Travel Reference
In-Depth Information
UNDERSTAND TURKS & CAICOS
History
Recent discoveries of Taíno (the indigenous population) artifacts on Grand Turk have shown
that the islands evolved much the same indigenous culture as did their northern neighbors.
Locals even claim that the islands were Christopher Columbus' first landfall in 1492.
The island group was a pawn in the power struggles between the French, Spanish and
British, and remained virtually uninhabited until 1678, when some Bermudian salt rakers
settled the Turks islands and used natural
salinas
(salt-drying pans) to produce sea salt.
These still exist on several islands.
Fast forward to the mid-20th century: the US military built airstrips and a submarine base
in the 1950s, and John Glenn splashed down just off Grand Turk in 1962, putting the islands
very briefly in the international spotlight.
Administered through Jamaica and the Bahamas in the past, the Turks and Caicos became
a separate Crown colony of Great Britain in 1962 then an Overseas Territory in 1981. In
1984 Club Med opened its doors on Providenciales (Provo), and the Turks and Caicos star-
ted to boom. In the blink of an eye, the islands, which had lacked electricity, acquired satel-
lite TV.
The Turks and Caicos relied upon the exportation of salt, which remained the backbone
of the British colony until 1964. Today finance, tourism and fishing generate most income,
but the islands could not survive without British aid. The tax-free offshore finance industry
is a mere minnow compared with that of the Bahamas, and many would be astonished to
discover that Grand Turk, the much-hyped financial center, is just a dusty backwater in the
sun.
Illegal drug trafficking, a major problem in the 1980s, has also been a source of significant
revenue for a few islanders.
Relations between islanders and British-appointed governors have been strained since
1996, when the incumbent governor's comments suggesting that government and police cor-
ruption had turned the islands into a haven for drug trafficking appeared in the
Offshore
Finance Annual,
and opponents accused him of harming investment. Growing opposition
threatened to spill over into civil unrest.
Things were made far worse in 2009, when the Governor of the Turks and Caicos imposed
direct rule on the country following a series of corruption scandals that rocked the islands in
2008. The scandals concerned huge alleged corruption on the part of the Turks and Caicos
government, including the selling off of its property for personal profit, and the misuse of
public funds.
The imposition of direct rule from London was attacked by members of the suspended
Turks and Caicos government, who accused the UK of 'recolonizing' the country, but the
