colony · Mesoamerica and the Caribbean

Turks and Caicos Islands

1848 CE – present · capital Cockburn Town

Low-lying islands southeast of the Bahamas, once a centre of salt raking, now a British Overseas Territory dependent on tourism and finance.

Origins

Bermudian salt rakers worked the Turks Islands from the 1680s, and Loyalists from the American colonies planted cotton on the Caicos after 1783. The islands were administered from the Bahamas from 1799, but salt merchants on Grand Turk resented Nassau's taxes. In 1848 Britain made them a separate colony with their own president and council under the oversight of Jamaica's governor.

Rule and society

The economy rested almost entirely on salt, raked from shallow pans by enslaved and then free labourers and exported to North America. The tiny colony struggled to pay its way, and in 1873 it was annexed to Jamaica as a dependency, with a commissioner at Cockburn Town on Grand Turk. A US missile tracking station later operated on Grand Turk, and John Glenn landed nearby in 1962.

To the present

When Jamaica became independent in 1962, the islands became a separate crown colony, sharing the Bahamas' governor until 1973. They remain a British Overseas Territory; London suspended self-government from 2009 to 2012 after corruption findings. Tourism on Providenciales is now the main industry.

Lineage

Colony of the Bahamas 1648 CE – 1973 CETurks and Caicos Islands

Connections (2)

Turks and Caicos Islands was a colony of British Empire1848 CE – 1997 CE
Turks and Caicos Islands was part of Colony of Jamaica1873 CE – 1962 CE

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Cite this page

APA: The Epoch Institute. (2026). Turks and Caicos Islands. In The Epoch Institute States Register. https://the-epoch-institute.org/state/turks-and-caicos-islands
MLA: “Turks and Caicos Islands.” The Epoch Institute States Register, The Epoch Institute, 2026, https://the-epoch-institute.org/state/turks-and-caicos-islands. Accessed .
Chicago: The Epoch Institute. “Turks and Caicos Islands.” The Epoch Institute States Register. 2026. https://the-epoch-institute.org/state/turks-and-caicos-islands.
Harvard: The Epoch Institute (2026) ‘Turks and Caicos Islands’, The Epoch Institute States Register. Available at: https://the-epoch-institute.org/state/turks-and-caicos-islands (Accessed: ).

Last reviewed October 2026Random state ↻