemy vessels, the Rose then cleared out the thirty-man garrison left by the Spanish and French.[7]
A virtual state-of-war existed between
Following this, a raker was arrested and the salt pans were seized and divided by force. The Bahamas government attempted to appoint judicial authorities for the Turks in 1768, but these were refused by the Bermudians. In 1773 the Bahamian government passed an act attempting to tax the salt produced in the Turks, but the Bermudians refused to pay it. In 1774, the Bahamians passed another, similar act, and this they submitted for the Crown's assent. The Crown passed this act on to the Bermudian government which objected to it, and which rejected Bahamian jurisdiction over the Turks. The Crown, as a consequence, refused assent of the Act as applied to include the Turks, and, in the form in which it finally passed, the Bahamas, but not the Turks, were included.
The Bermudians on the Turks continued to be governed under their own regulations, with the assent of the royal agent, until 1780, when a more formal version of those regulations was submitted for the assent of the Crown, which was given. Those regulations, issued as a royal order, stated that all British subjects had the right ("free liberty") to rake and gather salt on the Turks, providing that they conformed to the regulations, which expressly rejected Bahamian jurisdiction over the Turks. Despite this refutation by a higher authority of their right to impinge upon Bermudian activities on the Turks, the Bahamian government continued to harass the Bermudians (unsurprisingly, given the lucrativeness of the Turks salt trade).
Although the salt industry on the Turks had largely been a Bermudian preserve, it had been seen throughout the 17th century as the right of all British subjects to rake there, and small numbers of Bahamians had been involved. In 1783, the French landed a force on Grand Turk which a British force of 100 men, under then-Captain
Following this, the Bahamians were slow to return to the Turks, while the Bermudians quickly resumed salt production, sending sixty to seventy-five ships to the Turks each year, during the six months that salt could be raked. Nearly a thousand Bermudians spent part of the year on the Turks engaged in salt production, and the industry became more productive.
The Bahamas, meanwhile, was incurring considerable expense in absorbing loyalist refugees from the now-independent American colonies, and returned to the idea of taxing Turks salt for the needed funds. The Bahamian government ordered that all ships bound for the Turk Islands obtain a license at Nassau first. The Bermudians refused to do this. Following this, Bahamian authorities seized the Bermuda sloops Friendship and Fanny in 1786. Shortly after, three Bermudian vessels were seized at Grand Caicos, with $35,000 worth of goods salvaged from a French ship. French privateers were becoming a menace to Bermudian operations in the area, at the time, but the Bahamians were their primary concern.
The Bahamian government re-introduced a tax on salt from the Turks, annexed them to the Bahamas, and created a seat in the Bahamian parliament to represent them. The Bermudians refused these efforts also, but the continual pressure from the Bahamians had a degrative effect on the salt industry. In 1806, the Bermudian customs authorities went some way toward acknowledging the Bahamian annexation when it ceased to allow free exchange between the Turks and Bermuda (this affected many enslaved Bermudians, who, like the free ones, had occupied the Turks only seasonally, returning to their homes in Bermuda after the year's raking had finished).
That same year, French privateers attacked the Turks, burning ships and absconding with a large sloop. The Bahamians refused to help, and the Admiralty in Jamaica claimed the Turks were beyond his jurisdiction. Two hurricanes, the first in August, 1813, the second in October, 1815, destroyed more than two-hundred buildings, significand salt stores, and sank many vessels. By 1815, the United States, the primary client for Turks salt, had been at war with Britain (and hence Bermuda) for three years, and had established other sources of salt.
With the destruction wrought by the storm, and the loss of market, many Bermudians abandoned the Turks, and those remaining were so distraught that they welcomed the visit of the Bahamian governor in 1819. The British government eventually assigned political control to the Bahamas, which the Turks and Caicos remained a part of until the 1840s.
