BARBADOS
- Barbados has officially removed Queen Elizabeth II as its head of state and become the world’s newest republic nearly 400 years after the country became a British colony.
- Barbados is an island country in the Lesser Antilles of the West Indies, in the Caribbean region of the Americas, and the most easterly of the Caribbean Islands.
- It is 34 kilometres (21 miles) in length and up to 23 km (14 mi) in width, covering an area of 432 km2 (167 sq mi).
- In 1627, the first permanent settlers arrived from England, and Barbados became an English and later British colony.
- During this period, the colony operated on a plantation economy, relying on the labour of enslaved Africans who worked on the island’s plantations.
- Barbados’s population of 287,000 is predominantly of African descent. While it is an Atlantic Island, Barbados is closely associated with the Caribbean and is ranked as one of its leading tourist destinations.