Bermuda (also known as Bermuda Islands) is an overseas territory of the United Kingdom in the North Atlantic Ocean. Located off the east coast of the ► United States, it is situated around 1,100 miles northeast of Miami, Florida and 840 miles south-east of Halifax, Nova Scotia, ► Canada. It lies to the north of the ► Bahamas.
Short name
Bermuda
Official name
Bermuda
Status
► British overseas territory, British (English) since 1610
This section holds a short summary of the history of the area of present-day Bermuda, illustrated with maps, including historical maps of former countries and empires that included present-day Bermuda.
The Spanish explorer Juan de Bermudez discovers the island ca. 1512. For the next century it is a hazard to shipping, called the Isle of Devils. No one settles, though many are wrecked. In 1609, the London Company of Virginia's flagship, the Sea Venture is wrecked on Bermuda, beginning the permanent settlement of the archipelago by England. The islands are also named the Somers Isles, after the Admiral of the Virginia Company, Sir George Somers. The Charter of the Virginia Company is extended to officially include Bermuda within Virginia's boundaries, and a Governor and more settlers arrive in 1612. The Parliament of Bermuda holds its first session in 1620, and Bermuda is largelly self-governed and self-reliant thereafter. The Somers Isles Company, a spin-off of the Virginia Company which had overseen the colony from 1615, was dissolved in 1684, with the Crown taking over responsibility for appointing governors. The constitution of 1968 introduced an appointed upper house, the Senate of Bermuda, to the colony's parliament, universal adult suffrage, and party politics, with a Westminster-style government and opposition.
Old maps
This section holds copies of original general maps more than 70 years old.
The WIKIMEDIA COMMONS Atlas of the World is an organized and commented collection of geographical, political and historical maps available at Wikimedia Commons. The main page is therefore the portal to maps and cartography on Wikimedia. That page contains links to entries by country, continent and by topic as well as general notes and references.
Every entry has an introduction section in English. If other languages are native and/or official in an entity, introductions in other languages are added in separate sections. The text of the introduction(s) is based on the content of the Wikipedia encyclopedia. For sources of the introduction see therefore the Wikipedia entries linked to. The same goes for the texts in the history sections.
Historical maps are included in the continent, country and dependency entries.
The status of various entities is disputed. See the content for the entities concerned.
The maps of former countries that are more or less continued by a present-day country or had a territory included in only one or two countries are included in the atlas of the present-day country. For example the Ottoman Empire can be found in the Atlas of Turkey.
