In
many ways, Curacao is the historical nexus of the Netherlands Antilles.
The island, with its large and protected natural port, was charted before
the 16th century and eventually became a major center for mercantile
commerce. It is the birthplace of Papiamentu (as it is spelled on Curacao),
the polyglot lingua franca of the ABC
Islands
which is spoken to an extent as far north as the Netherlands Antilles
islands of Sint Eustatius, Saba, and Sint Maarten. And the island is, on
another level, the birthplace of the famous liqueur, Curacao, perhaps more
well known in some circles than the island itself. |
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The
history of Curacao begins with Amerindian Arawaks. The Arawaks and their
subgroups migrated from regions of South America some 6,000 years ago, settling
on various islands the discovered as they embarked on a centuries-long northward
trek. The group that ended up in Curacao were the Caiquetios, who gave
the island it's name.
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After
the late-15th-century voyages of Christopher Columbus put the
Caribbean,
literally, on the maps, the area was wide open for European exploration.
The Spanish soldier and explorer Alonso de Ojeda, joined by the
Italian Amerigo Vespucci, set out on a voyage (1499 - 1500) to
chart much of the South American coast and, in turn, several offshore
islands in the area. One was Curacao. As an aside, disputed claims are par
for the course when it comes to Vespucci. One of many stories has it that
during his voyage with de Ojeda, a number of sailors on his ship came down
with scurvy, whereupon he dropped off the hapless souls on Curacao on his
way to South America. |
On
his return, he found the sailors alive and happy-presumably cured by the
abundance of Vitamin C-laden fruit on the island. He then is said to have named
the island Curacao, after an archaic Portuguese word for "cure". Of
course, Vespucci was Italian, not Portuguese, and de Ojeda was Spanish, but
these stories seem to take on a life of their own, and are often much more fun
than the real story. A more convincing theory is that the Spaniards called the
island Curazon, for "heart", and the mapmakers of the day converted
the spelling to the Portuguese Curacao.
At
any rate, soon after de Ojeda's voyage, the Spanish came in larger numbers.
By the early 16th century they had pretty well determined that the island
had little gold and not enough of a fresh water supply to establish large
farms, and they abandoned it. Finally, the Dutch West India Company,
a quasi-private, government-backed company, laid claim in 1634. The
company installed the Dutch explorer Peter Stuyvesant as governor
in 1642, and he soon established plantations on the island, each with its
famous landhuizen-structures that can still be seen today. The
plantations foundered in various forms of agriculture, but some were
successful in growing peanuts, maize, and fruits. They soon found their
niche in the production of salt, dried from the island's saline ponds.
Within a few years after establishing the farming industry and some form
of rule on Curacao, Stuyvesant moved on to bigger shores. |
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With
its deep port and protected shores, and with the establishment of several large
forts, Curacao soon became a safe place for the Dutch West India Company to
conduct commerce. Chief among its endeavors was the trade of slaves from Africa,
who then went on to the other islands of the Dutch West Indies and to the
Spanish Main. It was during the slave trade days that the language Papiamentu
began to form. The language, a mixture of Portuguese, Spanish, Dutch, and
African dialects, became the main form of communication between slaves and their
captors.
Also during this time, Jewish families from Amsterdam established settlements on
Curaco and attracted others from Europe and South America, fleeing from the
remnants of the Spanish and Portuguese Inquisitions. By the early 18th century,
the Jewish population in Curacao had reached 2,000. In 1732, the community
established the Mikve Israel Emanuel Synagogue in Willemstad, a
structure that stands today. It is one of the oldest synagogues in the Western
Hemisphere still in use.
During
the early 18th century, the island's deep port and strategic position attracted
the British and French, who as always were busy in the Caribbean, fighting over
various islands in desperate struggles to control the profitable trade routes
and sugar plantations of the larger islands. Brittain tossed out the Dutch twice,
from 1800 to 1803, and again from 1807 to 1815. The 1815 Treaty of Paris settled
a lot of disputes in the Caribbean, and it gave Curacao back to the Dutch West
India Company. Soon after the Dutch retook the island, it languished for a
century. Slavery disappeared, and social and economic conditions were harsh.
In 1920, oil was discovered off the Venezuelan coast. This signaled a new era
for Curacao, and for its sister island in the ABCs, Curacao. The two islands
became centers for distilling crude oil imported from Venezuela, and Curacao's
Royal Dutch Shell Refinery became the island's biggest business and employer.
Immigrants headed for Curacao, many from other Caribbean nations, South America,
and as far away as Asia. During WW II, the Allies judged Curacao and its
refinery to be important enough, and strategic enough, to establish an American
military base at Waterfort Arches, near Willemstad.
After WW II, Curacao joined the rest of the Caribbean in a loud clamor for
independence. What it got instead was a measure of autonomy as an entity within
the Kingdom of the Netherlands. Curacao, along with Curacao, Bonaire,
Saba, Sint Eustatius, and Sint Maarten, became the Netherlands Antilles,
with the administrative center in Willemstad, where it remains today. Aruba
later separated from the other five islands. Today, the kingdom has three
partners: The Netherlands, the five islands of the Netherlands Antilles, and
Aruba.