History of Bermuda

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This is the history of Bermuda. See also the History of Virginia, history of the Americas, History of the Turks and Caicos Islands, English colonization of the Americas, History of North America, history of the Caribbean and History of present-day nations and states.

1 Initial Discovery
2 Settlement by England
3 The early colony
4 Later development
5 Bermuda in World War II
6 Recent events
7 References
8 Further reading
- 8.1 Basic history
- 8.2 Specific topics
9 References
10 External links

[edit] Initial Discovery

Bermuda was discovered in the early 1500s, probably in 1503, although the evidence for the exact year, and the identity of the discoverer, is sketchy. It was certainly known by 1511, when Peter Martyr published his Legatio Babylonica, which mentioned Bermuda. The discovery is attributed to a Spanish explorer, Juan de Bermudez. Nothing is known of his supposed first visit; he returned again in 1515, with the chronicler Oviedo y Valdés. Oviedo's account of the second visit (published in 1526) records that they made no attempt to land because of weather.

During the following decades, other visits from explorers of various nationalities ensued, including many whose stays resulted from being shipwrecked on the treacherous reefs surrounding the then-uninhabited islands. Among the latter were a group of Portuguese sailors in 1543, and Henry May in 1593.

[edit] Settlement by England

Bermuda was first settled in 1609 by shipwrecked English colonists who were originally headed for Virginia. A fleet of nine ships owned by the Virginia Company of London set sail from Plymouth, England with fresh supplies and additional colonists for the new British settlement at Jamestown. The fleet was commanded by Admiral Sir George Somers on board the flagship, the Sea Venture. During a fierce storm the Sea Venture was separated from the rest of the fleet. Somers was at the helm as she fought the storm, and deliberately drove the ship onto Bermuda's reefs to prevent its foundering. All 150 crew and colonists survived, and were landed on the uninhabited north-easternmost island of archipelago.

They were stranded on the islands for 10 months. One of the passengers aboard the Sea Venture was Sir Thomas Gates, the newly appointed Governor of the Jamestown settlement. Ashore in Bermuda, he felt that he was the senior officer of the Company. Somers, however, felt that he should retain command until they succeeded in reaching Jamestown. Two factions developed among the survivors, with the sailors looking to Somers and the settlers to Gates. This division was able to be overcome, however, as two new ships were built to replace the Sea Venture. Many parts used in their construction were, in fact, salvaged from the Sea Venture, which had been left high and dry on the reef when the storm abated. By 1610 the Deliverance and the Patience had been completed. The number of the survivors had been reduced by then. The Sea Venture's boat had been fitted with a mast and sent to find Jamestown. It, and its crew, was never seen again. Others had died or been killed. Others still had been born. Leaving two men behind to maintain England's claim on the islands, Somers set sail with the remainder from Bermuda for Jamestown. Those embarked included William Strachey, whose account of the adventures of the Sea Venture's survivors may have inspired Shakespeare's The Tempest, and who would draft Virginia's first laws, and John Rolfe, who would found Virginia's tobacco industry, making the colony economically viable. Rolfe left a wife buried in Bermuda, but would find another in Powhatan princess, Pocahontas. On arrival in Virginia, Somers found the Jamestown colony decimated by starvation, illness and attacks by Native Americans, with only 60 survivors of the 500 settlers who had previosly been landed there. Fortunately, the supplies he brought saved them from oblivion. It was decided to abandon Jamestown and return everyone to England, but the timely arrival of another fleet from England granted the colony a reprieve. With food still scarce, Somerst decided to return to Bermuda with the Patience for provisions. He died in Bermuda, however, and the captain of the Patience, his nephew and heir, Matthew Somers, decided to sail to England instead of back to Jamestown. Returning to Somers' hometown of Lyme Regis, his body was landed via The Cobb, the famous breakwater which protects town's harbour. His heart, however, was left buried on what would subsequently also be known as The Somers Isles.

After reaching England, the reports of the Sea Venture's survivors aroused great interest about Bermuda. Two years later, in 1612, the Virginia Company's Royal Charter was extended to include the island, and a party of 60 settlers was sent, under the command of Sir Richard Moore, the island's first governor. Joining the three men left behind by the Sea Venture and the Patience (who had taken up residence on Smith's Island), they founded and commenced construction of the town of St. George.

