Will Barbados still be in the Commonwealth after Queen dropped as head of state?

Caribbean island is now a republic having parted ways with the monarchy after some 400 years

Barbados has become the world's newest republic after parting ways with the Queen but has chosen to remain a member of the Commonwealth.

The monarch sent the Caribbean island her "warmest good wishes" as she was removed as its head of state.

Sandra Mason was sworn in as president in an overnight ceremony in the capital Bridgetown on Monday, ending the British monarchy's 396-year reign over Barbados.

“Republic Barbados has set sail on her maiden voyage,” she said in her inauguration speech.

“Our country must dream big dreams and fight to realise them.”

Although Barbados has removed the Queen as its head of state it is has chosen to remain a member of the Commonwealth, which already includes several republics.

Before 2007 a Commonwealth Realm transitioning to a republic had to reapply for membership.

This is no longer the case and Barbados will become the first country to remain a member despite having ceased to be a constitutional monarchy.

Monday night's ceremony was the first of a two-stage process. In the second part the next government of Barbados plans to hold a consultation on drafting a new constitution.

Several leaders, dignitaries and artists, including Prince Charles and Rihanna, attended the ceremony that began late Monday.

It was held in a popular square where the statue of a well-known British lord was removed last year amid a worldwide push to erase symbols of oppression.

Fireworks peppered the sky at midnight as Barbados officially became a republic.

Screens were set up across the island so people could watch the event that featured an orchestra with more than 100 steel pan players and numerous singers, poets and dancers.

It was also broadcast online, prompting a flurry of excited messages from Bajans living in the US, Canada and beyond.

“Happy Independence Day and freedom to all,” wrote one viewer.

Barbados's drive to become a republic began more than two decades ago and culminated with the island’s parliament electing Ms Mason as its first-ever president last month in a two-thirds majority vote.

“As cautioned by our first prime minister... we ought no longer to be found loitering on colonial premises,” she said in her speech.

“We must seek to redefine our definition of self, of state, and the Barbados brand, in a more complex, fractured and turbulent world.

Ms Mason, 72, is an attorney and judge who also has served as ambassador to Venezuela, Colombia, Chile and Brazil.

She will help prime minister Mia Mottley lead the wealthy Caribbean island of more than 300,000 people that is dependent on tourism, manufacturing and finance.

Barbados didn’t need permission from the UK to become a republic, although the island will remain a member of the Commonwealth Realm. It’s an event that the Caribbean hasn’t experienced since the 1970s, when Guyana, Dominica and Trinidad and Tobago became republics.

Barbados became independent from the United Kingdom in November 1966, more than three centuries after English settlers arrived and turned the island into a wealthy sugar colony based on the work of hundreds of thousands of African slaves.

Additional reporting by Associated Press