Cayman Islands History

Seven Mile Beach on Grand Cayman

Spanish Discovery

It was during the latter part of his fourth voyage to the New World that Christopher Columbus became the first European to happen upon the Cayman Islands. A chance wind blew his ship off his course to Hispaniola, and his crew encountered "two very small and low islands, full of tortoises, as was all the sea all about, insomuch that they looked like little rocks..." The islands mentioned were Cayman Brac and Little Cayman, the smaller of the three Cayman Islands, and he christened the islands "Las Tortugas," or "The Turtles."

Diogo Ribeiro, a Portuguese map maker employed by the Spanish crown, later referred to the the islands as the "Lagartos" in his Turin map of 1523. In this context, Lagartos referred to the large lizards that were indigenous to the islands.

Subsequent maps referred to the islands as the "Caymanes," after the Carib word for the marine crocodiles that were also indigenous to the islands.

There is no evidence that the Amerinds had ever settled on the islands.

Christopher Columbus

The British Assume Control Over the Caymans

In 1586, Sir Francis Drake, leading a fleet of 23 ships, became the fist English visitor to the islands. In his log, Drake reported that the caymanas were edible, but the real attraction for Drake and his fellow sailors were the turtles that abounded in the area. The turtles were killed for their fresh meat, while the islands provided fresh water.

The first recorded settlements on the islands took place on Cayman Brac and Little Cayman during the period 1661 to 1671. However, these settlements were abandoned due to repeated attacks by Spanish privateers, and the inhabitants were recalled to Jamaica.

In 1670, Britain and Spain entered into the Treaty of Madrid, the terms of which called for Spain's recognition of British sovereignty over "all lands, islands, colonies and places situated in the West Indies." For almost 300 years after that, the Cayman Islands were administered as a dependency of Jamaica.

The first permanent inhabitant of the Cayman Islands was Isaac Bodden, who was born on Grand Cayman around 1700. He was the grandson of the original settler named Bodden, who was likely one of Oliver Cromwell's soldiers at the taking of Jamaica in 1655. It was around this time that the first land grant in Grand Cayman was recorded, covering 3,000 acres between Prospect and North Sound.

Sir Francis Drake

From Pirates to the Birth of Democracy

British privateers used the Cayman Islands as a base in the late 17th century, and during the 18th century the islands became an increasingly popular hideout for pirates. Despite the terms of 1713's Treaty of Utrecht, which outlawed privateering, such notable pirates as Edward "Blackbeard" Teach, Neal Walker, George Lowther and Thomas Antis were said to have visited the Cayman Islands to secrete their booty, replenish their ships with food and water, and to careen their vessels.

Following several unsuccessful attempts, permanent settlement of the islands began in the 1730s. From 1734 through 1742, five land grants on Grand Cayman were made by the Governor of Jamaica. It is estimated that the population of the islands at the time was between 100 to 150 souls.

These settlements included the use of slaves. The settlers grew and exported cotton and sugarcane, and goats were numerous. For their own consumption, and to trade with passing ships, the settlers grew Indian corn, yams, sweet potatoes and plantains, as well as a variety of fruits.

The first survey of the Caymans was made by the Royal Navy in 1773. The survey reported that "there were 21 [families] at the SouthSide, which we have called Bodden Town, 13 at the West End, commonly called the Hogsties, 3 at the East End and 2 at Spot's Bay; in all 39 families, consisting of at least 200 white people and about same number of Negroes and Mulattoes."

On February 8, 1794, ten vessels--part of a convoy being escorted by HMS Convert--went aground on the reef in rough seas in Gun Bay, on the East End of Grand Cayman. With the assistance of local settlers, there was no loss of life. It was rumored that one of the sailors saved by the locals was a member of the royal family. In gratitude for their bravery, King George III decreed that Caymanians should never be conscripted for war service, and Parliament legislated that they should never be taxed.

The "Birth of Democracy" in the Caymans took place in 1831, when local residents resolved that representatives should be appointed for the five districts of the island for the purpose of forming local laws for better Government. The local legislature passed its first legislation on New Year's Eve, 1831.

Slavery was abolished in the Caymans in 1835, in accordance with the British Emancipation Act of 1833. At the time, there were over 950 slaves owned by 116 families. Emancipation paved the way for the development of a homogeneous society.

Edward "Blackbeard" Teach

Cayman Islands in the 20th Century

With few natural resources, the citizens of the Cayman Islands looked to the sea for employment. Over the years, Caymanian sailors earned reputations as some of the finest ship's captains and seamen in the world. In 1900, more than 20% of the population of 5,000 was estimated to be working in the world's merchant marine fleets. As late as the 1950s, the government's annual report said that the main "export" of the Cayman Islands was seamen, whose remittances were the mainstay of the economy.

The tourism trade was kicked off in 1937 with the arrival of the first cruise ship, the Atlantis. In 1950, Englishman Benson Greenall was the first to realize the tourism possibilities of Seven Mile Beach. He constructed the first hotel; several others were constructed in ensuing years. An airfield was opened in 1953 on Grand Cayman, eventually replacing the seaplane service that had been in operation since the 1940s.

After Jamaica gained its independence in 1962, the Cayman Islands elected to remain tied to Britain as a British Crown Colony. The islands received their first Governor in 1971, and the present constitution was adopted in 1972.

The Cayman Islands is recognized as the "birthplace" of the modern sport of recreational scuba diving. Bob Soto opened the Caribbean's first dive shop on Grand Cayman in 1957.

The year 1966 witnessed two important developments that would forever change the face of the country's economy. First, the Cayman Islands' first Tourist Board was established, marking its first serious efforts at promoting tourism to the world. And second, new banking and trust laws were enacted, laying the foundation for the modern banking and financial services industry that exists today.

In the late 1960s, cruise ship visits to the Caymans were rare, and in the first half of the 1970s, no more than eight cruise ships visited the Islands annually. However, by the 1990s, cruise ship tourism exploded, and in 2007, more than 1.7 million passengers entered Cayman waters.

In 2004, the Cayman Islands were hit by the fury of Hurricane Ivan's category 4 winds, causing mass devastation, loss of human and animal life and flooding. Some accounts reported that over 25% of Grand Cayman had been underwater. When the islands re-opened to tourists in early December, the cruise ships returned, with the passengers curious to see the damage. In early 2005, the island quickly embarked on a rebuilding program.

Today's Cayman Islands

From its humble beginnings, today's Cayman Islands has made remarkable strides. Its per capita GDP is the highest in the Caribbean, at over $44,000, rivaling that of large industrial nations. The country boasts a very high standard of living, with state-of-the-art telecommunications services, infrastructure and financial expertise.

Tourism accounts for over 70% of the country's GDP, followed by financial services, at 25%. With no direct taxation, the islands are a thriving offshore financial center. More than 68,000 companies were registered in the Cayman Islands as of 2003, including almost 500 banks, 800 insurers, and 5,000 mutual funds.