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Gaes 3: Erika cespedes, brhayan Hernandez, ingridt blanco. Yovana gonzalez

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Date of arraval British "colonizer"
!770 James Cook

Language "spoken"
Koori y Guaringai en Nueva Gales del Sur y Victoria

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Colonizer

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Why is history important?

Governments are remembered for their leaders and the course they set for their country. The British government has a long and fascinating history, and exploring its past can help us understand how it is run today.

The information here provides a starting point for research. It includes objective factual content and research carried out by independent and civil service historians.

Thomas Shotter Boys - A View of the Horse Guards from Whitehall. Government Art Collection.

Notable people

You can find out about the life and achievements of those who have led the government as Prime Minister, alongside those who have held the roles of Chancellor and Foreign Secretary.

Government buildings

Number 10 Downing Street is the best known government building, but there are others that play a role in the day-to-day business of government and have had a significant role in our history.

You can learn more about the background and take tours of several of the buildings used by government on Whitehall and around the UK.

Documents and records

The National Archives is preserving UK government information from letters and treaties to web pages Cabinet papers. You can search the archive, or browse the themed collections.

You can also explore the Government Art Collection online, which contains over 13,500 works of art, mainly from British artists.

Articles and blog posts

Some government departments, including Number 10 and the Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office, write or commission articles and research to improve our knowledge of the history of the British government.

Find out more on the history of government blog.

More sources

Many institutions in the UK, including universities, museums and libraries, hold information about the history of our government. The following websites may be useful for further research:

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In this section you can read short biographies of notable people and explore the history of government buildings. You can also search our online records and read articles and blog posts by historians.

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This GovHK article tells you where you can dig into the territory's historical background and cultural diversity.

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Great sailing ships

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A collection of recommended local history links

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First Nations

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Canada's original inhabitants

Centuries before Europeans began to settle in North America, explorers who came here found thriving First Nations and Inuit societies with their own beliefs, way of life and rich history.

When the first European explorers came to Canada they found all regions occupied by native peoples they called "Indians," thinking they had reached the East Indies. The native people lived off the land, some by hunting and gathering, others by raising crops.

The Huron-Wendat of the Great Lakes Region, like the Iroquois, were farmers and hunters. The Cree and Dene of the Northwest were hunter-gatherers. The Sioux were nomadic, following the bison (buffalo) herd. The Inuit lived off Arctic wildlife. West Coast natives preserved fish by drying and smoking. Warfare was common among Aboriginal groups as they competed for land, resources and prestige.

The arrival of European traders, missionaries, soldiers and colonists changed the native way of life forever. Large numbers of Aboriginals died of European diseases to which they lacked immunity. However, Aboriginals and Europeans formed strong economic, religious and military bonds in the first 200 years of coexistence which laid the foundations of Canada.

The new Dominion of Canada

Today, Canada is made up of 10 provinces and three territories.

However, when the British North America Act, 1867, (now the Constitution Acts, 1867 to 1982) created the new Dominion of Canada, there were only four provinces - Ontario, Quebec, Nova Scotia and New Brunswick.

The Northwest Territories and Manitoba

The year 1870 - three years after Confederation - brought multiple historic changes to land ownership, including:

Canada's purchase of Rupert's Land from the Hudson's Bay Company, which had been granted a charter to the area by the British government exactly two centuries earlier. Rupert's Land spanned all land drained by rivers flowing into Hudson Bay - roughly 40 per cent of present-day Canada. The selling price was 300,000 pounds sterling.

Britain's transfer of the North-Western Territory to Canada. Previously, the Hudson's Bay Company had an exclusive licence to trade in this area, which stretched west to the colony of British Columbia and north to the Arctic Circle. When it was discovered in the mid-1800s that the Prairies had enormous farming potential, the British government refused to renew the company's licence. With the Hudson's Bay Company out of the area, Britain was free to turn it over to Canada.

The combination of Rupert's Land and the North-Western Territory to form the Northwest Territories, followed by the creation of the Province of Manitoba from a small part of this area.

British Columbia, Prince Edward Island and Yukon

Subsequent years brought more changes to Canada's territorial boundaries:

In 1871, British Columbia joined the union with the promise of a railway to link it to the rest of the country.

In 1873, Prince Edward Island, which had previously declined an offer to join Confederation, became Canada's seventh province.

Yukon, which had been a district of the Northwest Territories since 1895, became a separate territory in 1898.

