History of Curaçao
The history of Curaçao starts with settlement by the Arawaks, an Amerindian people coming from the South American mainland.
The later Caquetíos lived from small-scale cultivation of cassava, fishing, collecting shellfish, and hunting small game.
The WIC took interest in Curaçao as a new base for trade and privateering, using its excellent natural harbor, and for salt production (to preserve fish, notably herring).
The approximately thirty Spaniards and a large part of the Taíno were deported to Santa Ana de Coro in Venezuela.
After the conquest, Van Walbeeck ordered the construction of the fort Amsterdam at the mouth of the Sint Anna Bay.
The first building phase was built under the guidance of Admiral van Walbeeck in the form of a five-pointed star and consisted of a core of earth and coral.
Van Walbeek wrote to the Nineteen Gentlemen of the WIC, in which he recommended to raise salaries and rations, because the soldiers had not been hired to build fortifications.
The Spaniards attempted an invasion in 1637[citation needed] with a number of ships and enough troops to overcome the WIC garrison.
The Curaçao population grew steadily, partly due to the arrival of Sephardic Jews from former Dutch Brazil.
The Sephardic Jews who 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.
[1][2][3] The WIC supplied enslaved people at very competitive prices and thus drove most English, French and Portuguese traders out of the market.
This influx of inexpensive manpower made the labor-intensive agricultural sector far more profitable and between the Netherlands and China the trading done on the docks and the work being done in the fields, the economic profile of Curaçao began to climb, this time built on the backs of the enslaved people.
[citation needed] The WIC made Curaçao a free port in 1674, giving it a key position in international trade networks.
As a result, in 1713 Curaçao was briefly besieged by the French captain Jacques Cassard, who finally allowed himself to be bought off.
It was also important that Curaçao was not suitable for the large-scale cultivation of sugar cane, cotton, tobacco or other tropical plantation crops.
[4] On 18 January 1795, William V, Prince of Orange fled from the Netherlands, and went into exile in Great-Britain shortly before the announcement of the Batavian Republic.
[5] Governor Johannes de Veer refused to submit to the Batavian Republic, and was replaced by Jan Jacob Beaujon in August 1796.
In the 19th century, Curaçaoans such as Manuel Piar and Luis Brión were prominently engaged in the wars of independence of Venezuela and Colombia.
By 1823 a severe economic depression aggravated by a smallpox epidemic that broke out in 1827 led a significant number of Jews to leave the island and move to Venezuela and Colombia.
The destabilization of the region produced by the Napoleonic Wars in Europe and the Imperialistic advances on the part of the British caused Cuarazo to change hands various times, beginning in the 19th century.
Almost simultaneously, many independence movements of the Hispanic colonies of the continent occurred, with the contributions from Anglophile refugees like Simón Bólivar, and with the participation of at least two more important people, Manuel Piar, the leader of the rebels of the province of Guayana, and Luis Brión, who would become admiral of the Colombian Navy.
[citation needed] Most of the first settlers died of old age and, because of political insecurity and economic decline, many Ashkenazi Jews left the island in the 1980s to settle elsewhere, especially in the United States and Israel.
[11] They also managed to capture the Governor of the island, Leonardus Albertus Fruytier, and hauled him off to Venezuela on the stolen American ship Maracaibo.
The main purpose was this deployment was to fight against expected future attacks by Axis submarines and potentially long-distance Nazi bombers.
In August 1942, the Germans returned to Curaçao and attacked a tanker and received fire from a Dutch shore battery before slipping away.
The US Navy established the Fourth Fleet, which was responsible for countering enemy naval operations in the Caribbean and in the South Atlantic.
The newly created Curaçao working class became increasingly dissatisfied with the pay practices of the Royal Shell.
On 30 May 1969, a workers' revolt (known as Trinta di mei in Papiamentu) broke out at the entrance gate to the Shell refinery.
During the advance to the inner city, the trade union leader Wilson Godett (among others) was shot by police, and angry workers set fire to properties in Punda and Otrobanda.
Due to the special relationship with the Netherlands as an overseas territory (OCT, Landen en gebieden overzee or LGA in Dutch), the islands do qualify for European funds and EU wide cooperation agreements such as the Erasmus+ program.
