Country Profile Turks and Caicos Islands (2023)

TTurks and Caicos IslandsIt was originally inhabited byLoukayans(part of the greater Taino people). The islands were the firstdiscovered by Europeansin 1492 by Christopher Columbus, or in 1512 by Ponce de León (there is no consensus among historians).

After the arrival of Europeans, native Lucayans quickly disappeared from the islands, largely due to slavery and disease (imported from Europe).

From the mid-16th to early 17th centuries, the islands were virtually uninhabited, save for occasional visits by explorers and salt collectors.

In the late 1600s, piracy became a problem as the islands were used as a base.pirates. This was due to the source of fresh water and the numerous cavities that lurked and hunted passing ships.

Beginning in the late 1600s, Bermudians regularly visited the islands to collect salt, starting the organizationsea ​​salt industry. For the next 350 years, salt exports would be the main source of income for the islands.

After the American Revolutionary War, some were displacedbritish loyalistsThey were given land and migrated to the islands, bringing their slaves and establishing plantations of cotton, sisal and other crops. The cotton industry largely failed due to disease (and hurricane damage).

In the mid-19th century, the islands saw an influx of young peopleafrican people, with a different heritage from the slaves brought to Bermuda in the late 17th century. spanish slave shipsTroubadouryesperanzaalso wrecked nearbyeastern caico, and some of the survivors were released on the islands.

In the 1950s, the United States builtArmada, Air Force andCoast Guardbases in the Turks and Caicos Islands, which brought much needed income and jobs to the islanders.

Until 1962, the Turks and Caicos Islands were part of Jamaica, however, after Jamaica's independence, the Turks and Caicos Islands became a Crown Colony (although the Governor of the Bahamas oversaw the territory's affairs, as the Islands Turks and Caicos did not have their own ruler).

With the independence of the Bahamas in 1973, the Turks and Caicos Islands received their own ruler and in 2002 the islands were re-designated as a British Overseas Territory.

core items

Capital:Cockburn Town em Grand Turk

Area:948 km2 (366 square miles)

Population:46.131 (2021 est.)

Division:American dollar

Language:English

government and leaders

The Head of State in the Turks and Caicos Islands is King Charles III and is represented locally by an appointed Governor. As there is internal self-government, there is also a locally elected prime minister.

Country name and shape

The short name of the country is "Turks and Caicos" and the long form is "Turks and Caicos Islands". There is no prefix like "Commonwealth" or "Territory". TCI is often used as an abbreviation for country.

When used in the abbreviation, singular verbs must be used ("The Turks and Caicos Islands is a country...").

When used in the long form, plural verbs must be used ("The Turks and Caicos Islands are home to many...").

Do not refer to the country as "Turks".

Pronunciation

'Caicos' is pronounced 'k-coas' (as in the coast). It's not "cos" as in cost. The pronunciation of the IPA is tɜrks and keɪkəs.

Providenciales, the main tourist island, is pronounced "prov-ah-den-c-a-leez". There is no 'ch' sound in the name.

Key points to understand

Terms

British English is the variant of English used. Place names use British English spelling (such as Mudjin Harbour, Cockburn Harbour, etc.).

The demon is a "Turks and Caicos Islander", which is often shortened to "Turks Islander" (this also includes people from the Caicos Islands).

Islands

Providenciales is the main tourist island and is home to Grace Bay beach and most of the country's development and infrastructure.

Grand Turk is the nation's capital and home to the Grand Turk Cruise Center (the country's only cruise port).

There are some private islands including Pine Cay, Parrot Cay and Ambergris Cay.

Citizenship/Nationality vs Turks and Caicos Member/State

As the Turks and Caicos Islands are not a sovereign nation, they cannot issue passports. Instead, people are issued British Overseas Territories passports. These have 'British Passport - Turks and Caicos Islands' on the cover. This is the nationality/nationality of a person.

Separately, there is a locally conferred status (by the locally elected government) called "Turks and Caicos Island Status". Previously, this was called Belonging, and people who had this status were called Belongings (a name still common today).

Turks and Caicos Islander status is required for many things in the country and is similar to citizenship in other countries. TCI status is required to vote, hold public office, operate many types of businesses, drive public service vehicles, and many other things.

it's not a colony

The country is not a colony in the traditional sense of the term. People from the UK do not have a right of abode in the Turks and Caicos Islands and British citizens are treated like any other nationality in immigration law. The islanders have different nationalities (British Overseas Territories citizenship) as well as British citizens. Movement is therefore unidirectional (people from Turks and Caicos can live and work in the UK, but not the other way around).

Turks and Caicos Islanders (and the government) do not pay UK taxes or pay any kind of payment or contribution to the UK.

voting population

Less than 1 in 5 people are registered to vote in the Turks and Caicos Islands. This low number is largely due to the ineligibility of the majority of the population.

