Upwards and Onwards: Our Independence Story

In 1966, Barbados became an independent nation following over 300 years of British colonization.  In the 1920’s political arousal of the population became evident when Charles Duncon O’Neal formed the Democratic League; however it was not until 1938 after several civil disturbances that the Barbados Progressive Party (later to become the Barbados Labor Party) was formed and Barbados developed full internal self Government.

Grantley Adams who was the first premier led Barbados into the (10) member West Indian Federation in 1958 until 1962. In 1962 the federation was terminated and  Barbados returned to its previous status as a self-government. Grantley Adams tried to form another Federation with the Leeward and Windward islands however, to his disappointment) this only ever failed.

On November 30th 1966 Barbados was lead to full independence by the then Premier Errol Walton Barrow (the first Prime Minister of Barbados) of the Democratic Labour Party (previously the Democratic League), a group which broke away from the (now) Barbados Labour Party in 1955.  

Although Barbados is fully independent we still maintain ties to the British monarch, represented in Barbados by the Governor General.