Bridgetown, Barbados, Antilles
| Bridgetown | |
| |
| Nation: | Great Britain |
|---|---|
| Region: | Antilles |
| Info: | Conquerable Port
This port has a Natural Harbor |
| Resources: | Fertile Soil Forest (Oak) Marble River Natural Harbor |
| NPC Level: | 40 |
History[]
The first indigenous people were Amerindians who arrived on Barbados from Venezuela around approximately 350-400 B.C. The Arawak people were the second wave of migrants, arriving from South America around 800. In the thirteenth 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 Portuguese then briefly claimed Barbados from the mid 1500s to the 1600s; and may have seized the indigenous Caribs on Barbados and used them as slave labour. Other Caribs are believed to have fled the island to neighbouring islands. Apart from possibly displacing the Caribs, the Portuguese left little impact and by the 1610s, they left for South America leaving the island uninhabited.
British sailors who landed on Barbados in 1625 arrived at the site of present-day Holetown. At the time it was inhabited only by the feral pigs descended from those left behind by the Portuguese. From the arrival of the first British settlers in 1627–1628 until independence in 1966, Barbados was under uninterrupted British control. Nevertheless, Barbados always enjoyed a large measure of local autonomy. Its House of Assembly began meeting in 1639. Among the initial important British figures was Sir William Courten.
Bridgetown was established in 1628. It is named for a rope bridge that was already there when the first European settlers arrived.