In the 2021 general election, there were a total of 8,581 registered voters, out of an estimated total population of 46,131 (2021 Bureau of Statistics estimate), bringing the registered electorate to 18.6% of the population, and far fewer are eligible to vote. . political party nominations.

For example, for the 2021 general election, Prime Minister Mr. Charles Washington Misick was nominated by less than 0.25% of the population and less than 8% of the population voted for him.

Timeline of main events

• 500-700 dC

  The first known inhabitants of present-day Turks and Caicos reached the islands, probably via Hispaniola. They were a Taino-speaking people, often referred to as the Arawak Island, Lucayan Taino, or simply theLucayaPeople.

• 900

  The largest known Lucayan settlements were built and the Lucayans established consistent trade routes in the region. Salt, dried bark and beads from the islands were exchanged for honey, stone tools, canoes, fruit and much more, mostly from Hispaniola.

• 1492

  Christopher Columbus could do itfirst landin the New World in the Turks and Caicos Islands in Grand Turk.

• 1512

  The Spanish explorer Ponce de León stopped at the islands, probably Grand Turk, on his way to Bimini. If Columbus wasn't the first to reach the Turks and Caicos Islands, Ponce de Leon may have been the first European to arrive. He named the island where he landed Isla del Viejo, which roughly translates to Islas del Viejo, after the lone Lucayan elder he saw.

• 1515

  An unidentified Spanish caravel was wrecked on Molasses Reef near West Caicos in the Caicos Islands. This wreck became known as the Molasses Reef Wreck and is the oldest European wreck excavated in America.

• 1515-1530

  Populations on Lucaya are rapidly declining, leaving the islands virtually uninhabited. Radiocarbon dating of samples from Lucaya settlements gives ages no later than the early 17th century, which is consistent with the total extinction of the Lucayas in the 1530s or 1540s.

• 1530-1720

  The islands remain virtually uninhabited.pirates and loversthey occasionally operated from the islands, perhaps as late as the mid-1700s, when the west side of the Caicos Islands was likely the focus of their presence. Pirates continued to occasionally raid the islands until the early 19th century. The Turks and Caicos Islands were given a variation of their current name in the early 16th century, which roughly translates to 'Pirate Islands'.

• 1563.

  English explorer Captain John White visited West Caicos on his way to the colony of Virginia. Some of his famous sketches from the period are very reminiscent of what he would likely have seen in West Caicos, including aiguana, oneflamenco, a land crab and the Caribbean scorpion.

• 1660

  Bermuda shipwrecks get to spend time on the islands salvaging shipwrecks and collecting salt from natural salt lakes. In the late 17th century, Bermuda began establishing settlements on Grand Turk and Salt Cay with the aim of collecting and exporting sea salt.

• 1750

  Bermuda established permanent settlements and began large-scale developmentsalt sea salt. Slaves and indentured servants are brought to the islands to work on the salt flats.

• 1753-1783

  The French make numerous raids and attacks, occasionally controlling Sand Cay, Grand Turk, Salt Cay and "Grand Caicos", which at the time probably referred to Providenciales, South Caicos and all the islands in between. Later, Grand Caicos was a term used for Middle Caicos. At some point, the Bermudians present on the islands are expelled to Haiti. Horatio Nelson unsuccessfully attempts to capture Grand Turk in 1873. France officially returns the islands to Great Britain under the 1783 Treaty of Versailles.

• 1764

  Great Britain officially claims ownership of the Turks and Caicos Islands. The islands are administered as part of Jamaica.

• 1790

  After the American Revolutionary War,fellThey were granted grants in the Caicos Islands by the British Crown to compensate them for the loss of land in what became the United States. Loyalists built cotton plantations in the Caicos Islands and brought in African slaves.

• 1799

  Great Britain decides to rule the Turks and Caicos Islands through its territory in the Bahamas. This makes many Bermudians unhappy.

• 1834

  The British Empire enacted the Slavery Abolition Act, which led to the emancipation of slaves throughout the British Empire, including the Turks and Caicos Islands.

• 1841

  The Spanish Slave ShipTroubadourwrecked off the north coast of East Caicos. 192 slaves survived, many of whom settled in Middle Caicos.

• 1852

  HeLarge Turkish Lanternassembled in Grand Turk. The sinking of the R.M.S.medina, which was the first British Royal Mail Service ship to be lost at sea, was the catalyst for the commissioning of the lighthouse.

• 1866

  What is commonly known as Great Hurricane Nassau hit the Turks and Caicos Islands in September and was perhaps the most destructive storm on record to hit the islands. At least 50 people died, the salt and agriculture industries were destroyed, and 1.4 million bushels of harvested sea salt were lost.

