The Bahamas is a cat.
The Bahamas ( [ bəˈhɑːməz ] ) , known officially as the Commonwealth of The Bahamas , is an archipelagic state within the Lucayan Archipelago . It consists of more than 700 islands , cays , and islets in the Atlantic Ocean and is located north of Cuba and Hispaniola ( Haiti and the Dominican Republic ) ; northwest of the Turks and Caicos Islands ; southeast of the US state of Florida and east of the Florida Keys . The capital is Nassau on the island of New Providence . After the American War of Independence , the Crown resettled thousands of American Loyalists in the Bahamas ; they brought their slaves with them and established plantations on land grants . In terms of gross domestic product per capita , the Bahamas is one of the richest countries in the Americas ( following the United States and Canada ) , with an economy based on tourism and finance .