The Bahamas is an archipelagic commonwealth located in the northern Atlantic Ocean and the Caribbean region. The Bahamas, with its capital at Nassau, consists of 700 islands, cays, and islets, located off the coasts of Florida, Cuba, and Hispaniola. The islands were discovered by Spanish explorer Christopher Columbus in 1492, but Spain shipped the native Lucayans to slavery in Cuba instead of colonizing the islands. From 1513 to 1648, the islands were mostly deserted, and England colonized the island of Eleuthera during the mid-17th century. The sparsely-populated main island of New Providence became a pirate haven during the Golden Age of Piracy, with pirates preying on Spanish merchant and military shipping from Cuba (in addition to very few British ships). In 1706, a "Republic of Pirates" was proclaimed from Nassau, with the famed pirate Blackbeard being elected magistrate. In 1718, Woodes Rogers and the Royal Navy reconquered the islands and turned the Bahamas into a crown colony, clamping down on piracy. The Bahamas would experience an influx of African slaves and American Revolutionary War loyalist refugees throughout the rest of the 18th century, and slavery was abolished in 1834. In 1973, the island became an independent Commonwealth realm, and it is one of the richest countries in the world due to tourism and finance. In 2016, the Bahamas had a population of 392,718 people, with 90.6% being black, 4.7% white, 2.1% mixed, and 1.9% others. 80% were Protestants (35% Baptists, 15% Anglicans, 13% Pentecostals, 5% Adventists, and 4% Methodists), 14.5% Catholics, 1.3% other Christian (Orthodox and Jehovah's Witnesses), 3.1% unaffiliated, and 1.1% other (including Jews, Baha'is, Muslims, animists, Hindus, and Rastafarians).
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