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...............................................................................................................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.

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.

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.

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 Curacao 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, Aruba. 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 , 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.
 
 
 

 
F

Country of Curaçao
and Curaçao (Dutch)
Pais Kòrsou (Papiamento)

Flag

oat of arms

Anthem: Himno di Kòrsou Anthem of Curaçao
 

Capital
(and largest city)

illemstad
12°7'N 68°56'W

fficial language(s)

apiamentu 81.2%, Dutch 8% (official) [1]

emonym

uraçaoan

overnment

onstitutional monarchy

-

onarch

ueen Beatrix

-

overnor

rits Goedgedrag

-

rime Minister

errit Schotte

egislature

states of Curaçao

utonomy

ithin the Kingdom of the Netherlands

-

ate

0 October 2010

rea

-

otal

44 km2
171.4 sq mi

opulation

-

010 census

42,180

-

ensity

19/km2 (39th)
821/sq mi

DP (PPP)

estimate

-

otal

S$ 2,838 million (2008) [2] (177th)

-

er capita

S$ 20,567 (2009)

urrency

etherlands Antillean guilder (ANG)

ime zone

4 (UTC-4)

rives on the

ight

SO 3166 code

W

nternet TLD

an to be discontinued; .cw assigned but not yet activated

alling code

599-9

Curaçao ( /'k??r?sa?/; Dutch: Curaçao, [kyr?'s?u?];[3] Papiamentu: Kòrsou) is an island in the southern Caribbean Sea, off the Venezuelan coast. The Country of Curaçao (Dutch: Land Curaçao,[4] Papiamentu: Pais Kòrsou[5]), which includes the main island plus the small, uninhabited island of Klein Curaçao ("Little Curaçao"), is a constituent country of the Kingdom of the Netherlands. Its capital is Willemstad.

uraçao is the largest and most populous of the three ABC islands (for Aruba, Bonaire, and Curaçao) of the Lesser Antilles, specifically the Leeward Antilles. It has a land area of 444 square kilometres (171 square miles). As of 1 January 2009, it had a population of 141,766.[6]

rior to 10 October 2010, when the Netherlands Antilles was dissolved, Curaçao was administered as the Island Territory of Curaçao[7] (Dutch: Eilandgebied Curaçao, Papiamentu: Teritorio Insular di Kòrsou), one of five island territories of the former Netherlands Antilles. The ISO 3166-1 alpha-3 country code CUW and the ISO 3166-1 alpha-2 country code CW has been assigned to Curaçao,[8] but the .cw Internet ccTLD is not yet in use.

ontents
 [hide]  1 Origin of the name
2 History
3 Geography 3.1 Beaches
3.2 Climate

 Politics
5 Education
6 Economy
7 Demographics 7.1 Ethnicities
7.2 Religion

 Culture 8.1 Literature
8.2 Cuisine
8.3 Sports

 Notable residents 9.1 In arts and culture
9.2 In politics and government
9.3 In sports 9.3.1 Baseball
9.3.2 Football
9.3.3 Other sports

10 See also
11 Notes
12 References
13 External links

[edit] Origin of the name

he origin of the name Curaçao is debated. The explanation gathering more consensus among the Portuguese and the Spanish is that the word derives from the Portuguese word for the state of becoming cured (curação). The reason for this is that sailors travelling for months in the sea would often contract scurvy. It appears that in one of such long travels, a group of Portuguese sailors landed for the first time in Curação and were cured from scurvy, probably after eating fruit with vitamin C. The island was known from then on as Ilha da Curação (Island of Healing). Another 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 Van Buurt, 1994). This theory is supported by early Spanish accounts, which refer to the indigenous peoples as "Indis Curaçaos" which means "Healing Indians" as the aboriginals were likely already aware of the disease called scurvy and its cure from past experience as in North American natives.
After 1525 the island appeared on Spanish maps as "Curaçote", "Curasaote", and "Curasaore". By the 17th century the island was known on maps as "Curaçao" or "Curazao".
On a map created by Hieronymus Cock in 1562 in Antwerp, the island was referred to as Quracao.[9]
The name "Curaçao" has become associated with a shade of blue, because of the deep-blue version o the liqueur named Curaçao (also known as Blue Curaçao). Today, locally, the island is known as "Dushi Korsou" (Sweet Curaçao).
 [edit] History
 Main article: History of Curaçao
 