Bermuda struggled throughout the following seven decades to develop a viable economy. The Virginia Company, finding the colony unprofitable, briefly handed its administration to the Crown in 1614. The following year, 1615, King James granted a charter to a new company, the Somers Isles Company, formed by the same shareholders, which ran the colony until it was dissolved in 1684 (the Virginia Company itself was dissolved after its charter was revoked in 1622). Representative government was introduced to Bermuda in 1620, when its House of Assembly held its first session, and it became a self-governing colony.

[edit] The early colony

Main article: Somers Isles Company

Bermuda was divided into nine equally-sized administrative areas. These comprised one public territory (today known as St. George's) and eight "tribes" (today known as "parishes"). These "tribes" were areas of land partitioned off to the "adventurers" (investors) of the Company - Devonshire, Hamilton, Paget, Pembroke, Sandys, Smith's, Southampton and Warwick (thusfar, this usage of the word "tribes" is unique to the Bermuda example).

Initially, the colony grew tobacco as its only crop. The Company repeatedly advised more variety, not only because of the risks involved in a single-crop economy, but also because the Bermuda-grown tobacco was of particularly low quality (the Company was frequently forced to burn the supply that arrived back in England). It would take Bermuda some time to move away from this, especially as tobacco was the main form of currency.

Agriculture was not a profitable business for Bermudians in any case. The land area under cultivation was so small (especially by comparison to the plots granted settlers in Virginia,) that fields could not be allowed to lie fallow, and farmers attempted to produce three crops each year. Islanders quickly turned to shipbuilding, and maritime trades, but the Company, which gained its profits only from the land under cultivation, forbade the construction of any vessels without its license. Its interference in Bermudians livlihood would lead to its dissolution in 1684.

The first slaves were brought to Bermuda soon after the colony was established. Unlike in the plantation economies that developed in North America and the West Indies, the system of indetured servitude, which lasted til 1684, ensured a large supply of cheap labour. Many of the Black slaves brought to Bermuda arrived as part of the cargoes seized by Bermudian privateers. The first Blacks to come to Bermuda in numbers were free West Indians, who emigrated from territories taken from Spain. They worked under seven years indenture, as did most English settlers, to repay the Company for the cost of their transport. As the size of the Black population grew, however, many attempts were made to reduce it. The terms of indenture for Blacks were successively raised to 99 years. The local government attempted to legislate the emigration of free blacks, and during times of war, with food supplies scarce, it was considered patriotic to export horses and slaves. The first two slaves brought into the Island, a Black and a Native American, had been sought for their skills in pearl diving (but, Bermuda proved to have no pearls). Slaves were also brought directly from Africa, and in large numbers from North America, where various Algonquian peoples were falling victim to English expansion.

Bermuda had actually tended towards the Royalist side in the English Civil War, but largely escaped the effects of the conflict, and the aftermath of the Parliamentary forces' victory. However, in the 1650s, following Cromwell's adventures in Ireland, and his attempt to force his protectorship on independent Scotland, Irish prisoners-of-war (POW) and ethnically-cleansed civilians, and smaller numbers of Scots POWs, were also sent to Bermuda. After the uncovering of a coup-plot by Irish and Black slaves, however, the import of further Irish slaves was banned. The slave trade would be outlawed in Bermuda in 1807, and all slaves were freed in 1834. At the end of the 17th Century, Whites, whether free or enslaved, composed the majority of Bermuda's population. Blacks and Native Americans were both small minorities. They combined, however, absorbing the Irish and Scots, and no small part of the White English bloodline, to be described as a single demographic group a century later, with the Bermuda's population being divided into White and Black Bermudians. As 10,000 Bermudians had emigrated, prior to American independence, most of them White, this left Blacks with a slight majority. Portuguese immigration, which began with a shipload of Madeiran families in the 1840s has been offset by sustained immigration from the West Indies which began at the end of the 19th Century. Today, about 60% of Bermudians are described as being of African descent (although many may have greater European ancestry), and almost all Bermudians would be able to easily find ancestors and relatives of either African or European descent.) As Bermuda's primary industry became maritime, following the 1684 removal of the impediments placed by the Somers Isles Company, most Bermudian slaves worked in shipbuilding and seafaring, or, in the case of the most unfortunate, in raking salt in the Turks Islands. Bermudians had established control of the Turks Islands, or Salt Islands, as they were then known, by the last decade of the 17th Century. They were seasonal occupants, and destroyed the local habitat in order to develop the salt industry that would become the central pillar of Bermuda's economy. A Spanish and French force seized the Turks in 1706, but a Bermudian force reclaimed them four years later. Bermudians spent the latter part of the 18th Century battling their former settlement, the Bahamas, for political control of the Turks. That long-running dispute was ended when the London government assigned them to the Bahamas. Bermudians withdrew from the Turks, and the salt industry, which had, by then, gained a reputation for great cruelty due to the suffering of the enslaved salt rakers. This was recorded in the History of Mary Prince, which helped to hasten the end of slavery in the British Empire.

