Barbados – from sugar colony to independence and republic
Barbados was first inhabited by Indigenous peoples who arrived from South America, including Arawak-speaking groups. By the time Europeans took a closer interest in the island, its Indigenous population had largely disappeared. Portuguese sailors are said to have named it "Os Barbados" after its bearded fig trees.
English settlers arrived in 1627 and quickly transformed the island. From the mid-seventeenth century Barbados became one of the first great sugar colonies in the Caribbean and a model for the plantation system elsewhere. Its wealth rested on the forced labour of enslaved Africans, who soon made up the majority of the population and endured extremely harsh conditions. The 1816 uprising associated with Bussa became a lasting symbol of resistance. Slavery was abolished in the British Empire in 1834, followed by a transitional "apprenticeship" period, yet land and power remained concentrated in the hands of a small planter elite.
In the twentieth century labour unrest, trade unions and new political parties pushed for social reform and self-government. Under the leadership of Errol Barrow, Barbados became independent on 30 November 1966. Exactly fifty-five years later, in 2021, the country became a parliamentary republic while remaining in the Commonwealth. Tourism and financial services have largely replaced sugar as the basis of the economy.
Today Barbados is shaped by its African-Caribbean culture, its strong democratic traditions and its pride in the music, cricket and festivals of its people.
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