Barbados is an island country in the Lesser Antilles of the West Indies, in the Caribbean region of North America and covers an area of 432 km2. It is situated in the western area of the North Atlantic and 100 km east of the Windward Islands and the Caribbean Sea. Barbados is outside the principal Atlantic hurricane belt. Its capital and largest city is Bridgetown. It has a population of 284,996 people, predominantly of African descent. After visits by Spanish and Portuguese navigators the English took possession of the island in 1625 and it became a British colony. As a wealthy sugar colony, it became an English centre of the African slave trade until that trade was outlawed in 1807. On 30 November 1966, Barbados became an independent state and Commonwealth realm with the British monarchy as hereditary head of state.