Aruba, westernmost of the Caribbean islands and autonomous dependency of the Netherlands, located in the southern Caribbean Sea some 29 km (18 mi) north of the Paraguaná Peninsula in Venezuela and 68 km (42 mi) west of the island of Curaçao in the Netherlands Antilles. Part of the Lesser Antilles group, Aruba has an area of some 193 sq km (75 sq mi) and is about 30 km (19 mi) long and about 8 km (5 mi) wide. Oranjestad, at the western end of the island, is the capital.

Aruba is generally flat with many white-sand beaches on the southern, leeward, coast and a rugged northern coast; Mount Jamanota (188m/671 ft) is the highest point. Aruba’s climate is tropical, tempered by trade winds, and dry—annual average rainfall is only 432 mm (17 in), falling mostly in October and November. The island has a population of around 80,330 (mid-1994 official estimate), almost 25 per cent of whom live in Oranjestad (20,046; 1991 census), which in addition to being the capital and main port is the seat of the University of Aruba. The other major settlement is San Nicolas, in the south, which grew up around the oil refinery established there in 1929. More than 80 per cent of the population is of mixed descent, primarily Arawak, Dutch, and Spanish: Aruba was one of the few Caribbean islands where the indigenous Native Americans, in this case the Arawak, were not killed or driven away after the arrival of Europeans. The official language is Dutch, but the everyday language is Papiamento, a Creole language made up of elements of Arawak, Dutch, Spanish, English, French, Portuguese, and several African languages.

Formerly a Dutch colony, Aruba between 1954 and 1985 formed part of the Netherlands Antilles, a self-governing federation of the Netherlands’ six island dependencies in the Caribbean. On January 1, 1986, Aruba acquired separate administrative status within the kingdom of the Netherlands and left the federation; however, economic and monetary ties have been retained through a cooperative union known as the Union of the Netherlands Antilles and Aruba. The island has full internal self-government exercised through a 21-member elected legislature and an executive Council of Ministers, located in the capital as well as its own judiciary and police force. The government of the Netherlands, through a governor appointed by the Dutch Crown, is responsible for external affairs and defence. Tourism and the refining of crude oil, which is imported from Venezuela, are the chief industries; the refinery closed in 1985 but was reopened in 1991. Offshore banking is also of importance. The lack of rainfall and the poor soils mean that most food has to be imported; the only agricultural produce of significance is aloe, used in the manufacture of cosmetics and pharmaceuticals. Unemployment is very low and the islanders have a generally high standard of living.

Aruba was first settled some 2,000 years ago by the Caiquestios, an Arawak nation that migrated from the Orinoco basin area on the mainland; remains of their culture can still be found around Aruba. In 1499 the Spanish explorer Alonso de Ojeda claimed Aruba for Spain, but the island proved to have no gold deposits and to be too arid for cultivation. The Caiquestios were thus largely left alone, the only visitors being the pirates and buccaneers who used Aruba as a hideout. In 1636 the Dutch, in retaliation for having been expelled by the Spanish from St Martin, took over the island, along with the adjacent Spanish possessions of Curaçao and Bonaire. Except for a period during the Napoleonic Wars, when the island fell to the British, Aruba has remained under Dutch jurisdiction ever since. From 1828 it formed part of the Dutch West Indies and from 1845 part of the Netherlands Antilles, administered from Curaçao. Although the Netherlands Antilles achieved a federal form of internal self-government in 1954, many Arubans resented the administrative dominance of Curaçao and the demands made upon the island’s finances and resources by the other islands. The campaign for separation that began in the early 1970s finally proved successful in 1986 when Aruba was constitutionally separated from the rest of the Netherlands Antilles. The granting of autonomy was associated with a promise by the Netherlands of full independence after ten years. However, in March 1994, at Aruba’s request, it was agreed to cancel the plans for independence in 1996. The transition to full independence has not been excluded, but will require approval by referendum as well as a two-thirds majority in the legislature.