Page 227 - The Dutch Caribbean Isles
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n 1901 the first cruise ship arrived. With enough to the Maracaibo Basin oil fields. It lished gun emplacements here. Today, there
had an excellent natural harbor that could is a monument to the part played by the
I the attractive prices of the products in accommodate large oil tankers. East Asian island and its citizens outside the fort.
and South Asian immigrants arrived dur-
its shops, Curaçao developed into a popu- ing the economic boom of the early 20th T he island developed a tourist indus-
lar destination for cruise ships. Not all the century. Shell brought affluence to the try and offered low corporate taxes to
cruise ships moored in the harbor. The nar- island. Large scale housing was provided encourage companies to set up holdings
row entrance kept many vessels away. They and Willemstad developed an extensive in order to avoid higher taxes elsewhere.
simply anchored offshore. In 1976, cruise infrastructure. It has emphasized its diverse heritage to
tourism was at its height. However, the expand its tourism industry. Since the late
steep rise in fuel prices was making sailing C uracao played an important role during 20th century, immigrants have come from
from the United States to the Caribbean WWII. It was a vital conduit for Allied neighboring countries, such as Venezuela,
expensive. After 1976, tourism on Curaçao oil from Venezuela, and there was a large but also from the Dominican Republic, Haiti,
came increasingly to depend on air traffic. oil refinery here (as well as one on Aruba), and the Anglophone Caribbean and Colom-
which became a target of German U-boats bia. In the early 21st century, a number of
I n 1914, oil was discovered in the Ma- and bombers. At various times during the Dutch pensioners have settled on the island
racaibo Basin town of Mene Grande in Ven- war, 43 to 100 percent of the oil required by for its mild climate. In the mid-1980s, Royal
ezuela, the fortunes of the island were dra- Allied forces came from the refinery on Cu- Dutch Shell sold the refinery for a symbolic
matically altered. Royal Dutch Shell and the racao. When the Netherlands fell to Germa- amount of 1 Antillean guilder to a local gov-
Dutch Government had built an extensive ny in 1940, troops from England and France ernment consortium. The aging refinery has
oil refinery installation on the former site were stationed here. Other World War II been the subject of lawsuits in recent years,
of the slave-trade market at Asiento. The facts about Curacao include the round-up of which charge that its emissions, including
oil company suddenly had many jobs for German nationals who were sent to intern- sulfur dioxide and particulate matter, far
the local population and attracted a wave ment camps on Bonaire. Fort Amsterdam exceed safety standards. The government
of immigration from surrounding nations. (built in 1635) in Willemstad played a role consortium currently leases the refinery to
Curaçao was an ideal site for the refinery, as in World War II, as the United States estab- the Venezuelan state oil company PDVSA.
it was away from the social and civil unrest
of the South American mainland, but near
