page_title: Cayman Islands
section_title: History
hierarchical_section_title: Cayman Islands / History
caption_attribution_description: Heroes Square, commemorating Cayman Islands' war dead, is in the center of George Town. The Legislative Assembly building is at the left. The 1919 Peace Memorial is at right center, with the Town Clock to its right.
context_page_description: The Cayman Islands is an autonomous British Overseas Territory in the western Caribbean Sea. The 264-square-kilometre territory comprises the three islands of Grand Cayman, Cayman Brac and Little Cayman, which are located to the south of Cuba and northeast of Honduras, between Jamaica and Mexico's Yucatán Peninsula. The capital city is George Town on Grand Cayman, which is the most populous of the three islands.
  The Cayman Islands is considered to be part of the geographic Western Caribbean Zone as well as the Greater Antilles. The territory is often considered a major world offshore financial haven for international businesses and many wealthy individuals. It has been placed on the EU's blacklist of foreign tax havens.
context_section_description: No archaeological evidence for an indigenous presence has been found on the Cayman Islands. Therefore, it is believed that they were discovered by Christopher Columbus on 10 May 1503 during his final voyage to the Americas. He named them 'Las Tortugas' due to the large number of turtles found on the islands (which were soon hunted to near-extinction); however, in the succeeding decades the islands began to be referred to as the Caymans, after the caimans present there. No immediate colonisation occurred following Columbus's discovery; however, a variety of settlers from various backgrounds made their home on the islands, including pirates, shipwrecked sailors, and deserters from Oliver Cromwell's army in Jamaica. Sir Francis Drake briefly visited the islands in 1586.
  The first recorded permanent inhabitant of the Cayman Islands, Isaac Bodden, was born on Grand Cayman around 1661. He was the grandson of the original settler named Bodden who was probably one of Oliver Cromwell's soldiers at the taking of Jamaica in 1655.
  England took formal control of the Cayman Islands, along with Jamaica, as a result of the Treaty of Madrid of 1670. That same year saw an attack on a turtle fishing settlement on Little Cayman by the Spanish under Manuel Ribeiro Pardal. Following several unsuccessful attempts at settlement in what had by now become a haven for pirates, a permanent English-speaking population in the islands dates from the 1730s. With settlement, after the first royal land grant by the Governor of Jamaica in 1734, came the perceived need for slaves. Many were brought to the islands from Africa; this is evident today with the majority of native Caymanians being of African and/or English descent.  The results of the first census taken in the islands in 1802 showed the population on Grand Cayman to be 933, with 545 of those inhabitants being enslaved. Slavery was abolished in the Cayman Islands in 1833. At the time of abolition, there were over 950 blacks of African ancestry enslaved by 116 white families of English ancestry.
  On June 22 1863, the Cayman Islands became officially declared and administered as a dependency of the Crown Colony of Jamaica. The islands continued to be governed as part of the Colony of Jamaica until 1962, when they became a separate Crown colony while Jamaica became an independent Commonwealth realm. 
  On February 8 1794, the Caymanians rescued the crews of a group of ten merchant ships, including HMS Convert, an incident that has since become known as the Wreck of the Ten Sail. The ships had struck a reef and run aground during rough seas. Legend has it that King George III rewarded the island with a promise never to introduce taxes as compensation for their generosity, as one of the ships carried a member of the King's own family. While this remains a popular legend, the story is not true.
  In the 1950s, tourism began to take off with the opening of the airport, a bank and several hotels, plus a number of scheduled flights and cruise stop-overs. Politically the Cayman Islands were an internally self-governing territory of Jamaica from 1958 to 1962; however, they reverted to direct British rule following the independence of Jamaica in 1962. In 1972, a large degree of internal autonomy was granted by a new constitution, with further revisions being made in 1994. The Cayman Islands government focused on boosting the territory's economy via tourism and off-shore finance, both of which mushroomed from the 1970s onwards. The Caymans have historically been a tax-exempt destination, and the government has always relied on indirect and not direct taxes. The territory has never levied income tax, capital gains tax, or any wealth tax, making them a popular tax haven.
  The constitution was further modified in 2001 and 2009, codifying various aspects of human rights legislation.
  On 11 September 2004 the island of Grand Cayman, which lies largely unprotected at sea level, was hit by Hurricane Ivan, creating an 8-ft (2.4 m) storm surge which flooded many areas of Grand Cayman.  An estimated 83% of the dwellings on th
caption: The Heroes Square in the centre of George Town, which commemorates Cayman Islands' war dead. The Legislative Assembly building is at the left.
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