The original inhabitants of the Turks & Caicos islands were the Tainco and Lucayan Indians. The original people flourished on the cultivation of salt and shellfish along with other seafood items for hundreds of years. The French, then the Spanish claimed the islands for a short period of time in the early 1700's, until 1710 when the British captured and claimed the islands as theirs. The islands remain a British colony today, despite the independence of neighboring islands, and since the 1980's the islands have become a tourist location for their beautiful white sand beaches.