Your Barbados cell phone rental will make discovering this wonderful country a breeze.
HISTORY
Barbados' history is said to have stared over 5,000 years ago when the Amerindians were making their way north from what is now Venezuela. The Arawak tribes were farmers and fishermen and lived in the coastal areas of Barbados. Another Amerindian tribe, the Caribs, were next to arrive in Barbados where they gradually replaced the resident population. Remnants of settlements have been found in several locations in Barbados. It is not known what happened to the Caribs of Barbados, as all that history records is the fact that the island of Barbados was uninhabited when the English arrived in 1625 and Captain John Powell claimed the island for King James 1st.
Bridgetown, the capital city of Barbados, recently celebrated its 375th anniversary. On July 5th, 1628, a small group of settlers under the leadership of Charles Wolverson, arrived to claim land that had been given by the Earl of Carlisle to settle a debt. Carlisle Bay, as it is known now, provided safe harbour for many of Britian's most famous Admirals, including Nelson, whose statues stands at the top of Broad St., in front of the Houses of Parliament.
Barbados' Parliament was established in 1639 and is the third oldest Parliament in the British Commonwealth. Unlike many of the islands of the region that changed hands between the English, French, Dutch and Spanish with regularity, Barbados was to remain English until its Independence in 1966.
The abolition of the slave trade in 1807 and subsequent Emancipation between 1834 and 1838 made little impact initially on the lives of the workers. Economic slavery was a hard bond to break and it took the riots of 1937 for a group of powerful black leaders to emerge in positions of influence. In the years that have followed, Barbados has gone from strength to strength, with political stability and a well educated workforce ensuring steady progress.
As you travel around Barbados you will see relics of the past intermingled with monuments to the present. It is worth pondering that today's innovation is tomorrow's history! Use your international cell phone rental to easily discover more of Barbados' history.
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