Page 362 - The Dutch Caribbean Isles
P. 362
n 1636, Aruba once again came to the rush continued until 1916 when the mines of the Netherlands Antilles. Whereas the
I attention of Europeans. The Dutch, who finally became so unprofitable that they ruling parties campaigned for the dissolu-
had recently been expelled by the Spanish had to be shut down. Not long afterwards, tion of the Netherlands Antilles, the people
from their base in St.Maarten, set out look-
ing for another place to establish a colonial however, in 1924, another valuable com- voted for a restructuring of the Netherlands
presence. They soon captured the islands of
Aruba, Curacao, and Bonaire from the Span- modity replaced it, black gold --oil. Aruba Antilles. The coalition campaigning for this
ish who, in truth, put up very little resist-
ance. Curacao became the administrative became home to one of the world’s largest option became the Party for the Restruc-
capital for the Dutch West India Company
in the Netherlands Antilles, with Aruba refineries. The strength of the economic tured Antilles, which ruled the Netherlands
operating as one of its chief satellites. From
this early period dates the construction of boom that followed made San Nicholas into Antilles for much of the time until its dis-
the historic fortress Fort Zoutman and Wil-
liam III Tower, which is the oldest building a major commercial center and the island’s solution on 10 October 2010
in the country. Except for a short period
from 1805 to 1815 when the island fell to second largest city. To this day, Aruba’s two D uring World War II, Aruba was one of
the British during the Napoleonic Wars, main industries have been oil and tourism, the main suppliers of refined petro-
Aruba has remained under Dutch control and when the refineries were closed down
ever since.
in 1985 due to the worldwide glut in pe- leum products to the Allies. On 16 February
G old was discovered near Bushiribana
in 1824. The ruins of a nineteenth- troleum, the emphasis on tourism became 1942, a German submarine (U-156) under
century smelting plant still survive in
Balashi northwest of the Spanish Lagoon especially important. Even after oil refining the command of Werner Hartenstein at-
near the center of the island. The gold
was resumed in 1991, the island continued tacked the island’s oil processing refinery,
to invest heavily in tourist development, but the mission failed. During the war, after
and new projects are still going on all the the German occupation of the Netherlands,
time. Aruba was made a British protectorate
I n 1933, Aruba sent its first petition to from 1940 to 1942, and a US protectorate
the Queen seeking independent status from 1942 to 1945. In March 1944, Eleanor
Roosevelt, the First Lady of the United
and autonomy. Aruba seceded from the States, briefly visited American troops sta-
Netherlands Antilles on 1 January 1986, tioned in Aruba.
paving the way for a series of referendums
among the remaining islands on the future
