Bahamas and Turks and Caicos with higher population density

Recently I noticed some interesting facts involving these Caribbean states--they have a very low population density compared to other Caribbean islands (the Bahamas is one of the least densely populated nations on Earth, for instance), and what population they do have is very unevenly distributed.

The reasons why this is seems to relate to the economy of the islands. Agriculture is not particularly viable in many places due to the generally poor soils, and the salt extraction which has traditionally been an economic focus can only provide so much employment. All of this means that a place like Andros Island, the fifth largest Caribbean island after Cuba, Hispaniola, Jamaica, and Puerto Rico has a population density far less than Iceland, Great Inagua, the seventh largest island, has less than a thousand people, and the rather large Caicos Island outside of Providenciales has barely more than a thousand people. Providenciales, most populated island in the Turks and Caicos, has a population density of over 242/km2. New Providence, most population island of the Bahamas, has a population density of over 1,200 km2.

How can we change this so the islands can have a more reasonable population density? The most obvious idea to me is to have the United States annex them, and the United States was actually in the position to do so during the American Revolution. Both the Bahamas and the Turks and Caicos were under the control of the US's allies, France and Spain, and could easily have been transferred to the United States in the Treaty of Paris. Aside from the American Revolution, there's the possibility of the islands being sold or even conquered (*Central Powers United States set loose against the British Caribbean?). In this scenario, the islands would develop similarly to 20th century Florida. They would rapidly gain population thanks to air conditioning, a cheap cost of living, and tourism spurring development into the islands, although they would lack the easy transit via railroads and the Interstate being islands and all. NASA might be based in the islands, especially a less densely populated island like Andros, Inagua, or Caicos, and that would attract development. If the islands gain statehood as one state (call it the Bahamas, Lucayas, etc.), they might end up with a population of perhaps 1 - 2 million, drawing population and development from Florida. It could be even more, but I don't think it would go much higher than 5 million (at least not until the mid/late 21st century, and by then Global Warming-fueled major hurricanes frequently hitting the area might be a huge issue, and perhaps sea level rise too, but let's ignore that for now). As in OTL Bahamas and Florida, there would be many immigrants from Haiti and Cuba.

But aside from becoming a US territory and state, is there any other way for the islands to gain a much higher and more evenly distributed population? I suppose you could have Canada gain control over the islands, I suppose, and have them become "Canada's Florida", although I think the population would end up a bit less than if they were part of the United States. But is there any chance for this to happen as an independent country or remaining a British possession? Or going back even further, another country's possession?

Overall thoughts on these scenarios, or any ideas here?
 

Zachariah

Banned
How about getting things up and running as early as possible? The Bahamas were the site of Columbus' first landfall in the New World in 1492, and at that time, the islands were inhabited by the Lucayan, a branch of the Arawakan-speaking Taino people. IOTL, the Spanish never colonized the Bahamas- instead, they elected to ship the native Lucayans to slavery in Hispaniola, carrying away as many as 40,000 Lucayans by 1513. Only 11 remained in all of the Bahamas by 1920, when the Spanish decided to evacuate the remaining Lucaya to Hispaniola in 1520 and combed the islands for survivors, and thereafter, the Bahamas remained unpopulated and entirely deserted until 1648, when English colonists from Bermuda settled on the island of Eleuthera. So then, what if the Spanish had elected to colonize The Bahamas, establishing new colonial settlements and putting the native Lucayans to work under its encomienda system there on their own islands, instead of shipping them all off to Hispaniola?

The pre-contact native Lucayan population of the Bahamas, prior to their enslavement and exportation to Hispaniola, was comparable to those of Cuba and Jamaica- this would still have been decimated in this scenario, of course, but it wouldn't be out of the question for them to suffer less than either Cuba or Jamaica's native populations, on account of that population's distribution across a far larger and more dispersed archipelago, limiting and slowing the spread of diseases. ITTL, the surviving Lucaya of the Bahamas get freed from the encomiendas and slavery by Gonzalo Pérez de Angulo in 1553, along with those of Cuba, on account of the Bahamas having been placed under the jurisdiction of the Captaincy General of Cuba for administrative purposes in the same way as Spanish Florida. But at this stage, the Lucayan, on the far less intensively colonized and exploited islands of the Bahamas, and with a far more even distribution, still have a far higher surviving native population than Cuba - somewhere in the region of 10,000 to 20,000, compared with Cuba's of only between 4,000 and 5,000 people at the time of their emancipation in 1553.

And from this base of 20,000, the Lucayans have far greater scope to recover, rebuild their population, expand their numbers. And on peripheral islands at least, retain their culture and identity rather than being assimilated by the Spanish and becoming mestizos. There's also plenty of scope for them to amalgamate other populations who come into their territory, or even expand their own territories to the coasts of the mainland. And they'd have a chance to boost their numbers further, along with their immunity to diseases, by taking in and intermarrying with the African slaves who flee from the South Carolina Lowcountry to Spanish Florida seeking freedom, merging with the Gullah in the manner that the Seminoles did IOTL (but a century or more earlier). Increasing the Bahamas' population to 3 or 4 million by the present day should be simple enough from there.
 
Is it really that hard to populate these islands without resorting to my "US conquers the islands" scenario?
What if, instead of the US, it was canada?
I remember reading that canada floated the idea of annexing the islands around 1900, but never mustered the political will to actually follow through.
 
