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What is modern-day Barbados-known
for? What was it known for in the
1600s and 1700s?

User Zapatilla
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Answer: this was something i had in my files for a long time i think this is what u looking for

Barbados was inhabited by its indigenous peoples—Arawaks and Caribs—prior to the European colonization of the Americas in the 16th century. Barbados was briefly claimed by the Portuguese from 1532 to 1620. The island was English and later a British colony from 1625 until 1966. Since 1966, it has been a constitutional monarchy and parliamentary democracy, modelled on the Westminster system, with Elizabeth II, Queen of Barbados, as head of state.

Prehistory

Some evidence suggests that Barbados may have been settled in the second millennium BC, but this is limited to fragments of conch lip adzes found in association with shells that have been radiocarbon-dated to about 1630 BC.[1] Fully documented Amerindian settlement dates to between about 350 and 650 AD.[citation needed] The arrivals were a group known as the Saladoid-Barrancoid from the mainland of South America. A second wave of settlers appeared around the year 800 (the Spanish referred to these as "Arawaks") and a third in the mid-13th century (called "Caribs" by the Spanish). This last group was politically more organised and came to rule over the others.[citation needed]

Early history

Spanish 1632 map of the "isla del Barbado" ("island of the Bearded Man").

The Portuguese were the first Europeans to discover the island. Portuguese navigator Pedro A. Campos named it Os Barbados (meaning "bearded ones").[2]

Frequent slave-raiding missions by the Spanish Empire in the early 16th century led to a massive decline in the Amerindian population, so that by 1541 a Spanish writer claimed they were uninhabited. The Amerindians were either captured for use as slaves by the Spanish or fled to other, more easily defensible mountainous islands nearby.[3]

England's civil war

Main articles: English overseas possessions in the Wars of the Three Kingdoms and Restoration in the English colonies

Around the same time, fighting during the War of the Three Kingdoms and the Interregnum spilled over into Barbados and Barbadian territorial waters. The island was not involved in the war until after the execution of Charles I, when the island's government fell under the control of Royalists (ironically the Governor, Philip Bell, remained loyal to Parliament while the Barbadian House of Assembly, under the influence of Humphrey Walrond, supported Charles II). To try to bring the recalcitrant colony to heel, the Commonwealth Parliament passed an act on 3 October 1650 prohibiting trade between England and Barbados, and because the island also traded with the Netherlands, further navigation acts were passed prohibiting any but English vessels trading with Dutch colonies. These acts were a precursor to the First Anglo-Dutch War. The Commonwealth of England sent an invasion force under the command of Sir George Ayscue, which arrived in October 1651. After some skirmishing, the Royalists in the House of Assembly led by Lord Willoughby surrendered. The conditions of the surrender were incorporated into the Charter of Barbados (Treaty of Oistins), which was signed at the Mermaid's Inn, Oistins, on 17 January 1652.

User Bharath Pabba
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