One Bermudian salt raker, Mary Prince, however, was to leave a scathing record of Bermuda's activities there in The History of Mary Prince, a book which helped to propel the abolitionist cause to the 1834 emancipation of slaves throughout the Empire.
Bahamian and Jamaican jurisdictions
The islands remained part of the Bahamas until 1848, when the inhabitants successfully
Turks and Caicos Islands Act 1873 | |
---|---|
Act of Parliament | |
Dates | |
Royal assent | 4 April 1873 |
In 1873, the islands were annexed to Jamaica with a
The islands remained a dependency of Jamaica until 1959, when they received their own administration under an administrator, although the governor of Jamaica remained the governor of the islands. When Jamaica was granted independence from Britain in August 1962, the Turks and Caicos Islands became a crown colony. From 1965 the governor of The Bahamas was also governor of the Turks and Caicos Islands and oversaw affairs for the islands.[9]
From 1950 to 1981, the United States had a missile
The salt industry, along with small
Autonomy
When the Bahamas gained independence in 1973, the Turks and Caicos received their own
The islands adopted their first constitution on 30 August 1976, which is Constitution Day, the national holiday. Since then, the islands have had their own government headed by a chief minister (now premier). The winning party of Turks and Caicos' first general election in 1976, the People's Democratic Movement (PDM) under "Jags" McCartney, sought to establish a framework and accompanying infrastructure in the pursuit of an eventual policy of full independence for the islands. However, with the early death of McCartney, confidence in the country's leadership waned.
In 1980, the ruling pro-independence party, the
The PNP emerged victorious from the following by-elections, but on 24 July 1986, the governor dissolved the government and replaced it with an advisory council after a report on allegations of arson and fraud found that the chief minister post-Saunders, Nathaniel Francis, along with four other PNP officials were unfit to rule.
The constitution was suspended in 1986, but restored and revised 5 March 1988. In the interim two Advisory Councils took over with members from the Progressive National Party (PNP), People's Democratic Movement (PDM) and National Democratic Alliance (NDA), which was a splinter group from the PNP:[13] [14] Under the careful guidance of the governor and the advisory council, a new constitution of the Turks and Caicos Islands was created and elections held in 1988, with the PNP winning by a landslide, and Washington Misick becoming the new chief minister.
A new constitution came into force on 9 August 2006, but was in parts suspended and amended in 2009. Under the 2006 constitution, the head of government was the
However, in the mid-2000s, the issue of independence for the islands was again raised. In April 2006, PNP Premier Michael Misick reaffirmed that his party saw independence from Britain as the "ultimate goal" for the islands, but not at the present time.[15] In 2008, opponents of Misick accused him of moving toward independence for the islands to dodge a commission of inquiry, which examined reports of corruption by the Misick Administration.[16]
In 2008, after members of the British parliament conducting a routine review the administration received several reports of high-level official corruption in the Turks and Caicos,[17] Governor Richard Tauwhare announced the appointment of a Commission of Enquiry into corruption.[18] The same year, Premier Misick himself became the focus of the corruption investigation. He resigned under fire in March 2009.[19] As a result, Governor Gordon Wetherell suspended the local government and the British took over direct rule which lasted from August 2009[20] until the general elections of November 2012 under a new (15 October 2012) constitution.[21]
Corruption scandal and suspension of self-government
In 2008, after members of the British parliament conducting a routine review of the administration received several reports of high-level official corruption in the Turks and Caicos,[17] then-Governor Richard Tauwhare announced the appointment of a Commission of Enquiry into corruption.[22] The same year, Premier Michael Misick himself became the focus of a criminal investigation after a woman identified by news outlets as an American citizen residing in Puerto Rico accused him of sexually assaulting her,[23] although he strongly denies the charge.[24]
