North & Central America and Caribbean

Barbados
Last reviewed: 04 June 2009

Country information

See entire profile

HISTORY

The original inhabitants of Barbados were Arawak Indians, who were driven off the island around AD 1200 by invading Carib Indians from Venezuela. The Carib Indians in turn abandoned the island around 1500. Portuguese explorer Pedro a Campos in 1536 named the island Los Barbados (Bearded Ones), presumably after the long, hanging aerial roots of the island's fig trees, which resemble beards. English settlers established the island’s first European settlement in 1627. In the 1640s the colonists planted their fields with sugarcane and brought slaves to the island to work on the sugar plantations. The sugar industry continued to boom until the 19th century. Even after the abolition of slavery, large estates owned almost all the arable land and most black islanders had to stay working on the plantations, for lack of better opportunities. Barbadians emigrated to other countries in the Caribbean and to work on the Panama Canal. Barbados gained internal self-government in 1961 and became an independent nation on 30 November 1966. Since independence, Barbados has been a stable democracy.

BBC News Country Timeline: Barbados