Page 226 - The Dutch Caribbean Isles

etween 1650 and 1670, England was at one point, Curaçao was even leased to refugees from the mainland, such as Simon
a merchant from New York. Then in 1815, Bolivar regrouped in Curaçao. Children from
B regularly at loggerheads with the
Dutch. Curaçao’s monopoly in the slave the Treaty of Paris returned Curaçao to the affluent Venezuelan families were educated

trade was especially irritating to the Eng- Dutch West India Company. Almost 50 years on the island.

lish. Once they had chased the Dutch out of later, the island’s slaves were emancipated. I n the early 19th century, Portuguese
New York in 1665, the English focused their This spelled disaster for the island’s plan- and Lebanese migrated to Curaçao at-
attention on Curaçao. They commissioned tation-based economy, which was already

privateers to do their dirty work. Towards experiencing a great decline. tracted by the business opportunities. The

the close of the eighteenth century, the A lively illicit trade with the Spanish Dutch abolished slavery in 1863, creating
French occupied the Dutch Republic in colonials on the mainland developed a change in the economy with the shift
Europe. The French navy was soon using to non-free labor. Some inhabitants of

Curaçao as a harbor, and the island paid in Curaçao. Spain’s colonies were isolated. Curaçao emigrated to other islands, such

the cost. Moreover, the British, who were at Officially, they were not allowed to trade as Cuba, to work in sugar cane plantations.

war with France, blockaded the trade of the with Dutch. There was a constant shortage Other former slaves had no place to go

island. Curaçao was therefore keen to be rid of slaves, European goods and customers and remained working for the plantation

of the French. for products. The illicit trade with the Dutch owner in the tenant farmer system. This

T he island government was even Republic was more than welcome. In the was an instituted order in which the former
prepared to accept British domin- eighteenth century, the trade grew to such slave leased land from his former master. In
an extent that Venezuela became eco- exchange the tenant promised to give up

ion. From 1800 to 1803 and from 1807 to nomically dependent on Curaçao. Curaçao’s most of his harvest to the former slave mas-

1816 Curaçao was administered by the proximity to South America resulted in ter. This system lasted until the beginning

British. The Dutch regained the island in interaction with cultures of the coastal of the 20th century. Historically, Dutch was

1816. Meanwhile, the Dutch Republic had areas. In the 19th century, Curaçaoans such not widely spoken on the island outside of

become the Kingdom of the Netherlands, as Manuel Piar and Luis Brión were promi- colonial administration; its use increased in

with its own Royal Dutch Navy. The British nently engaged in the wars of independ- the late 19th and early 20th century.

attacks destabilized the Dutch island, and ence of Venezuela and Colombia. Political