Saskatchewan and Alberta

Meanwhile, Canada was opening up its west, just as its neighbour to the south had done before. Migrants from eastern Canada and immigrants from Europe and the United States began to fill the Prairies, which were still part of the Northwest Territories. Then, in 1905, the provinces of Saskatchewan and Alberta were created, completing the map of Western Canada.

Newfoundland and Nunavut

After great debate and two referenda, the people of Newfoundland voted to join Confederation in 1949, creating Canada's tenth province.

On April 1, 1999, Nunavut was created from the eastern part of the Northwest Territories, covering 1.9 million square kilometres of Canada's Eastern Arctic.

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Centuries before Europeans began to settle in North America, explorers who came here found thriving First Nations and Inuit societies with their own beliefs, way of life and rich history. When the first European explorers came to Canada they found all regions occupied by native peoples they called "Indians," thinking they had reached the East Indies.

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West Indies Islands

Colonizar Date: 1505
Discovered: Juan Bermúdez
Language spoken: inhabited
GAES:4

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Government of Bermuda | The place to find government and services. Quick and simple.

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The place to find government information and services. Quick and simple.

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700 islands.
Bahamas were declarad British colony in 1784
The official language is English, in addition to Patois, creole and Spanish

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The Bahamas extends 760 miles from the coast of Florida on the north-west almost to Haiti on the south-east. The group consists of 700 islands and 2,400 cays with an area of 5,358 sq. miles (13,878 sq. km.). Thirty of the islands are inhabited.

The principal islands include Abaco, Acklins, Andros, Berry Islands, Bimini, Cat Island, Crooked Island, Eleuthera, Exuma, Grand Bahama, Harbour Island, Inagua, Long Island, Mayaguana, New Providence (where the capital, Nassau, is located), Ragged Island, Rum Cay, San Salvador and Spanish Wells. The highest point in The Bahamas is 206-ft. Mount Alvernia on Cat Island. Once known as Como Hill, Mount Alvernia overlooks The Bight.

The 2000 census disclosed that the population of The Bahamas totaled 306,611, with 155,896 females and 147,715 males. Ninety percent of the total population lives on New Providence, Grand Bahama and Abaco. New Providence has 69.9 percent of the population, Grand Bahama and Abaco with 15.5 percent, and 10.3 percent are scattered on the remaining islands and cays.

The original inhabitants of The Bahamas were Arawak Indians, who had migrated through the Antilles from South America. Within a few decades after Columbus landed on San Salvador in 1492, the Spanish had depopulated the islands by shipping the peaceful Arawaks to slavery in the mines of Hispaniola and Cuba, where they died by the thousands.

The first permanent settlement in The Bahamas was established by a group of English settlers from Bermuda called the Company of Eleutheran Adventurers, who organised a community on what is now the island of Eleuthera in 1647, seeking religious freedom.

During the late 17th and early 18th centuries, piracy flourished in the islands because of their proximity to important shipping lanes. The power of the buccaneers was crushed by Woodes Rogers, the first Royal Governor, who established orderly conduct in 1718.

In 1776, a U.S. naval squadron captured Nassau, but withdrew after only one day. Following the American War of Independence, some 6,000 American loyalists and their slaves settled in The Bahamas.

The American Civil War brought prosperity to The Bahamas, which served as a transfer point for munitions and medical supplies to be run through the northern blockade of Confederate ports. Cotton from the south was the main commodity of exchange. During the prohibition era in the United States, from 1917 to 1933, The Bahamas again prospered because of its proximity to the mainland. This time the islands supplied liquor for American rumrunners. Taking advantage of the colony's ideal weather conditions, the Royal Air Force used The Bahamas as a flight training area during World War II. The islands were also used by British and American units hunting German submarines.

In the post-war years, The Bahamas has become one of the world's foremost vacation resorts. In 1950 about 40,000 visitors wintered in The Bahamas. In 2003, according to statistics supplied by the Ministry of Tourism, the total visitor arrivals rose by 4.3 percent to 4.6 million, consolidating the 5.3 percent improvement attained in 2002 and placing to 1.4 million, after consecutive declines in 2001 and 2002 of 3.6 percent and 1.8 percent, respectively. Growth in sea arrivals abated to 5.4 percent from 9.0 percent in 2002, for 3.2 million visitors. Tourism now accounts for just over 40 percent of the country's gross domestic product.

