History of Turks and Caicos Islands
The name Turks is derived from the indigenous Turk's Head fez cactus, and the name Caicos is a Lucayan term caya hico, meaning string of islands. Columbus was said to have discovered the islands in 1492, but some still argue that Juan Ponce de Leon arrived first. Whichever it was, the first people to truly discover the islands were the Taino Indians, who unfortunately left little behind but ancient utensils. Then the Lucayans eventually replaced the Tainos but by the middle of the 16th Century they too had disappeared, victims of Spanish enslavement.
Though many nations controlled the islands, official settlement didn't occur right away. For several decades around the turn of the 18th century they became popular pirate hideouts.
For many years, the Bahamas (itself originally settled by Bermudian puritans) and Bermuda fought for control of the archipelago. The British government eventually assigned political control to the Bahamas, which the Turks and Caicos remained a part of until the 1840s.
On 1959 they were again a separate colony (Turks and Caicos), the last Commissioner being restyled Administrator, but till 1962 they were one of the constitutive parts of the Federation of the West Indies.
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