Map of Curaçao in 1836
he 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 enslaved most of the indigenous population and forcibly relocated the survivors to other colonies where workers were needed. 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 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 — and piracy—became Curaçao's most important economic activities. In addition, the Dutch West India Company made Curaçao a centre for the Atlantic slave trade in 1662. In the French Dutch War following his successes at Cayenne and Tobago, the comte Jean d'Estrées planned to attack Curaçao. His fleet—12 mn of war, 3 fireships, 2 transports, a hospital ship and 12 privateers—met with disaster, losing 7 of the men of war and 2 other ships when they struck reefs off the Las Aves archipelago due to a navigational error on 11 May 1678, a week after setting sail from Saint Kitts.On Curaçao, a Day of Thanksgiving was observed until far into the 18th century to commemorate the island's fortunate escape from being ravaged by the French.
Dutch merchants brought slaves from Africa under a contract with Spain called Asiento. Under this agreement, large numbers of slaves were sold and shipped to various destinations in South America and the Caribbean.

utch architecture along Willemstad's harbour
he slave trade made the island affluent, and led to the construction of impressive colonial buildings. Curaçao features architecture that blends Dutch and Spanish colonial styles. The wide range of 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.

n 1795 a major slave revolt took place under the lead of the Negroes Tula Rigaud, Louis Mercier, Bastian Karpata and Pedro Wakao. Up to 4000 Negro slaves on the Northwest section of the island revolted. Over a thousand of the slaves were involved in heavy gunfights and the Dutch feared for their lives. After a month the rebellion was crushed.[10]

uraçao's proximity to South America translated into a long-standing influence from the nearby Latin American coast. This is reflected in the architectural similarities between the 19th century parts of Willemstad and the 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 prominently engaged in the wars of independence of Venezuela and Colombia. Political refugees from the mainland (like Bolivar himself) regrouped in Curaçao and children from affluent Venezuelan families were educated on the island.

uis Brión, Curaçao-born Venezuelan admiral
uring the 18th and 19th centuries, the island changed hands among the British, the French, and the Dutch several times. Stable Dutch rule returned in 1815, at the end of the Napoleonic wars, when the island was incorporated into the colony of Curaçao and Dependencies. 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 sugar cane plantations. Other former slaves had no place to go and remained working for the plantation owner in the so called Paga Tera system. This was an instituted order in which the Negro leases a piece of land and in exchange the Negro must give up most of his harvest to the former slave master. The Negroes were once again forced to work in mass production as in the former days otherwise they would not have enough for themselves after the lord's cut. This lasted till the beginning of the 20th century.

hen 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 fuelling 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 had an excellent natural harbor that could accommodate large oil tankers. The company brought affluence to the island. Large scale housing was provided and Willemstad developed an extensive infrastructure. However, discrepancies appeared among the social groups of Curaçao. The discontent and the antagonisms between Curaçao social groups culminated in rioting and protest on May 30, 1969. The civil unrest fuelled a social movemnt that resulted in the local Afro-Caribbean population attaining more influence over the political process (Anderson and Dynes 1975). The island 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 Dutch Shell sold the refinery for a symbolic amount to a local government consortium. The ageing refinery has been the subject of lawsuits in recent years, which charge that its emissions, including sulfur dioxide and particulate matter, far exceed safety standards.[11] 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. In 1984 the Island Council of Curaçao inaugurated the National Flag and the official anthem of the island. This was done on July 2, which was the date when in 1954 the first elected island council was instituted. Since then, the movement to separate the island from the Antillean federation has steadily become stronger.
Due to an economic slump in recent years, emigration to the Netherlands has been high. Attempts by Dutch politicians to stem this flow of emigration have exacerbated already tense Dutch-Curaçao relations. Immigration from surrounding Caribbean islands, Latin American countries and the Netherlands has taken place.

