Barbados - The Wide Worlds Snaps

Sovereign: Queen Elizabeth II (1952)
Governor-General: Sir Elliot Belgrave (2012)
Prime Minister: Freundel Stuart (2010)
Land area: 166 sq mi (430 sq km);
total area: 166 sq mi (431 sq km)
Population (2014 est.): 289,680 (growth rate: 0.33%);
birth rate: 11.97/1000;
infant mortality rate: 10.93/1000;
life expectancy: 74.99
Capital and largest city (2011 est.): Bridgetown, 122,000
Monetary unit: Barbados dollar

Barbados is thought to have been originally inhabited by Arawak Indians. By the time Europeans explored the island, however, it was uninhabited. The Portuguese were the first Europeans to set foot on the island, but it was the British who first established a colony there in 1627. Colonists first cultivated tobacco and cotton, but by the 1640s they had switched to sugar, which was enormously profitable. Slaves were brought in from Africa to work sugar plantations, and eventually the population was about 90% black. A slave revolt took place in 1816; slavery was abolished in the British Empire in 1834.

Barbados was the administrative headquarters of the Windward Islands until it became a separate colony in 1885. Barbados was a member of the Federation of the West Indies from 1958 to 1962. Britain granted the colony independence on Nov. 30, 1966, and it became a parliamentary democracy within the Commonwealth.

Since independence, Barbados has been politically stable. In May 2003, Prime Minister Arthur won a third term. In parliamentary elections in January 2008, the Democratic Labour Party won 20 out of 30 seats. Former junior finance minister David Thompson took over as prime minister.

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Bahamas - The Wide Worlds Snaps

Sovereign: Queen Elizabeth II (1952)
Governor-General: Dame Marguerite Pindling (2014)
Prime Minister: Perry Christie (2012)
Land area: 3,888 sq mi (10,070 sq km);
total area: 5,382 sq mi 13,940 sq km)
Population (2014 est.): 321,834 (growth rate: 0.87%);
birth rate: 15.65/1000;
infant mortality rate: 12.5/1000;
life expectancy: 71.93
Capital and largest city (2011 est.): Nassau, 254,000
Monetary unit: Bahamian dollar

The Arawak Indians were the first inhabitants of the Bahamas. Columbus's first encounter with the New World was on Oct. 12, 1492, when he landed on the Bahamian island of San Salvador. The British first built settlements on the islands in the 17th century. In the early 18th century, the Bahamas were a favorite pirate haunt.

The Bahamas were a Crown colony from 1717 until they were granted internal self-government in 1964. The islands moved toward greater autonomy in 1968 after the overwhelming victory in general elections of the Progressive Liberal Party, led by Prime Minister Lynden O. Pindling, over the predominantly white United Bahamians Party. With its new mandate from the black population (85% of Bahamians), Pindling's government negotiated a new constitution with Britain under which the colony became the Commonwealth of the Bahama Islands in 1969. On July 10, 1973, the Bahamas became an independent nation.

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Haiti - The Wide Worlds Snaps

President: Michel Martelly (2011)
Prime Minister: Laurent Lamothe (2012)
Land area: 10,641 sq mi (27,560 sq km);

total area: 10,714 sq mi (27,750 sq km)
Population (2014 est.): 9,996,731 (growth rate: 1.08%);

birth rate: 22.83/1000;

infant mortality rate: 49.43/1000;

life expectancy: 63.18
Capital and largest city (2011 est.): Port-au-Prince, 2.207 million
Monetary unit: Gourde

Explored by Columbus on Dec. 6, 1492, Haiti's native Arawaks fell victim to Spanish rule. In 1697, Haiti became the French colony of Saint-Dominique, which became a leading sugarcane producer dependent on slaves. In 1791, an insurrection erupted among the slave population of 480,000, resulting in a declaration of independence by Pierre-Dominique Toussaint l'Ouverture in 1801. Napoléon Bonaparte suppressed the independence movement, but it eventually triumphed in 1804 under Jean-Jacques Dessalines, who gave the new nation the Arawak name Haiti . It was the world's first independent black republic.

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Jamaica - The Wide Worlds Snaps

Sovereign: Queen Elizabeth II (1952)
Governor-General: Patrick Allen (2009)
Prime Minister: Portia Simpson-Miller (2012)
Land area: 4,181 sq mi (10,829 sq km);

total area: 4,244 sq mi (10,991 sq km)
Population (2014 est.): 2,930,050 (growth rate: 0.69%);

birth rate: 18.41/1000;

infant mortality rate: 13.69/1000;

life expectancy: 73.48
Capital and largest city (2011 est.): Kingston, 571,000
Monetary unit: Jamaican dollar
Jamaica was inhabited by Arawak Indians when Columbus explored it in 1494 and named it St. Iago. It remained under Spanish rule until 1655, when it became a British possession. Buccaneers operated from Port Royal, also the capital, until it fell into the sea in an earthquake in 1692. Disease decimated the Arawaks, so black slaves were imported to work on the sugar plantations. During the 17th and 18th centuries the British were consistently harassed by the Maroons, armed bands of freed slaves roaming the countryside. Abolition of the slave trade (1807), emancipation of the slaves (1833), and a drop in sugar prices eventually led to a depression that resulted in an uprising in 1865. The following year Jamaica became a Crown colony, and conditions improved considerably. Introduction of bananas reduced dependence on sugar.
On May 5, 1953, Jamaica gained internal autonomy, and, in 1958, superheaded the organization of the West Indies Federation. A nationalist labor leader, Sir Alexander Bustamente, later campaigned to withdraw from the federation. After a referendum, Jamaica became independent on Aug. 6, 1962. Michael Manley, of the socialist People's National Party, became prime minister in 1972.

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