History And Geography

History

The past of the Turks and Caicos Islands is a story similar to many regions in the Caribbean and entire Southern America. The residents were a bunch of happy-go-lucky indigenous people, who were exploited then desecrated by greedy colonialists. They struggled for freedom and finally acquired the state of happiness and progressed with the era of modernization.

The first people to populate the island were Taino Native Americans, who chanced up on the islands on the Caribbean explorations. They already had a stronghold in surrounding island known in present day as Bermuda, and they established settlements on Grand Turk, South Caicos and Salt Cay islands. However, the reign of the Taino did not last long and neither did their cultural influences or monuments. They were replaced by the Lucayan Natives, who remained on the island till the arrival of European colonists.

The debate on the first European to discover the Turks and Caicos Islands is still raging. Some believe that it was Christopher Columbus, who landed on his first exploration of the New World. Others argue that it was Ponce de Leon. Regardless of whoever came up on the island first, one thing is certain that in the sixteenth century, the Turks and Caicos Islands fell into the hands of the Spanish. As with all their other colonies, the Spanish bought slavery and disease to Turks and Caicos as well, obliterating the native populations. They imported individuals from as far as Africa and India to do all the physical labor on the islands as slaves.

Initially, the islands flourished as agricultural grounds of sisal and cotton. However, in less than a century, the soil deteriorated to such an extent that the land became fruitless. Nonetheless, the islands continued to be important sources for solar salt to European nations.

The Turks and Caicos Islands became a British Crown Colony in 1962. Although, the islands now have a self-elected government, they continue to be an overseas territory of the United Kingdom.

Geography

The Turks and Caicos Islands are formed out of an archipelago of eight major islands and a number of smaller cays or keys situated in the North Atlantic Ocean. The islands are divided into two main groups - Turks in the east and Caicos in the west. Geographically, these islands form the southern tail of the Bahamas chain islands. Turks and Caicos are located just a hundred miles off the coast of Hispaniola and around 575 miles way from Miami in Florida at 21o 45'N 71o35'W. All though, the islands are spread over a large area of ocean, the combined land area of the island is roughly 166 square miles.

If you look at the island's position technically, the Turks and Caicos Islands are not located in the Caribbean at all. They do not come in contact with the Caribbean Sea and are in fact served only by the Atlantic Ocean. These islands are geographically a part of Bahamas, but do not state the same politically. The waters around the islands have one of the world's longest coral reefs as well as ocean wall that are internationally renowned for diving quality. The land on the other hand has a largely flat topography and is made up of limestone. The beaches of this tropical paradise are over 200 hundred miles in length. Much of the remaining land area is covered by marches and mangrove estuaries.

Among the Turks group of islands, only two - Grand Turk and Salt Cay - are inhabited. The capital of the islands is Cockburn Town and it lies on Grand Turk Island. The Caicos group sees a larger percentage of civilization with islands of Providenciales, North Caicos, Middle Caicos and South Caicos having large rate of population. Of these the island of Providenciales (Provo for short) is the most thriving center for commercialism and tourism.