[edit] Later development

Due to the islands' isolation, for many years Bermuda remained an outpost of 17th-century British civilization, with an economy based on the use of the islands' Bermuda cedar (Juniperus bermudiana) trees for shipbuilding, and Bermudians' control of the Turks Islands, and their salt trade. Especially as its control of the Turks became threatened, Bermuda's mariners also diversified their trade to include activities such as whaling and privateering. Following the loss of Britain's ports in thirteen of its former continental colonies, Bermuda was also used as a stopover point between Canada and Britain's Caribbean possessions, and assumed a new strategic prominence for the Royal Navy. Hamilton, a centrally located port founded in 1790, became the seat of government in 1815. This was partly resultant from the Royal Navy having invested twelve years, following American independence, in charting Bermudas reefs. It did this in order to locate the deepwater channel by which shipping might reach the islands in, and at the West of, the Great Sound, which it had begun acquiring with a view to building a naval base. However, that channel also gave access to Hamilton Harbour.

With the buildup of the Royal Naval establishment in the first decades of the 19th Century, a large number of military fortifications and batteries were constructed, and the numbers of regular infantry, artillery, and support units that composed the British Army garrison were steadily increased. The investment into military infrastructure by the War Office proved unsustainable, and poorly thought-out, with far too few artillery men available to man the hundreds of guns emplaced. Many of the forts were abandoned, or removed from use, soon after construction. Following the Crimean War, the trend was towards reducing military garrisons in colonies like Bermuda, partly for economic reasons, and partly as it became recognised that the Royal Navy's own ships could provide a better defence for the Dockyard, and Bermuda. Still, the important strategic location of Bermuda meant that the withdrawal, which began, at least in intent, in the 1870s, was carried out very slowly over several decades, continuing until after the Great War. The last Regular Army units were not withdrawn until the Dockyard itself closed in the 1950s. In the 1860s, however, the major build-up of naval and military infrastructure brought vital money into Bermuda at a time when its traditional maritime industries were giving way under the assault of steel hulls and steam propulsion. The American Civil War, also, briefly, provided a shot-in-the-arm to the local economy. Tourism and agricultural industries would develop in the latter half of the 19th Century, however, it was defence infrastructure that formed the central platform of the economy into the 20th Century.

Tourism first came to the island first developed in Victorian times, catering to a wealthy elite seeking to escape North American winters. Many also came hoping to find young noblemen among the officers of the Garrison and Naval base to whom they might marry their daughters. Local hoteliers were quick to exploit this, organising many dances and gatherings during the 'season', to which military and naval officers were given a blanket invitation.

Due historically to a third of Bermuda's manpower being at sea at any one time, and to many of those seamen ultimately settling elsewhere, especially as the Bermudian maritime industry began to suffer, Bermuda was noted for having a high number of aging spinsters well into the 20th Century. With the arrival of tourism, Bermudian women continued to American girls for the hands of military and naval officers. Most who married officers left Bermuda when their husbands were stationed elsewhere. It was also common, however, for enlisted men to marry Bermudians, and many of those remained in Bermuda, leaving the Army.

In the early 20th century, as modern transportation and communication systems developed, Bermuda's tourism industry began to develop and thrive, and Bermuda became a popular destination for a broader spectrum of wealthy US, Canadian, and British tourists. In addition, the tariff enacted by the United States against its trading partners in 1930 cut off Bermuda's once-thriving agricultural export trade—primarily fresh vegetables to the US—spurring the island to pour more of its efforts into the development of its tourism industry,

[edit] Bermuda in World War II

During World War II, Bermuda became important as a military base because of its location in the Atlantic Ocean. The Royal Naval dockyard on Ireland Island played a role similar to that it had during the Great War, overseeing the formation of trans-Atlantic convoys composed of hundreds of ships. The military garrison, which included four local territorial units, maintained a guard against potential enemy attacks on the Island itself.

In 1941, the United States signed a lend-lease agreement with the United Kingdom, giving the British surplus U.S. Navy destroyers in exchange for 99-year lease rights to establish naval and air bases in certain British territories. Although not included in this trade, Winston Churchill granted the US similar 99-year leases "freely and without consideration" in both Bermuda and Newfoundland. (The commonly held belief that the Bermudian bases were part of the trade is not correct.) The advantage for Britain of granting these base rights was that the neutral US effectively took responsibility for the security of these territories, freeing British forces to be deployed to the sharper ends of the War. The terms of the base rights granted for Bermuda also included that the airfield constructed by the US would be used jointly with the Royal Air Force (RAF).

