Dutch version – Nederlandse versie

About Curacao
Curaçao (pronounced [kura'são]) is an island in the southern part of the Caribbean Sea off the west coast of Venezuela. The island is the largest and most populous of the three so-called ABC islands (for Aruba, Bonaire, and Curaçao) of the Lesser Antilles – specifically the Leeward Antilles – and belongs to the Netherlands Antilles, a self-governing part of the Kingdom of the Netherlands. Curaçao’s capital is Willemstad.

Curaçao has a land area of 444 square kilometres (171 square miles). At the 2001 Netherlands Antilles census, the population was 130,627 inhabitants, which means a population density of 294 inhabitants per square kilometre. In 2004 the population was estimated at 133,644 inhabitants.

History
The original inhabitants of Curaçao were Arawak Amerindians. The first Europeans to see the island were members of a Spanish expedition under the leadership of Alonso de Ojeda in 1499. The Spaniards decimated the Arawak with diseases such as smallpox and measles. The island was occupied by the Dutch in 1634. The Dutch West India Company founded the capital of Willemstad on the banks of an inlet called the ‘Schottegat’. Curaçao had been previously ignored by colonists because it lacked many things that colonists were interested in, such as gold deposits. However, the natural harbour of Willemstad proved quickly to be an ideal spot for trade. Commerce and shipping — but also piracy– became Curaçao’s most important economic activities. In addition, Curaçao came to play a pivotal role in one of the most intricate international trade networks in history: the Atlantic slave trade. The Dutch West India Company made Curaçao a center for slave trade in 1662. Dutch merchants brought slaves from Africa to the trading area called Asiento. From there, slaves were sold and shipped to various destinations in South America and the Caribbean. At the height of the trade large numbers of slaves were traded here.

The slave trade made the island affluent, and lead to the erection of the impressive colonial buildings that still stand today.

Curaçao features architecture that blends various Dutch and Spanish colonial styles. The wide range of other historic buildings in and around Willemstad earned the capital a place on UNESCO’s world heritage list. Landhouses (former plantation estates) and West African style ‘kas di pal’i maishi’ (former slave dwellings) are scattered all over the island and some of them have been restored and can be visited.

The proximity to South America translated in a long-standing Latin American influence on Curaçao. This is reflected in the architectural similarities between the 19th century parts of Willemstad and nearby Venezuelan city of Coro in Falcón State, the latter also being a UNESCO world heritage site. In the 19th century, Curaçaoans such as Manuel Piar and Luis Brión were actively engaged in the political affairs of the region, such as the wars of independence of Venezuela and Colombia.

During the 18th and 19th centuries, the island changed hands among the English, the French, and the Dutch several times. Stable Dutch rule returned in 1815, at the end of the Napoleonic wars. The Dutch abolished slavery in 1863. The end of slavery caused economic hardship, prompting many inhabitants of Curaçao to emigrate to other islands, such as to Cuba to work in sugarcane plantations.

When in 1914 oil was discovered in the Maracaibo Basin town of Mene Grande, the fortunes of the island were dramatically altered. Royal Dutch Shell and the Dutch Government had built an extensive oil refinery installation on the former site of the slave-trade market at Asiento, thereby establishing an abundant source of employment for the local population and fueling a wave of immigration from surrounding nations. Curaçao was an ideal site for the refinery as it was away from the social and civil unrest of the South American mainland, but near enough to the Maracaibo Basin oil fields. It also had an excellent natural harbor that could accommodate large oil tankers. The company brought a degree of affluence to the island. Large housing was provided and Willemstad developed an extensive infrastructure. However, discrepancies started to appear amongst the social groups of Curaçao. The discontent and the antagonisms between Curaçao social groups culminated in large scale rioting and protest on May 30, 1969. The civil unrest fueled a social movement that resulted in the local Afro-Caribbean population attaining more influence over the political process (Anderson and Dynes 1975). The island also developed a tourist industry and offered low corporate taxes to encourage many companies to set up holdings in order to avoid rigorous schemes elsewhere. In the mid 1980s Royal Shell sold the refinery for a symbolic amount to a local government consortium. Since then discussions have centered on changing the constitutional situation as well as finding new sources of income. The government consortium currently leases the refinery to the Venezuelan state oil company PDVSA. In recent years, the island had attempted to capitalize on its peculiar history and heritage to expand its tourism industry.

Due to an economic slump in recent years, emigration to the Netherlands has been high. Attempts by Rita Verdonk to stem this flow of emigration have exacerbated already tense Dutch-Curaçao relations. In turn, a lot of immigration from surrounding Caribbean islands and Latin American countries has also taken place. This means that the population base is changing, and a local discourse of island identity has become prominent.

Name Origin
The origin of the name Curaçao is still under debate. One explanation is that it is derived from the Portuguese word for ‘heart’ (coração), referring to the island as a centre in trade. Spanish traders took the name over as Curaçao, which was followed by the Dutch. Another explanation is that Curaçao was the name the indigenous peoples of Curaçao had used to label themselves (Joubert and Baart, 1994). Their thesis is supported by early Spanish accounts, which refer to the indigenous peoples as “Indios Curaçaos”. The Papiamento word for Curaçao is Kòrsou. The name “Curaçao” has become associated with a particular shade of blue, and is sometimes used as an adjective, because of the deep-blue liqueur named “Blue Curaçao”.

Language
Curaçao has a polyglot society. The languages widely spoken on Curaçao are Papiamento, Dutch, Spanish and English. Dutch is the island’s official language, but native speakers of Papiamentu are a sizeable majority. Everybody speaks the languages not native to them with varying degrees of fluency. Spanish enjoys a larger speakership than Dutch, the latter having long been the sole official language of the colonial administration. Since the early 1990s, English and Papiamentu – but not Spanish – have become official languages of the Netherlands Antilles as well. English is the language of the Windward Islands St. Eustatius, Saba and St. Maarten that are also part of the Netherlands Antilles – of which Curacao is the location of the capital. Dutch was made the sole language of instruction in the educational system in the early 20th century to facilitate education for the offspring of Royal Dutch Shell expat employees (Romer, 1999). Prior to 1914, schooling in Spanish and even Papiamentu was more prominent. There was even a Sivah on the island throughout the 18th century (Hoetink, 1987). Papiamentu has been tentatively re-introduced in the school curriculum during the mid 1980s. Instruction in the language has been gaining momentum ever since. Recent political debate has centered on the issue of Papiamento becoming the sole language of instruction.

People
Because of its history, the island now has a diverse ethnic background. There is an Afro-Caribbean majority, and also sizeable minorities of Dutch, East Asian, Portuguese and Levantine. The Sephardic Jews that arrived from the Netherlands and then-Dutch Brazil since the 17th century have had a significant influence on the culture and economy of the island. The years before and after World War II also saw an influx of Ashkenazi Jews from Eastern Europe. Many Portuguese and Lebanese also migrated to Curacao in the early 19th century due to the financial possibilities of the island. There are also many recent immigrants from neighbouring countries, most notably the Dominican Republic, Haiti, the Anglophone Caribbean and Colombia. In recent years the influx of Dutch pensioners has increased significantly, dubbed locally as pensionados.

Prostitution
As with the Netherlands, prostitution is legalized. A large open-air brothel called “Campo Alegre” has operated near the main Curacao airport since the 1940s. It is located just off Franklin D Roosevelt Weg.

Dutch version – Nederlandse versie