• 1874

  The Turks and Caicos Islands are a dependency of Jamaica, which was part of the British Empire at the time, as the islands could not maintain their own independent government.

• 1870-1920

  In the Caicos Islands, efforts are being made to expand beyond cotton planting. The sisal export, guano mining, puffing, whaling and shelling industries were started and met with limited success.

• 1898

  The Turks and Caicos Islands receive the first international telegraph connection, connecting Grand Turk to the rest of the world via Bermuda.

• early 1900's

  grace bay beachIt was named after Grace Jane Hutchings, wife of Hugh Houston Hutchings, who was Commissioner of the Turks and Caicos Islands at the time.

• 1950

  Due to the decline of the sea salt and sisal industries in the Turks and Caicos Islands, many Turks and Caicos have migrated to the Bahamas, mainly to Freeport.

• 1952-1954

  The United States built two military bases on Grand Turk.NAVFAC 104it was a US Navy base on the northern tip of the island and did underwater sound tracking of submarines and ships. South Base was a US Air Force base that primarily did missile tracking. Both locations were important during the Cuban Missile Crisis and in the early days of the Space Race. The South Base airstrip later became theGrand Turk JAGS McCartney International Airport (GDT).

• 1959

  America is building aUS Coast Guard Stationin South Caicos and an airport. This station was part of the LORAN-A radio navigation system. The site closed in 1980 with advancing technology and the need for fewer stations. The airport has becomeSouth Caicos Airport (XSC).

• 1960

  Hurricane Donna hits the Turks and Caicos Islands. The Caicos Islands are particularly damaged. Extensive flooding occurred in North Caicos and its communityWhitbyit was flooded for months. The total ofhalf moon baylevel and a full 3,000-foot (900 m) channel created between Little Water Cay and Water Cay.

• 1962

  After Jamaica's independence from the United Kingdom in 1962, the Turks and Caicos Islands decided to remain a British Crown Colony.

• 1962

  John Glenn, the first American to orbit Earth, lands near Grand Turk in the Friendship 7 space capsule and makes his first drop on the island. A month later, Scott Carpenter landed near the country with the Aurora 7 capsule and also made his first landing on Grand Turk.

• 1966

  Queen Elizabeth II visited Grand Turk and South Caicos on the royal yacht HMSreal britain.

• 1966

  Provident Limited began operations in the Turks and Caicos Islands and began developing Providenciales as a tourist destination.

• 1968

  Opened the first airport of Providenciales, Oxford Airstrip. This was an international airport and was located north of the creekProvidenciales International Airport (PLS)In the middlekew cityarea.

• 1970

  The Third Turtle Inn openedTurtle Cove, and was Providenciales' first hotel.

• 1975

  The last shipment of salt is made from Salt Cay and the industry comes to an end.

• 1975

  The Junkanoo Club, which was a nationalist bar and political social club, kidnapped a police inspector, a newspaper editor and an American sailor. Governor Watson, then governor at the time, negotiated the release of the hostages.

• 1976

  The first parliamentary elections were held under a party system. The People's Democratic Party (PDM) led by James Alexander George Smith (JAGS) McCartney wins a majority.

• 1980

  JAGS McCartney, the island's first elected prime minister, died in a plane crash.

• 1983

  The status of the Turks and Caicos Islands changes from a crown colony to a British dependent territory.

• 1984

  Club Med Turquoiseopens, which was Grace Bay Beach's first resort, first all-inclusive, and first major resort.

• 1986-1988

  The government of the Turks and Caicos Islands has been suspended by the United Kingdom after Prime Minister Norman Sanders was arrested in the United States on drug trafficking charges and allegations of corruption and government involvement in drug trafficking. A commission of inquiry is being held.

• 1992

  On December 18, 1992, American Airlines began regular weekly flights to the Turks and Caicos Islands, paving the way for the island to become the tourist destination it is today.

• 2002

  The United Kingdom changes the status of the Turks and Caicos Islands from British Dependent Territory to British Overseas Territory. Islanders born in the country were given full British citizenship.

• 2006

  HeGrand Turk Cruise Centeropens in Grand Turk and the first cruise ships begin arriving in the Turks and Caicos Islands.

• 2007

  Hurricane Ike hits the Turks and Caicos Islands, causing significant damage to Grand Turk, Salt Cay and South Caicos. the newly finishedNorth and Middle Caicos Causwayit was heavily damaged.

• 2009

  On 18 August 2009, the United Kingdom suspended the elected government of the Turks and Caicos Islands over allegations of widespread and systemic corruption by the 2003-2009 National Progressive Party (PNP) government led by Michael Misick. The United Kingdom exercised direct sovereignty over the Turks and Caicos Islands until 2012.

• 2017

  Within days of each other, Hurricane Irma and Hurricane Maria hit the Turks and Caicos Islands, causing widespread damage.