'''Àwọn Bàhámà''' ({{pron-en|ðə bəˈhɑːməz|En-us-Bahamas.ogg}}) tabi lonibise bi '''Orílẹ̀-èdè Àjọni ilẹ̀ awọn Bàhámà''', je orile-ede elede [[English language|Geesi]] to ni awon [[island|erekusu]] 29, 661 [[cay]]s, ati 2,387 [[islet|erekusu kekere]] 2,387 (apata). O budo si inu [[Atlantic Ocean|Okun Atlantiki]] ni ariwa [[Cuba|Kuba]] ati [[Hispaniola]] ([[Dominican Republic|Dominiki Olominira]] ati [[Haiti]]), ariwaiwoorun awon [[Turks and Caicos Islands|Erekusu Turks ati Caicos]], ati guusuilaorun orile-ede [[United States of America|Awon Ipinle Aparapo ile Amerika]] (nitosi ipinle [[Florida]]). Apapo iye aala ile re je 13,939 km<sup>2</sup> (5,382 sq. mi.), pelu idiye olugbe to to 330,000. Oluilu re ni [[Nassau, Bahamas|Nassau]]. Geographically, the Bahamas lie in the same island chain as [[Cuba]], [[Hispaniola]] ([[Dominican Republic]] and [[Haiti]]) and [[Turks and Caicos Islands]], the designation of the Bahamas refers normally to the commonwealth and not the geographic chain.
Originally inhabited by [[Arawakan]] [[Taino]] people, The Bahamas were the site of Columbus' first landfall in the New World in 1492. Although the Spanish never colonised The Bahamas, they shipped the native Lucayans (as the Bahamian Taino settlers referred to themselves) to slavery in Hispaniola. The islands were mostly deserted from 1513 to 1650, when [[United Kingdom|British]] colonists from [[Bermuda]] settled on the island of [[Eleuthera]].
The Bahamas became a [[Crown Colony]] in 1718 when the British clamped down on [[piracy]]. Following the [[American Revolutionary War|American War of Independence]], thousands of pro-British loyalists and enslaved Africans moved to The Bahamas and set up a plantation economy. The [[Abolitionism|slave trade was abolished]] in the [[British Empire]] in 1807 and many Africans liberated from slave ships by the [[Royal Navy]] were settled in The Bahamas during the 19th century. Slavery itself was abolished in 1834 and the descendants of enslaved and liberated Africans form the bulk of The Bahamas's population today.
