IV.

History

Like Aruba, Curaçao and Bonaire were originally populated by Arawak. All three islands were discovered in 1499 by the explorer Alonso de Ojeda, who claimed them for Spain. However, unlike Aruba, which was largely left alone by the Spanish, Curaçao and Bonaire were settled from 1527. The Arawak were wiped out and replaced as plantation labour by imported African slaves. The Spanish took possession of the Leeward Islands in 1527. The Dutch took control of the group in 1634. The three Netherlands Windward Islands were inhabited by Carib when Christopher Columbus sighted them in 1493. The Dutch took possession of St Eustatius and Saba in 1632 and the southern portion of Sint Maarten in 1648. Apart from a period during the Napoleonic Wars when they fell into British hands, all five islands have been under the jurisdiction of the Netherlands ever since. The islands of the Netherlands Antilles—known as the Dutch West Indies between 1828 and 1845—formed a colony of the Netherlands until 1954, when they were made an integral, self-governing part of the kingdom of the Netherlands. During the American War of Independence the island of St Eustatius became a great trading centre. Slavery was abolished in 1863 and the economies of Curaçao and Bonaire went into a decline until the establishment of the oil refinery on Curaçao in 1916. In 1964 the Netherlands Antilles was recognized as an associate member of the European Community (now European Union). Aruba left the Netherlands Antilles and became self-governing in 1986. In the 2002 election, the socialist Party Workers’ Liberation Front received 23 per cent of the vote (5 seats in the Staten), the centrist Party for the Reconstructed Antilles got 20.5 per cent (4 seats), and the National People’s Party, a Christian-democratic grouping, received 13.4 per cent of the vote (3 seats).