Financial services, an important engine of The Bahamian economy, are responsible for 15 percent of GDP. The number of banks and trust companies licensed to operate within The Bahamas decreased by 17 to 284 during 2003. The vast majority of them are branches, subsidiaries or affiliates of major banking institutions in North and South America and Western Europe. In addition, data from the Office of Registrar of Insurance Companies indicate that the number of licensed insurance companies, brokers and agents and managers in The Bahamas increased by one to 163 at end 2003, bringing the number of licensed insurance companies operating in the domestic sector to 137, while the number of external insurers remained at 26.

The Bahamas achieved independence from Britain July 10, 1973, and is now a fully self-governing member of the Commonwealth and a member of the United Nations, the Caribbean Community and the Organisation of American States.

Under Prime Minister Lynden Pindling, who died August 26, 2000, The Bahamas was governed by the Progressive Liberal Party for more than a quarter of a century, having won successive general elections in 1967, 1968, 1972, 1977, 1982 and 1987. The Free National Movement ousted the PLP from office in the general election of 1992 under the leadership of Prime Minister Hubert A. Ingraham, and won the poll in 1997.

Successive Governing Parties:

May, 2002: The Right Hon. Perry G. Christie, Prime Minister and Leader of the Progressive Liberal Party.

May, 2007: The Right Hon. Hubert A. Ingraham, Prime Minister and Leader of the Free National Movement.

May, 2012: The Right Hon. Perry G. Christie, Prime Minister and Leader of the Progressive Liberal Party.

May, 2017: Dr. The Hon. Hubert A. Minnis, Prime Minister and Leader of the Free National Movement.

September, 2021: The Hon. Philip E. Davis KC, Prime Minister and Leader of the Progressive Liberal Party.
Information courtesy of Bahamas Information Services and Department of Archives. Edits by Department of Information Technology.

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The Bahamas extends 760 miles from the coast of Florida on the north-west almost to Haiti on the south-east. The group consists of 700 islands and 2,400 cays with an area of 5,358 sq. miles (13,878 sq. km.). Thirty of the islands are inhabited.

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Commonwealth

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Archaeological evidence indicates that prior to 1625 the island had been inhabited by the Arawaks and Caribs but there was apparently no sign of them when the English arrived. However, later research has indicated that Caribs from neighbouring islands settled in small colonies in St. Phillip and St. Lucy. The early settlers, in order to survive, needed a cash crop and they selected tobacco, with cotton in second place. Poor economic returns convinced them that they had to find an alternative and this time sugar cane was selected.

This proved to be another mistake for the small farmer. Sugar production is capital and labour intensive and the financial outlay required to make it viable could not be met by the small man. Soon the small farmers were forced out of production and in the 1640's gave way to the large plantation owner.

This switch from tobacco and cotton to sugar is probably the single most important event in the history of Barbados, for it brought with it a number of far-reaching changes. It saw the consolidation of land holdings into large estates and the end of the small farmers; the end of the indentured European labourers and the drastic reduction of the white population; and the large-scale importation of black slaves from Africa, who provided plantation labour until their emancipation in 1838.

Over the centuries the fortunes of the planters varied with the times. The effects of the succession of wars in which Britain was engaged; the move in 1820 from protectionism to free trade, and by mid-century to the equalization of sugar duties for British and foreign grown sugar; the effect of beet sugar competition and the fall in sugar prices; these combined factors resulted in economic distress for all.

Economic distress in 1896 prompted an investigation by a Royal Commission. However, it was not until the unrest in 1937 that the seriousness of the island's economic state was fully appreciated. The Moyne Commission which carried out investigations after the unrest made a number of recommendations which were accepted and assistance was given in the form of grants and loans. There was continued evidence that sugar had to be helped and sugar growers received additional aid in 1951 with the signing of the Commonwealth Sugar Agreement. This remained in force until Britain's entry into the European Economic system.

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Archaeological evidence indicates that prior to 1625 the island had been inhabited by the Arawaks and Caribs but there was apparently no sign of them when the English arrived. However, later research has indicated that Caribs from neighbouring islands settled in small colonies in St. Phillip and St. Lucy.

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Former jail.

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Australia is home to over 25 million people from a variety of cultural, ethnic, linguistic and religious backgrounds.

Australia's Indigenous peoples have lived on and managed the land for more than 60,000 years.

Over 30 per cent of the Australian resident population were born overseas. While English is the national language, more than 300 languages are spoken in Australian homes.

This diversity of influences creates a cultural environment in Australia that is lively, energised, innovative and outward looking.

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Australia is home to over 25 million people from a variety of cultural, ethnic, linguistic and religious backgrounds. Australia's Indigenous peoples have lived on and managed the land for more than 60,000 years. Over 30 per cent of the Australian resident population were born overseas.