On Monday, 16 March 2009, the UK threatened to suspend self-government in the islands and transfer power to the new governor,
On 18 March 2009, on the advice of her UK ministers,
On 23 March 2009, after the enquiry found evidence of "high probability of systemic corruption or other serious dishonesty", Misick resigned as Premier to make way for a new, unified government.[27] Politicians were accused of selling crown land for personal gain and misusing public funds.[28] The following day, Galmo Williams was sworn in as his replacement.[27][29] Misick denied all charges, and referred to the British government's debate on whether to remove the territory's sovereignty as "tantamount to being re-colonised. It is a backwards step completely contrary to the whole movement of history."[28]
On 14 August 2009 after Misick's last appeals failed, the Governor, on the instructions of the
The move was met with vehement opposition by the former Turks and Caicos government, with Misick's successor Williams calling it a "coup", and stating that, "Our country is being invaded and re-colonised by the United Kingdom, dismantling a duly elected government and legislature and replacing it with a one-man dictatorship, akin to that of the old Red China, all in the name of good governance."[30] Despite this, the civilian populace was reported to be largely welcoming of the enforced rule.[30] The British government stated that they intended to keep true to their word that the country would regain home rule in two years or less, and Foreign Office Minister Chris Bryant said that elections would be held in 2011, "or sooner".[31] Governor Wetherell stated that he would aim to "make a clean break from the mistakes of the past" and create "a durable path towards good governance, sound financial management and sustainable development". Wetherell added: "In the meantime we must all learn to foster a quality of public spirit, listen to all those who have the long-term interests of these islands at heart, and safeguard the fundamental assets of the Territory for future generations... Our guiding principles will be those of transparency, accountability and responsibility. I believe that most people in the Turks and Caicos will welcome these changes."[30]
Restoration of autonomy
On 12 June 2012 British
After the
In the
Notes
- ^ a b "World Directory of Minorities and Indigenous Peoples – Turks and Caicos Islands : Overview". Minority Rights Group International, 2007.
- ^ Fincher, Christina (14 August 2009). "Britain suspends Turks and Caicos government". Reuters. Retrieved 26 May 2013.
- ^ "Name origin of the Turks and Caicos | Stacie Steensland".
- ^ https://www.visittci.com/providenciales/caicos-conch-farm
- ^ a b "About Turks and Caicos". Turks and Caicos Islands. Turks and Caicos Tourist Board. Archived from the original on 2021-12-11. Retrieved 2022-03-04.
- ^ a b "Turks and Caicos Islands". The World Factbook. Central Intelligence Agency. Archived from the original on 13 January 2021. Retrieved 2022-03-05.
- ^ Maritimes: The Magazine of the Bermuda Maritime Museum. 2002. Vol. 15, No. 2. "Foreign Interlopers at Bermuda's Turks Islands", by Dr. Bill Cooke.
- .
- ^ "Central America :: Turks and Caicos Islands — The World Factbook - Central Intelligence Agency". www.cia.gov. Retrieved 2019-04-24.
- ^ "History of the Turks and Caicos Islands". Visit Turks & Caicos Islands. Retrieved 20 February 2015.
- ^ Frasketi, Joseph J. Jr. "The Grand Turk Island Connection with". Joe Frasketi's Space and other Topical Covers. Retrieved 20 February 2015.
- ^ "Biography from City of Cambridge's Hall of Fame". City.cambridge.on.ca. Retrieved 31 July 2011.
- ^ Ben Cahoon. "Turks and Caicos Islands". Worldstatesmen.org. Retrieved 2017-03-22.
- ^
- 1st Council (1986–1987)
- Ariel Misick (NDA) – also served as minister of development and commerce
- Emmanuel Misick (NDA)
- Clement Howell (PDM)
- Carlos Simons (NDA)
- Elliot Williams (PDM) – Indigenous Liaison Officer and former Mayor of Cockburn Town.