iew of Willemstad

anorama of Curaçao, Willemstad and Queen Juliana Bridge center

edit] Geography

Like Aruba and Bonaire, Curaçao is a transcontinental island that is geographically part of South America but is also considered to be part of West Indies and one of the Leeward Antilles. Curaçao and the other ABC Islands are in terms of climate, geology, flora and fauna more akin to nearby Paraguaná Peninsula, Guajira Peninsula, Isla Margarita, Araya and the nearby Venezuelan areas of the Coro region and Falcón State. The flora of Curaçao differs from the typical tropical island vegetation. Xeric scrublands are common, with various forms of cacti, thorny shrubs, evergreens, and the island's national tree, divi-divis. Curaçao's highest point is the 375 km (233 mi) off the coast of Curaçao, to the south-east, lies the small, uninhabited island of Klein Curaçao ("Little Curaçao").

edit] Beaches

uraçao is known for its coral reefs, used for scuba diving. The beaches on the south side contain many popular diving spots. An unusual feature of Curaçao diving is that the sea floor drops steeply within a few hundred feet of the shore, and the reef can easily be reached without a boat. This drop-off is known as the "blue edge." Strong currents and lack of beaches make the rocky northern coast dangerous for swimming and diving, but experienced divers sometimes dive there from boats when conditions permit. The southern coast is very different and offers remarkably calm waters. The coastline of Curaçao features many bays and inlets, many of them suitable for mooring.

ome of the coral reefs are affected by tourism. Porto Marie Beach is experimenting with artificial coral reefs in order to improve the reef's condition. Hundreds of artificial coral blocks that have been placed are now home to a large array of tropical fish.

eaquarium Beach
he most well-known beaches of Curaçao are:[12]

aya Beach
Blue Bay (Blauwbaai)
Daaibooi
Grote Knip (Playa Abou)
Kleine Knip (Kenepa Chiki)
Playa Forti
Playa Gipy
Playa Jeremi

laya Kalki
Playa Kanoa
Playa Lagun
Playa Porto Marie
Playa Santa Cruz
Santa Barbara Beach
Seaquarium Beach
Westpunt

[edit] Climate

uraçao has a semiarid climate with a dry season from January to September and a wet season from October to December. The temperatures are relatively constant with small differences throughout the year. The trade winds bring cooling during the day and the same trade winds bring warming during the night. The coldest month is January with an average temperature of 26.5 °C (80 °F) and the warmest month is September with an average temperature of 28.9 °C (84 °F). The year's average maximum temperature is 31.2 °C (88 °F). The year's average minimum temperature is 25.3 °C (78 °F). Curaçao lies outside the hurricane belt, but is still occasionally affected by hurricanes, as for example Omar in 2008. A landfall of a hurricane in Curaçao has not occurred since the National Hurricane Center started tracking hurricanes. Curaçao has, however, been directly affected by pre-hurricane tropical storms several times; the latest which did so were Cesar in 1996, Joan-Miriam in 1988, and Tomas in 2010. The latter brushed Curaçao s a tropical storm in early November, dropping up to 265 mm (10.4 in) of precipitation on the territory and triggering widespread flooding.[13] This made Tomas one of the wettest events in the history of Curaçao,[14] as well as one of the most devastating; cumulatively, damage across the island was preliminarily estimated at NAƒ60 million (US$28 million),[15] and 2 fatalities were confirmed.[16]

[hnd council rejected a clarification memorandum on the process. On 9 July 2007 the new island council of Curaçao ratified the agreement previously rejected in November 2006.[18] On 15 December 2008, Curaçaoe Caribbean were cruc