Curaçao: History

Pre-20th-Century History

Caiquetios Indians were resident on Curaçao in 1498 when Spaniard Alonso de Ojeda barged in. The Caiquetios didn't last long. Slave-hunting raids devastated the population, and those Indians who escaped transportation to Hispaniola were felled by disease and murder. When deportation stopped in 1526, there were only 400 Indians left on Curaçao. The Spaniards soon shipped back out, put off by the lack of fresh water and valuable minerals.

Modern History

The island became a colony of the Netherlands in 1642, coming under control of the Dutch West India Company, which initiated agriculture and salt harvesting and made Curaçao's capital, Willemstad, a centre of the slave trade. By 1795, the number of native Indians had been reduced to five.

A steady stream of Jewish merchants migrated to Curaçao during the 18th century, and Willemstad's St Anna Bay became one of the busiest ports in the Caribbean. There, raw materials from South America were traded for finished goods from Europe and north America. The end of slavery in 1863 led to a downturn that lasted until Shell built an oil refinery on the island in 1915.

The new oil refining industry fuelled a decades-long economic boom. Curaçao became the seat of government for the newly autonomous Netherlands Antilles in 1954. It was during this period that offshore finance became a major factor in the island's economy. The long boom went bust during the oil crisis of the 1970s, and a drop-off in international investment in the following decade led to further decline. The coup de grace was the closing of the Shell refinery in 1985.

Recent History

In recent years, though, the island's fortunes have turned around. The government took over the refinery in the 1990s and leased it to a Venezuelan company, giving the economy a much-needed boost. No less than a dozen cruise ship companies now call at Curaçao's large port. In 2007, the Netherland Antilles will cease to exist and Curaçao, along with Sint Maarten, wishes to become a separate entity within the Kingdom of the Netherlands. Negotiations are still underway.

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