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The first known inhabitants of the islands were Taíno Indians, who left evidence of their civilization in the form of utensils and a ball court. Locals claim that Columbus made his first landfall in the New World here in 1492. Some argue that it was Grand Turk, where a monument casts the claim in stone. One guidebook even goes so far as to define the exact point where Columbus came ashore on 16 October: at Malcolm Roads, just below Northwest Point on Providenciales. Experts, however, debunk the theory. The arrival of Europeans spelled the end for the Taínos, who had either been carried off into slavery, killed or who had succumbed to European-borne diseases by the mid-16th century.
Over the next few centuries, ownership of the islands bounced like a ping-pong ball between the French, Spanish and British, landing finally with Great Britain. Despite the colonial power struggle, the islands lay off the main sailing routes, possessed no gold or decent anchorages and lacked sufficient rain to grow sugar. Thus, they remained virtually uninhabited until 1678, when a group of Bermudians settled and began extracting salt and logging timber. Salt traders cleared the land and created the salinas (salt-drying pans) that still exist on several islands. The majority of the salt went aboard swift sloops to supply the cod-fishing industries of New England and the Maritime Provinces of Canada.
The Bermudians prospered, drawing the attention of the Spanish and then the Bahamas' government. In 1766 the latter extended its jurisdiction to include the islands. Like their northerly neighbours, the Turks & Caicos became a base for pirates, who were not averse to sacking the wealthy salt merchants' homes. The pirates' depredations invoked a French attack in 1753, and France claimed the islands. The French were repelled the following year by a British warship from the Carolinas, though the French briefly occupied Grand Turk again in 1778 and 1783.
Following the American War of Independence, the Bermudians on the islands were joined by a wave of colonial loyalists, who established cotton plantations. The loyalists brought their slaves, but the plantation era was short-lived: by 1820, the cotton crop had failed, and the majority of planters had moved on. Many left their slaves behind, and eventually they too became salt-rakers.
The archipelago's political fortunes continued to be erratic. It became a formal part of the Bahamas in 1799, but in 1848, following a petition by the Turks & Caicos residents, it became self-governing under the supervision of the Governor of Jamaica.
In 1872 the islands were annexed to Jamaica and remained tied to Jamaica until 1962, when they were again linked to the Bahamas. In 1973 the Turks & Caicos became a separate Crown Colony of Great Britain.
The islands' history over the past five decades has been unremarkable, though their veil of obscurity was briefly lifted when astronaut John Glenn splashed down just off Grand Turk in 1962. At about the same time, the islands were 'discovered' by seven millionaires (including Teddy Roosevelt III and a couple of the DuPonts), who leased land from the British government and built a small airstrip for their private planes and a deep-water anchorage for their yachts. Meanwhile, Count Ferdinand Czernin, son of the last prime minister of the Austro-Hungarian empire, ferreted out a tiny dot on the map called Pine Cay, on which he planned a Walden Pond-like resort; after his death it became the exclusive Meridian Club resort. Then, in 1984, Club Med opened its doors and the Turks & Caicos started to boom. In the blink of an eye, the islands went from no electricity to satellite TV. Today, bulldozers and half-poured foundations line the roads of Provo, the centre of the tourism boom.
In January 1996 the governor of the archipelago strained relations with the islanders by suggesting that government and police corruption had turned the islands into a haven for drug traffickers. When his comments appeared in the press, local opponents accused him of harming investment. Growing opposition threatened to spill over into civil unrest. In April 1996 the British government sent the warship HMS Brave to cruise the coast, and a squad of specially trained policemen landed on the sand. In the end, the much ballyhooed popular uprising turned out to be just another lazy day in the sun.
In the late 1990s it became increasingly clear that the territory was a major drug-trafficking and money-laundering centre. Indeed, in 2000 it was on an OECD list of money-laundering hotspots. As a result, the British government became more interventionist, adding more pressure on the territory to clean up its finance industry in 2001. At the same time it decriminalised homosexual acts, extended British citizenship to islanders and, in 2002, abolished the death penalty.
