Turks and Caicos History

The first documented European to sight the islands was Spanish conquistador Juan Ponce de Le?n in 1512. During the 16th, 17th and 18th centuries, the islands passed from Spanish, to French, to British control, but none of the them ever established any settlements.

For several decades around the turn of the 18th century they became popular pirate hideouts. Bermudian salt collectors settled the Turk Islands around 1680. In 1765–1783 they were under French occupation. After the American Revolution (1775–1783) many loyalists fled to Caribbean colonies, including (in 1783) the first settlers on the Caicos Islands; cotton became an important crop briefly. In 1799, both the Turks and the Caicos island groups were annexed by Britain as part of the Bahamas.

In 1848, the Turks and Caicos were declared a separate colony under a council president. The last incumbent was maintained in 1873 when the islands were made part of Jamaica colony; in 1894 the chief colonial official was restyled commissioner. In 1917, Canadian Prime Minister Robert Borden suggested that the Turks and Caicos join Canada, but this suggestion was shot down by British prime minister David Lloyd George. The islands remained a dependency of Jamaica until 1959.

On 4 July 1959, the islands were again a separate colony, the last commissioner being restyled administrator, but the governor of Jamaica remained the governor of the islands. Until 31 May 1962, they were one of the constitutive parts of the Federation of the West Indies.

When Jamaica was granted independence from Britain in August 1962, the Turks and Caicos Islands became a crown colony. When the Bahamas gained independence in 1973, the Turks and Caicos received their own governor. In 1974, Canadian New Democratic Party leader Max Saltsman tried to use his Private Member’s Bill to create legislation to annex the islands to Canada, but it didn’t pass in the Canadian House of Commons.

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