They developed cotton as an important cash crop, but it was superseded by the development of the salt industry, with the labour done by African slaves forcibly imported from Africa or the other Caribbean islands and their descendants, who soon came to outnumber the European settlers. After the American War of Independence (1775–1783), many Loyalists fled to British Caribbean colonies, also bringing with them African slaves. During the Anglo-French War (1778–1783) the French captured the archipelago in 1783, however it was later confirmed as British colony with the Treaty of Paris (1783). For several decades around the turn of the 18th century, the islands became popular pirate hideouts. : 34–37 : 37–39 European settlement įrom the mid-1600s Bermudian salt collectors began seasonally visiting the islands, later settling more permanently with their African slaves.

: 92–99 : 159–160, 191 As a result of this, and the introduction of diseases to which the native people had no immunity, the southern Bahama Islands and the Turks and Caicos Islands were completely depopulated by about 1513, and remained so until the 17th century. In either case, by 1512 the Spanish had begun capturing the Taíno and Lucayans as labourers in the encomienda system to replace the largely depleted native population of Hispaniola. However, other sources state that it is more likely that Spanish conquistador Juan Ponce de León was the first European in Turks and Caicos, in 1512. Some sources state that Christopher Columbus saw the islands on his voyage to the Americas in 1492. It is unknown precisely who the first European to sight the islands was. : 80–86 Around 1200, the Turks and Caicos Islands were resettled by Classical Taínos from Hispaniola. : 18 Together with Taíno who migrated from Cuba to the southern Bahamas around the same time, these people developed as the Lucayan. The first inhabitants of the islands were the Arawakan-speaking Taíno people, who most likely crossed over from Hispaniola some time from AD 500 to 800. Main article: History of the Turks and Caicos Islands Pre-colonial era The Turks Islands are 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. The name Caico is from the Lucayan caya hico, meaning 'string of islands'. 4.4.1 Turks and Caicos Islands Regiment.When the Bahamas gained independence in 1973, the islands received their own governor, and have remained an autonomous territory since.

For many years they were governed indirectly through Bermuda, the Bahamas and Jamaica. In subsequent centuries, they were claimed by several European powers, with the British Empire eventually gaining control. The first recorded European sighting of them was in 1512. The islands were inhabited for centuries by indigenous peoples. They have a total land area of 430 square kilometres (170 sq mi). Grand Turk (Cockburn Town), the capital since 1766, is situated on Grand Turk Island about 1,042 kilometres (647 mi) east-southeast of Miami, United States. The islands are southeast of Mayaguana in the Bahamas island chain and north of the island of Hispaniola (Haiti and the Dominican Republic). It is the third largest of the British overseas territories by population. The resident population was 31,458 in 2012, of whom 23,769 lived on Providenciales in the Caicos Islands July 2021 estimates put the population at 57,196.

They are known primarily for tourism and as an offshore financial centre. The Turks and Caicos Islands (abbreviated TCI / t ɜːr k s/ and / ˈ k eɪ k ə s, - k oʊ s, - k ɒ s/) are a British Overseas Territory consisting of the larger Caicos Islands and smaller Turks Islands, two groups of tropical islands in the Lucayan Archipelago of the Atlantic Ocean and northern West Indies.

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