The island of Barbados was discovered by Christopher Columbus and claimed for the Spanish Crown, however, Spain never settled the island.  It is widely believed it was the Portuguese who first settled the island in the 1530s and occupied it until 1620.  Shortly thereafter, Barbados became a Proprietary Colony until 1627 when it became an English Colony.  Barbados has full internal self government since 1961, gained its independence in 1966 but opted to remain part of the British Commonwealth with King Charles III as Monarch represented by a Governor-General.  Barbados is usually regarded as the most British among the British Colonies having been under continuous English/British rule from 1627 to 1964.

Barbados is widely recognized as home of the sugar revolution in the eastern Caribbean, developing the West Indies earliest successful sugar industry.  In 1627, eighteen year old James Drax arrived in Barbados where he soon accumulated considerable amounts of land and planted wheat, cotton, indigo and a very poor quality tobacco.  By 1641 he had over four hundred acres of land and a significant number of enslaved black Africans working in his plantations. In the 1640's Drax went to Recife in Brazil where the Dutch and Portuguese were developing new technology and successfully planting sugarcane.  There he learned the techniques of planting sugarcane and the process of manufacturing sugar.  After a failed first year crop, Drax became the first planter in Barbados to successfully cultivate sugarcane on a large scale in his Drax Hall Estate.  In 1644 Drax erected the island's first windmill for grinding cane based on a Dutch design.  When his first "good" sugar arrived on the London market, it had a very attractive yield and increased Drax's per acre income fourfold from that of previous crops.   

Aristocrat Christopher Codrington ( -1656) arrived in Barbados ca. 1640 and married Frances Drax, the sister of James Drax.  After his death in 1656, his son also named Christopher Codrington (ca. 1640-1698), inherited a small fortune part of which he used to establish Betty's Hope plantation in Antigua.  Upon the death of a third generation Christopher Codrington (1668-1710), the Codrington Plantation were left to the Society for the Propagation of the Gospel in Foreign Parts for the establishment of a college today known as Codrington College.

The English Civil War brought many more aristocratic families like the Codringtons to Barbados.  Leadership of the expatriates was quickly assumed by Humphrey Walrond (ca. 1600–ca. 1670) and his brother Edward.  Humphrey, at this time in his mid-forties, had been given up as a hostage at the surrender of the Royalist enclave of Bridgwater in July 1645.  He was imprisoned, but then released on agreement that he pay a huge fine. Instead, Walrond sold up his estates and together with his brother Edward and son George who had lost an arm fighting for Charles I, fled to Barbados ca. 1649.  Also captured at Bridgwater was twenty two-year-old Major William Byam (ca. 1620-1672), descendant of one of the Knights of the Round Table.  Byam was imprisoned by the Parliamentarians in the Tower of London, but then given a pass to go to the West Indies.  He, too, headed for Barbados together with his wife Dorothy, who not only boasted royal connections but was also according to a French priest who met her some seven years later, "one of the most beautiful women ever seen".

The new arrival of Cavaliers brought an aristocratic and metropolitan sophistication to the island, as well as money and credit.  Some bought plantations, others acted as factors for the Dutch shippers who dominated Barbados’s trade.  They also brought a new attitude to the top echelons of island society, a sumptuous, showy style of living where their extravagance and taste were there for everyone else to see and admire.  By 1650, Barbados had a white population of more than thirty thousand, about equivalent to that of Virginia and Massachusetts combined, and on average far richer.  

As early as the mid 1600’s, Barbados sugar plantations occupied about 60% of the total land on the island, producing about 7,000 m.t. of sugar that accounted for 90% of Barbados’ total exports.  By 1648, sugar was the means of payment in 60% of transactions on the island.  The consolidation of the acreage into large sugar estates made Barbados the wealthiest English colony in the world. The Barbados National Trust website includes a section on the Historic Windmills of Barbados with pictures and a brief history on those ruins that remain today.

The island is favored with relatively flat terrain since it is not of volcanic origin.  Many planters in the early years of the sugar industry in Barbados constructed windmills taking advantage of sea breezes rather than dedicating large amounts of land for pastures required by oxen and horses essential for hauling carts and turning the mills.  Of all the West Indies, Barbados was the island with  the most number of sugar mills.  The Morgan Lewis Sugar Windmill in St. Andrews Parrish is the largest remaining wind driven sugar mill in Barbados today and together with Betty's Hope in Antigua the only two remaining in all of the Caribbean.  It sits on a scenic mount on the northeast part of the island and has been featured in coins and several post stamps throughout the years.

According to Wikipedia, St. Thomas Parish had forty two sugar plantations in 1913, pictured below is a photo of the ruins of an old windmill of one of those plantations. This one, photographed in November 2024, is off of H2 in the Hopewell area about ¾ of a mile north of the Hopewell Plantation and Distillery. Throughout the years since its inception more than three centuries ago, the sugar industry in Barbados has had its ups and downs, enjoyed times of prosperities and difficult times. More information regarding its recent history can be found in the page dedicated to the Portvale sugar mill, the only sugar factory that remains in operation on the island today.

Rum has historically been produced in Barbados and has enjoyed an excellent reputation worldwide throughout the years. Barbados is widely considered the birthplace of rum, with origins dating back to the 1640s on the island's sugar plantations. The island produced the world's first true rum, famously mentioned in a 1651 document as "rumbullion", and it is home to the world’s oldest continuously operating rum distillery, Mount Gay, originally known as Mount Gilboa Rum, Mount Gay Rum is the best known "Bajan" rum and the world's oldest spirit, established in 1703.  Today, Mount Gay Distilleries is part of the Rémy Cointreau organization and produces the Mount Gay Eclipse, Black Barrel, and XO rums. Three additional distilleries are in operation in Barbados today; Foursquare Rum Distillery who produces the Foursquare Exceptional Cask Selection, Real McCoy, and Doorly's brands, West Indies Rum Distillery owned by the French firm Maison Ferrand that producers of Cockspur, Planteray and Stade brands and St. Nicholas Abbey who produces several aged rums under the St. Nicholas Abbey brand.