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 Queen Elizabeth II 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 earliest successful sugar industry in the Caribbean.  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 Plantations 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 this 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 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.

Through the 19th Century, the sugar industry in Barbados had a period of increased production.  It went from thirty two steam powered sugar mills in 1862 to ninety in 1897.  By the end of the 1970’s Barbados had nine operating central sugar mills but by the 1990’s there were only two of them in operation; Portvale Sugar Mill in St. Thomas Parrish and Andrew’s Sugar Mill in St. Joseph Parrish.  Portvale Sugar Mill is the only sugar mill in operation in Barbados today.  It is owned by the Barbados Agricultural Management Co. Ltd.,  established in 1933 as a wholly owned subsidiary of the Barbados Agricultural Credit Trust Ltd. in turn owned by the Government of Barbados.  It is the site of the Sir Frank Hutson Sugar Museum which houses a collection of old machinery in a converted boiling house. Andrew's Sugar Mill ceased to operate after the 2013 milling season, there are some remains still standing as far as we know.  It was also owned by the Barbados Agricultural Management Co. Ltd.

For the 2024 grinding season, the government owned Barbados Agricultural Management Co. divested its farms and sugar factory to the cooperative movement, thereby privatizing the sugar industry in Barbados. The factory operations will be carried out by the Barbados Energy and Sugar Company Inc. (BESCO) and the farm operations by the Agricultural Business Co. Ltd. (ABC).

Barbados is widely recognized as the birthplace of rum, which production is directly related to the sugar industry.  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.