Barbados

The one Caribbean island that never changed hands. England settled Barbados in 1627 and held it without interruption until independence in 1966, which is why its institutions, accent and self-image diverged so sharply from islands that were fought over - it was called Little England for three centuries, not always affectionately. Its parliament, first meeting in 1639, is among the oldest continuously sitting legislatures in the world. The island's real historical weight lies in what it invented. Barbados was where English colonists, learning sugar technique from the Dutch and from Pernambuco in the 1640s, first made the plantation complex work: large estates, a monocrop, and enslaved African labour on a scale no English colony had used before. Within two decades the smallholders were bought out and the island had a Black majority. The Barbados Slave Code of 1661 codified that system in law, and it was copied almost verbatim by Jamaica, Antigua and South Carolina, which is how a small island's statute became the legal foundation of slavery across the English Atlantic. Barbadian planters also settled Carolina directly. Bussa's rebellion in 1816 was the largest slave revolt in the island's history. Emancipation came in 1834 with a four-year apprenticeship, and the land stayed in the same hands. The island is coral rather than volcanic, flat and without rivers. It removed the British monarch and became a republic in November 2021. Bridgetown is the capital and its garrison area is a World Heritage site. The island is the most densely populated in the Americas. Flying fish and cou-cou are the national dish. Rum has been distilled here since the 1640s, and Mount Gay claims the oldest surviving brand.

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