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Situated to the northeast of Trinidad, Barbados is the most easterly of the West Indian Windward Islands. In the 16th century, the Portuguese were the first Europeans to reach the island, then inhabited by Arawak Indians. However, Barbados was not colonized until the 1620s, when British settlers arrived. Popularly referred to by its neighbors as "little England," Barbados now seeks to forge a new national identity for itself.