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The first people to arrive in Barbados were an
Amerindian tribe, the Arawaks. They came from the land now known as
Venezuela in South America in about 700 A.D. The Arawaks lived on the
island in peace for 500 years. In 1200 A.D. they were overtaken by
a warlike tribe of Amerindians called Caribs. In the 16th century
the island was conquered by the Spanish. From the Spaniards, the
Caribs contracted smallpox, tuberculosis and other diseases, which
eventually destroyed the Carib population. When a British expedition led by Captain John Henry Powell landed on the island in 1625, they found it uninhabited. The British returned in 1627 with 80 settlers. This was the beginning of the colonization of Barbados by the British. The island remained under British colonial rule until its independence in 1966. |
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| By 1640, the sugar industry was the main commercial enterprise. Barbados was divided into large plantation estates. Africans were brought to work as slaves on the plantations. The population of the island grew in the 18th and 19th centuries as many English families settled there and the African population grew. |
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In 1816, the slaves rebelled, led by a slave named
Bussa. One fifth of the island's sugar crop was destroyed during the
fighting. About 176 slaves, including Bussa himself, died in the revolt,
and 214 were executed. It was not until 1834 that slavery was officially
abolished in Barbados. Today, Bussa is honoured as a national hero. By the end of the 19th century, the descendants of emancipated slaves formed the majority of the population, but they had few political rights. In the 1930s, they demanded the right to vote. In 1938, Sir Grantley Adams founded the Barbados Labour Party, which won the general elections in 1947. In 1951, the right to vote was granted to all citizens. |
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| In 1954, Sir Grantley Adams became the first prime minister of Barbados. In 1958, Barbados became one of the 10 members of the short-lived West Indies Federation. Sir Grantley Adams served as its first prime minister. The Federation dissolved in 1962. Meanwhile, progress had been made towards more democratic government. In 1961, Barbados took control of its own internal affairs, although Britain still controlled foreign affairs. In 1966, it negotiated its independence from Great Britain, under the leadership of Prime Minister Errol Barrow. On November 30, 1966, Barbados became an independent state within the British Commonwealth. The Barbados Labour Party, led by Prime Minister Owen Arthur, came to power in 1994 and was re-elected in the 1999 general elections. |