The Bahamas is an archipelago of some 700 islands and cays covering over 100,000 square miles of ocean between Florida and Hispaniola. With a total land area of 5,382 square miles, The Bahamas is about 20 per cent larger than the island of Jamaica.

The country's name derives from the Lucayan Indian word 'ba-ha-ma' (or 'large upper middle land'). After the original Amerindian inhabitants were destroyed by the Spanish who followed Columbus, the islands were deserted until English settlers from Bermuda established a colony on Eleuthera in the mid-1600's.

Today, just over 300,000 people live here on 22 inhabited islands. The main population centres are the capital, Nassau, on the island of New Providence (pop: 210,000), and Freeport on the island of Grand Bahama (pop: 50,000).

A British crown colony for over 300 years, the Bahamas became a member of the Commonwealth after Independence on July 10, 1973. A governor-general ceremonially represents Queen Elizabeth II of England as Bahamian head of state.

A multi-party democracy in the British tradition, the Bahamas has a bicameral parliament with an elected assembly and an appointed senate. The country is governed by a cabinet headed by a prime minister. Elections are held every five years.

The centre-right Free National Movement came to power in the general election of August, 1992, after 25 consecutive years of centre-left Progressive Liberal Party rule. The FNM was re-elected by a landslide in March, 1997, but lost to the PLP in a major reversal in May, 2002. In May, 2007 the PLP lost to the FNM in a narrowly contested election after only one term.

Tourism is the country's biggest earner, with over four million visitors (mostly North Americans) spending a billion and a half dollars a year. Financial services account for about 15 per cent of the Gross Domestic Product of $6 billion. Agriculture and fisheries is a distant third, with about $70 million in marine products exported annually. Most Bahamians are employed in the civil service, hotel sector and the distributive trades.