Barbados

Barbados is an island nation lying in the North Atlantic, just east of the Caribbean Sea and the Windward Islands, with Venezuela to the south-east. Barbados is an independent sovereign state with in the British Commonwealth, with the British sovereign as head of state and a bicameral parliament overseeing the islands affairs.

The population of under 300,000 are mostly black, having been sourced as slave labour from Africa by the British from the early 17th century until the abolition of slavery in the British Empire halted the practice in 1834. The island covers only 430 sq km (166 sq miles) and has many beaches and lagoons which, together with the tropical climate, have encouraged tourism to the point where it outweighs the traditional production of sugar as the islands main source of income.