Barbados is the easternmost island of the West Indies. It is located in the western Atlantic Ocean, just to the east of the Caribbean Sea. The island is 34 km long and 23 km at its widest part. It has a total area of sq km.
Among these were the Taino Arawak who set up several settlements on the island after CE. They were later joined by Kalinago Carib migrants in the 13th century. The indigenous name for Barbados was Ichi-rougan-aim. The name 'Barbados' comes from a Portuguese explorer Pedro Campos who in , called the island Os Barbados 'The Bearded Ones' based on the appearance of the island's fig trees, which have long hanging aerial roots.
Between and , Spanish raiders regularly seized large numbers of indigenous Taino-Kalinago from Barbados to be used as slave labour on regional plantations. This prompted the Kalinago to flee the island for other Caribbean destinations see also Dominica and St Vincent. The first European settlement on Barbados consisted of English colonists. This was not established until In the island became a possession of the British Crown and remained so until the late 20th century.
From its earliest establishment large numbers of Africans were taken to Barbados to provide slave labour on the British plantations. In , the English also shipped many Irish and Scots to Barbados as slaves. Furthermore large numbers of people from Ireland and Scotland also went as indentured servants. More British exiles were also shipped in after following the crushing of the Protestant Monmouth Rebellion in England. Over the next several centuries this socially marginal British immigrant population was used as a buffer between the rich plantation owners and the larger African population.
They served as members of the colonial militia but sometimes also allied themselves with the enslaved African population in a number of local rebellions.
