The Barbadoes Mulatto Girl, after Agostino Brunias, 1779

Lots of collectible stamps to choose from: Great Britian, European, US, and the World! Discover best deals on many one of a kind rare stamps to collect atbargain prices. Perfect gifts for the family and loved ones!

Barbados

Barbados is an independent island nation located in the western Atlantic Ocean, just to the east of the Caribbean Sea, found at roughly 13° north of the Equator and 59° west of the Prime Meridian. Located relatively close to South America the nation of Barbados is around 434. more...

Home

Africa

Asia

Commonwealth/ British...

Aden

Bahamas

Bahrain

Barbados

Basutoland/ Lesotho

Bechuanaland/ Botswana

Bermuda

British Antarctic Territory

British Guiana/ Guyana

British Honduras/ Belize

British Indian Ocean...

British Levant

British Virgin Islands

Brunei

Burma

Canada

Cayman Islands

Ceylon

Collections/ Mixture

Cook Is/ Aitutaki/ Penrhyn

Cyprus

Dominica

Falkland Is & Dependencies

Fiji

Gambia

Gibraltar

Gilbert & Ellice Is/...

Gold Coast/ Ghana

Grenada

Heligoland

Hong Kong

India

Jamaica

Kenya/ Uganda/ Tanganyika

Kuwait

Leeward Islands

Malaya/ Malaysia/ S. Setts.

Malta

Nauru

New Hebrides/ Vanuatu

New Zealand

Nigeria

Niue

Norfolk Island

North Borneo

Northern Rhodesia/ Zambia

Nyasaland/ BCA/ Malawi

Omnibus Issues

Other Commonwealth Stamps

Samoa

Sarawak

Somaliland Protectorate

South Africa

South West Africa/ Namibia

St Helena

St Kitts & Nevis

St Lucia

St Vincent/ Grenadines

Sudan

Tonga

Tuvalu

Ireland

Philately/ Postal History

Rest of the World

Thematics

United States

5 kilometres (270 miles) northeast of the South American nation of Venezuela.

The closest island neighbours to Barbados are Saint Lucia and Saint Vincent and the Grenadines both located to the west Trinidad and Tobago to the south and Grenada to the south-west. Barbados is part of Lesser Antilles.

Barbados possesses a land area of around 430 square kilometres, (166 sq. mi), and is primarily low-lying, with some higher regions in the island's interior. The organic composition of Barbados is thought to be of non-volcanic origin and is predominantly composed of limestone-coral. The island's atmosphere is sub-tropical with constant trade winds off the Atlantic Ocean and some undeveloped areas contain marshes and mangrove swamps. Other parts of the island's interior contributing the island's agricultural sector are dotted with large sugarcane estates and wide gently sloping pastures with many good views down to the sea.

Barbados has one of the highest standards of living and literacy rates in the developing world and, according to the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP), Barbados is currently the No. 4 most developed of all developing countries in the world. Despite its small geographical size, Barbados constantly ranks in the top 30 (or 31) countries in the HDI (Human Development Index) rankings. The island is also a major tourist destination.

History

The earliest inhabitants of Barbados were Amerindian nomads. Three waves of migrants moved north toward North America. The first wave was of the Saladoid-Barrancoid group, who were farmers, fishermen, and ceramists that arrived by canoe from South America (Venezuela's Orinoco Valley) around 350 CE. The Arawak people were the second wave of migrants, arriving from South America around 800 CE. Arawak settlements on the island include Stroud Point, Chandler Bay, Saint Luke's Gully, and Mapp's Cave. According to accounts by descendants of the aboriginal Arawak tribes on other local islands, the original name for Barbados was Ichirouganaim. In the 13th century, the Caribs arrived from South America in the third wave, displacing both the Arawak and the Salodoid-Barrancoid. For the next few centuries, the Caribs—like the Arawak and the Salodoid-Barrancoid—lived in isolation on the island.

The name "Barbados" comes from a Portuguese explorer named Pedro Campos in 1536, who originally called the island Os Barbados ("The Bearded Ones") upon seeing the appearance of the island's fig trees whose long hanging aerial roots, he thought, resembled beards. Between Campos' sighting in 1536 and 1550, Spanish conquistadors seized many Caribs on Barbados and used them as slave labour on plantations. Other Caribs fled the island, moving elsewhere.