Barbados

Barbados was inhabited by Indigenous Arawak and later Kalinago peoples, but it was uninhabited when English settlers arrived in 1627. Within a few decades the island was transformed by sugar cane, and Barbados became the first English colony built on large-scale plantation slavery, a model later copied across the Caribbean and North America. Bridgetown and its garrison, now a UNESCO World Heritage Site, grew into a key port of the British Atlantic. A major uprising of enslaved people, Bussa's Rebellion, broke out in 1816. Slavery was abolished between 1834 and 1838. Barbados gained independence in 1966 and became a republic in 2021, replacing the British monarch as head of state with a Barbadian president.

Bajans, as Barbadians are known, are proud, friendly and passionate about cricket. Rum shops, small bars found in every village, are where neighbours meet to talk, play dominoes and share a drink; the island is often called the birthplace of rum. The national dish is cou-cou (cornmeal and okra) with flying fish. Crop Over, a harvest festival dating back to the plantation era, now culminates in a huge carnival parade on Kadooment Day in early August, with calypso and soca music.