Other European groups consisted of the French, Germans, Austrians, Spaniards, Italians, and Russians.
With colonization, Europeans came to constitute the majority, with the island being used as a penal colony much as Australia would be later, until the transition of the Barbadian economy to one based on sugarcane production; importation of African slaves to the island altered its demographics, making European Barbadians a minority.
Since independence from Britain in 1966 when most European Barbadians left for the United Kingdom, most political power has shifted to the black majority.
[3] Among European Barbadians, there exists an underclass of predominantly Irish descent known as redlegs;[4] the descendants of indentured servants, and prisoners imported to the island, redlegs have historically formed a disadvantaged group within Barbadian society.
[7] The Spanish regularly seized large numbers of Amerindians from Barbados to be used as slave labour on other regional plantations.