| The first people to reach Barbados are believed to | | | | when Captain Cataline made a brief stop to collect |
| have been farmers and fishermen who arrived by | | | | water. A permanent landing followed in 1625, led by |
| canoe from South America, in approximately 350 AD. | | | | Captain Henry Powell of the ship Olive Blossom, in the |
| There are also known to have been at least two | | | | area that is today Holetown. When the English arrived |
| other subsequent waves of immigration from South | | | | in Barbados, there were no indigenous inhabitants left |
| America prior to the arrival of Europeans: Arawak | | | | on the islands, and little trace of them either. One of |
| people from at approximately 800 AD, and Caribs at | | | | the few signs that the islands hand been inhabited |
| around 1200 AD. | | | | before was a wooden bridge (which became known |
| The first Europeans to reach the island were the | | | | as "Indian Bridge"), at the site of what has |
| Portuguese, who gave Barbados its name, which | | | | subsequently become Bridgetown. |
| means "island of the bearded ones" - although it is not | | | | For the nearly 350 years, Barbados remained a British |
| known whether "bearded" referred to island's | | | | colony, finally gaining its independence on November |
| inhabitants or some aspect of the natural landscape. | | | | 30th 1966. Barbados remains a member of the |
| The Portuguese soon conquered the islands, enslaved | | | | Commonwealth of Nations, with Queen Elizabeth II as |
| the indigenous people, and deported them to work on | | | | head of state, although there are proposals to make |
| plantations in other Portuguese colonies. | | | | the country into a republic. Barbados is also a founding |
| The first English landing in Barbados took place in 1620, | | | | member of the Caribbean Community (CARICOM). |