How about getting things up and running as early as possible? The Bahamas were the site of Columbus' first landfall in the New World in 1492, and at that time, the islands were inhabited by the Lucayan, a branch of the Arawakan-speaking Taino people. IOTL, the Spanish never colonized the Bahamas- instead, they elected to ship the native Lucayans to slavery in Hispaniola, carrying away as many as 40,000 Lucayans by 1513. Only 11 remained in all of the Bahamas by 1920, when the Spanish decided to evacuate the remaining Lucaya to Hispaniola in 1520 and combed the islands for survivors, and thereafter, the Bahamas remained unpopulated and entirely deserted until 1648, when English colonists from Bermuda settled on the island of Eleuthera. So then, what if the Spanish had elected to colonize The Bahamas, establishing new colonial settlements and putting the native Lucayans to work under its encomienda system there on their own islands, instead of shipping them all off to Hispaniola?

The pre-contact native Lucayan population of the Bahamas, prior to their enslavement and exportation to Hispaniola, was comparable to those of Cuba and Jamaica- this would still have been decimated in this scenario, of course, but it wouldn't be out of the question for them to suffer less than either Cuba or Jamaica's native populations, on account of that population's distribution across a far larger and more dispersed archipelago, limiting and slowing the spread of diseases. ITTL, the surviving Lucaya of the Bahamas get freed from the encomiendas and slavery by Gonzalo Pérez de Angulo in 1553, along with those of Cuba, on account of the Bahamas having been placed under the jurisdiction of the Captaincy General of Cuba for administrative purposes in the same way as Spanish Florida. But at this stage, the Lucayan, on the far less intensively colonized and exploited islands of the Bahamas, and with a far more even distribution, still have a far higher surviving native population than Cuba - somewhere in the region of 10,000 to 20,000, compared with Cuba's of only between 4,000 and 5,000 people at the time of their emancipation in 1553.

And from this base of 20,000, the Lucayans have far greater scope to recover, rebuild their population, expand their numbers. And on peripheral islands at least, retain their culture and identity rather than being assimilated by the Spanish and becoming mestizos. There's also plenty of scope for them to amalgamate other populations who come into their territory, or even expand their own territories to the coasts of the mainland. And they'd have a chance to boost their numbers further, along with their immunity to diseases, by taking in and intermarrying with the African slaves who flee from the South Carolina Lowcountry to Spanish Florida seeking freedom, merging with the Gullah in the manner that the Seminoles did IOTL (but a century or more earlier). Increasing the Bahamas' population to 3 or 4 million by the present day should be simple enough from there.

I like your thinking. But the big question is, how do you get the Spanish that interested in islands with mediocre soil compared to Hispaniola and its agricultural potential and especially gold. Hispaniola is too good for Spanish interests not to conquer if they have the chance, and once they've burned through the locals there, why not ship the Lucayans off to Hispaniola's mines/plantations?

Reminds me a bit of the case of some other groups of mixed Indian/African heritage in the Caribbean.

What if, instead of the US, it was canada?
I remember reading that canada floated the idea of annexing the islands around 1900, but never mustered the political will to actually follow through.

I mentioned that. It could end up being "Canada's Florida" although unlike Florida to the United States would (obviously) not have railroads and highways leading there to facilitate growth, not that it couldn't attract a substantial amount of retirees, people who want to live on the beach/in "paradise", and the economy that grows up around those people as in Florida.
 

Zachariah

Banned
I like your thinking. But the big question is, how do you get the Spanish that interested in islands with mediocre soil compared to Hispaniola and its agricultural potential and especially gold. Hispaniola is too good for Spanish interests not to conquer if they have the chance, and once they've burned through the locals there, why not ship the Lucayans off to Hispaniola's mines/plantations?

Reminds me a bit of the case of some other groups of mixed Indian/African heritage in the Caribbean.

How about having them grow other potentially lucrative cash crops in the Bahamas, such as those which they already specialized in growing there themselves for their own use anyway- namely, cotton, tobacco, agave, fique and hibiscus? IOTL, one of Columbus's sailors received 12 kg. of cotton in trade from a single Lucayan on Guanahani in 1492, of the very highest Sea Island Cotton variety, but in spite of that, they never bothered. It ended up being English colonists who established the first commercial cotton plantation in the West Indies, on Barbados, and it took them until the 1650s, with enslaved workers from West Africa imported to labor in the fields. Why ship the Lucayans off to Hispaniola's mines/plantations when they've already been put to good use in the Bahamas, on the New World's first cotton plantations, exporting cotton back to Spain and Europe? And this would also offer a more direct route to increase the population of the Bahamas, with African slaves getting shipped over to work on those plantations once the native Lucayan population starts dropping low, and the initial admixture of Native American/African heritage coming about that way.
 

fashbasher

Banned
I think another option is having it be somebody's only foothold in the Caribbean. Say Portugal somehow acquires it and turns it into a trading post between the British and Spanish empire. If it becomes the personal property of Columbus' Portuguese son Diogo Colombo and Diogo remains loyal to Portugal, it could become a Curaçao equivalent of a trade hub with little reliance on plantation agriculture.
 
The thing is though, can the islands meet my OP's requirement in this case? I think we aren't so much talking Turks and Caicos and the Bahamas as a whole, but instead mainly Andros, Inagua, and Caicos, since those are the largest islands after all. Is Portuguese settlement really going to turn into the islands into much different than OTL aside from they'll speak Portuguese? Is plantation agriculture really the solution when OTL the islands were barely touched for that purpose?
 
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