page_title: Bermuda
section_title: 19th century
hierarchical_section_title: Bermuda / History / 19th century
caption_attribution_description: Devonshire Redoubt
context_page_description: Bermuda is a British Overseas Territory in the North Atlantic Ocean. It is approximately 1,035 km east-southeast of Cape Hatteras, North Carolina; 1,236 km south of Cape Sable Island, Nova Scotia; 1,759 km northeast of Cuba, and 1,538 km due north of the British Virgin Islands. Though it is typically referred to in the singular, Bermuda consists of 181 islands; the largest of these islands is known as Main Island. The capital city of Bermuda is Hamilton. Bermuda is internally self-governing, with its own constitution and cabinet of ministers selected from the elected Members of the lower house of a Parliament that enacts local laws. As the national government, the Government of the United Kingdom is ultimately responsible for ensuring good governance within British Overseas Territories, and retains responsibility for defence and foreign relations. As of July 2018, it has a population of 71,176, making it the most populous of the British overseas territories. Bermuda's largest economic sectors are offshore insurance, reinsurance, and tourism. Bermuda had one of the world's highest GDP per capita for most of the 20th century.
context_section_description: After the American Revolution, the Royal Navy began improving the harbours on the Bermudas. In 1811, work began on the large Royal Naval Dockyard on Ireland Island, in the west of the chain, which was to serve as the islands' principal naval base guarding the western Atlantic Ocean shipping lanes. To guard the dockyard, the British Army built a large Bermuda Garrison, and heavily fortified the archipelago.
  During the War of 1812 between Britain and the United States, the British attacks on Washington, D.C. and the Chesapeake were planned and launched from Bermuda, where the headquarters of the Royal Navy's North American Station had recently been moved from Halifax, Nova Scotia.
   In 1816, James Arnold, the son of Benedict Arnold, fortified Bermuda's Royal Naval Dockyard against possible US attacks. Today, the National Museum of Bermuda, which incorporates Bermuda's Maritime Museum, occupies the Keep of the Royal Naval Dockyard, including the Commissioner's House, and exhibits artefacts of the base's military history.
  The British abolished the slave trade in 1807, but not the institution itself. As a result of frequent slave rebellions in their other colonies, as well as the efforts of abolitionists, the British outlawed slavery in its empire in 1834.
  Due to its proximity to the southeastern US coast, Bermuda was frequently used during the American Civil War as a stopping point base for the Confederate States' blockade runners on their runs to and from the Southern states, and England, to evade Union naval vessels on blockade patrol; the blockade runners were then able to transport essential war goods from England and deliver valuable cotton back to England. The old Globe Hotel in St George's, which was a centre of intrigue for Confederate agents, is preserved as a public museum.
caption: An illustration of the Devonshire Redoubt, Bermuda, 1614
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