A Spanish explorer named Juan de Bermúdez sighted the islands in 1505. The first written record of these islands appeared in 1511 within Pedro Mártir de Anglería's book Legatio Babylonica.
English colonists established a permanent settlement after the Sea Venture shipwrecked on Bermuda's reefs in 1609. Survivors built two ships called the Deliverance and the Patience to continue their journey before the Plough arrived in 1612 with new settlers who founded St. George's Town as the colony's first capital.
The first enslaved individuals arrived in 1616 aboard the ship Edwin sent by Governor Tucker to find pearls. These were not African slaves but one Black person and one Native American from the West Indies.
A law passed in 1623 forbade blacks from buying or selling tobacco without master consent. This restriction remained in place until later periods when more black slaves came later from America and the Caribbean.
Work began in 1811 on the Royal Naval Dockyard located on Ireland Island to guard western Atlantic shipping lanes. During the War of 1812 British attacks on Washington D.C. launched from Bermuda where headquarters moved from Halifax Nova Scotia.
Banking and financial services now account for about 85% of GDP while tourism makes up only 5%. Industrial and agriculture activities remain limited with heavy reliance on imports despite high living standards.