- 2nd Council (1987–1988)
- Daniel Manfred Malcolm (PNP) – former leader of PNP
- Tom Lightbourne (PNP) – Chairman of PNP
- Herbie Ingham (NDA) – later as Providenciales International Airport Authority Chairman
- 1st Council (1986–1987)
- ^ "Independence 'ultimate goal' for Turks & Caicos, says Chief Minister." Caribbean Net News. 28 April 2006. Retrieved 1 August 2008.
- ^ "Turks and Caicos politics: Evidently, when A.L. Hall speaks, people should listen." [dead link] Caribbean Net News. 29 July 2008. Retrieved 1 August 2008.
- ^ a b Nick Meo. "Turks and Caicos: MPs criticise 'climate of fear' on luxury holiday islands." The Telegraph. 6 July 2008. Retrieved 1 August 2008.
- ^ "TCI Governor appoints Commission of Enquiry." Archived 2008-08-01 at the Wayback Machine Cayman Net News. 14 July 2008. Retrieved 1 August 2008.
- ^ Dutta, Kunal (23 March 2009). "Turks and Caicos PM quits after corruption inquiry". Independent. Archived from the original on 25 March 2009.
- ^ Barrington-binns, Susan (19 October 2009). "Turks and Caicos Islands: Report On The Partial Suspension Of The Constitution Of The Turks And Caicos Islands". Mondaq. Archived from the original on 31 January 2017.
- ^ a b Clegg, Peter (2013). "The United Kingdom and its caribbean overseas territories: Present relations and future prospects" (PDF). Caribbean Journal of International Relations & Diplomacy. 1 (2): 53–64, page 56. Archived (PDF) from the original on 31 January 2017.
- ^ "TCI Governor appoints Commission of Enquiry." Archived 1 August 2008 at the Wayback Machine Cayman Net News. 14 July 2008. Retrieved 1 August 2008.
- ^ "Turks and Caicos premier faces rape investigation; calls allegations 'outrageous'." International Herald Tribune. 16 April 2008. Retrieved 1 August 2008.
- ^ Anthony Hall. "Commentary: TCI Premier Michael Misick accused of rape! (Updated)." Caribbean Net News. 11 April 2008. Archived 3 May 2009 at the Wayback Machine
- ^ "UK Action over Turks and Caicos". BBC News. 16 March 2009. Retrieved 15 August 2009.
- ^ The Turks and Caicos Islands Constitution (Interim Amendment) Order 2009 SI 2009/701
- ^ a b "Turks and Caicos PM quits amid corruption probe". AFP. 23 March 2009. Retrieved 16 August 2009.
- ^ a b Anne Barrowclough (24 March 2009). "Government suspended in overseas territory". The Times. London. Retrieved 14 August 2009.
- ^ Free Press Editorial Board (23 March 2009). "Hon. Galmore Williams Sworn in as Premier". Turks & Caicos Free Press. Retrieved 16 August 2009.
- ^ a b c d Edward Helmore (14 August 2009). "Britain seizes control of scandal-hit dependency". The Independent. London. Retrieved 14 August 2009.
- ^ Jim Pickard (14 August 2009). "UK to run Turks and Caicos isles". Financial Times. Archived from the original on 2022-12-10. Retrieved 14 August 2009.
- ^ Foreign Secretary statement announces elections in the Turks and Caicos Islands Foreign & Commonwealth Office
- ^ Governor Todd Signs Constitution Proclamation Turks & Caicos Weekly News Online
- ^ "The World Factbook — Central Intelligence Agency". Cia.gov. Retrieved 2017-03-22.
- ^ "PDM elects new party leaders". TCI News. 15 December 2012. Retrieved 31 January 2017.
- ^ "Person of the Year: For the sake of representation – Sharlene Cartwright-Robinson". Turks & Caicos Weekly News. January 2013. Archived from the original on 31 January 2017.
- ^ "Turks and Caicos: Where women hold the top jobs". BBC News. 29 January 2017.
References
- This article incorporates text from Sheppard Software's Snapshot of the Caribbean: Turks and Caicos webpage.