The Bermuda bases consisted of 5.8 square kilometres (2.25 sq. mi.) of land, largely reclaimed from the sea. The USAAF airfield, Fort Bell (later, US Air Force Base Kindley Field, and, later still, US Naval Air Station Bermuda) was on St. David's Island, while the Naval Operations Base, a Naval Air Station for maritime patrol flying boats, (which became the Naval Air Station Annex after US Naval air operations relocated to ) was at the western end of the island in the Great Sound. These joined two other air stations already operating on Bermuda, the pre-war civil airport on Darrell's Island, which had been taken over by the RAF, and the Fleet Air Arm's Royal Naval Air Station, HMS Malabar, on Boaz Island.

[edit] Recent events

Bermuda has prospered economically since World War II, developing into a highly successful offshore financial centre. Tourism remains important to Bermuda's economy; it is second behind international business in terms of economic importance to the island.

Internal self-government was bolstered by the establishment of a formal constitution in 1968; debate about independence has ensued, although a 1995 independence referendum was soundly defeated. For many, Bermudian independence would mean little other than the obligation to staff foreign missions and embassies around the world, which can be a strong obligation for Bermuda's small population, and the loss of British passports (which could severely restrict travel, as few enough countries have even heard of little Bermuda, and could regard travellers with suspicion). The current government is promoting independence - by means of a general election (that is, the government of the day would have the power to decide whether to go independent or not) as opposed to a referendum (a direct vote by the people) - by establishing a committee to investigate (though the committee is notably staffed with party members, and without representation by the opposition party). This stance is being supported by the UN, who have sent delegations to the island claiming that Bermuda is being suppressed by the British.

Effective September 1, 1995, both US military bases were closed; British and Canadian bases on the island closed at about the same time. Unresolved issues concerning the 1995 withdrawal of US forces -- primarily related to environmental factors -- delayed the formal return of the base lands to the Government of Bermuda. The United States formally returned the base lands in 2002.

[edit] References

This article contains material from the CIA World Factbook which, as a US government publication, is in the public domain. 2000
This article contains material from the US Department of State's Background Notes which, as a US government publication, is in the public domain. 2003

[edit] Further reading

[edit] Basic history

Terry Tucker, Bermuda: Today and Yesterday 1503-1980s (Baxter's, Hamilton, 1983)
Wesley Frank Craven, An Introduction to the History of Bermuda (Bermuda Maritime Museum, Dockyard, 1990)
Jean de Chantal Kennedy, Isle of Devils: Bermuda under the Somers Island Company (Collins, London, 1971)
Henry C. Wilkinson, Bermuda from Sail to Steam: The History of the Island from 1784 to 1901: Volumes I and II (Oxford University, London, 1973)

[edit] Specific topics

Mary PrinceThe History of Mary Prince, Penguin Classics. Sara Salih (Editor). Penguin Classics, ISBN 0-14-043749-5.
Virginia Bernhard, Slaves and Slaveholders in Bermuda 1616-1782 (University of Missouri, Columbia, 1999)
Dr Henry Wilkinson,Bermuda From Sail To Steam: The History Of The Island From 1784 to 1901, Oxford University Press, Great Clarendon Street, Oxford, UK OX2 6DP.
Edward Cecil Harris, Bermuda Forts 1612-1957 (Bermuda Maritime Museum, Somerset, 1997)
Wilfred Brenton Kerr, Bermuda and the American Revolution: 1760 - 1783 (Bermuda Maritime Museum, Dockyard, 1995)
Nan Godet, Edward Harris, Pillars of the Bridge: The Establishment of the United States bases on Bermuda during the Second World War (Bermuda Maritime Museum, Dockyard, 1991)

[edit] References

John Smith, The General Historie of Virginia, New-England and the Summer Isles (reprinted World, Cleveland, 1966)
Vernon A. Ives (editor), The Rich Papers: Letters from Bermuda 1615-1646 (Bermuda National Trust, Hamilton, 1984)
J. H. Lefroy (editor), Memorials of the Discovery and Early Settlement of the Bermudas or Somers Islands 1515-1685: Volumes I and II (reprinted Bermuda Historical Society and National Trust, Hamilton, 1981)