Aruba is a constituent country of the Kingdom of the Netherlands and an Island in the mid-south of the Caribbean Sea, about 18 miles (29 kilometers) north of the Venezuelan peninsula of Paraguaná and 50 miles (80 kilometers) northwest of Curaçao.
Aruba is one of the four nations that form the Netherlands Kingdom, along with the Netherlands, Sint Maarten, and Curaçao; the residents of these nations are all Dutch nationals. Aruba has no official subdivisions but, for census purposes, is divided into eight different regions. Its present-day capital is Oranjestad.
History – Aruba
Aruba’s first known (recorded by archaeologists) residents were the Caquetio Indians from the Arawak family, who moved there from Venezuela to dodge attacks by the Caribs. Remnants of the oldest known Indian settlements record back to about 1000. Due to Aruba’s remote location from other Caribbean reefs and powerful currents in the sea, which made canoe travel to the other islands hard, the Caquetios remained more tied to South American nations than the Caribbean Islands.
In 1636 CE, Aruba was invaded and captured by the Netherlands and remained under their authority for a couple of centuries. In 1796 CE, the city that was later named Oranjestad was established and became the island’s capital. During the bloody Napoleonic Wars, the British Empire took authority over the island, between 1799 CE and 1802 CE, and between 1804 CE and 1816 CE, before peacefully handing it back to the Kingdom of Netherlands.
A 19th-century CE gold rush was followed by accomplishment brought on by first opening a crude oil transshipment department in 1924 CE and then in 1928 CE with the introduction of an oil refinery. This was the Lago Oil and Transport Company, owned subsidiary of the present-day Standard Oil of New Jersey. The Lago refinery was situated on the east end of the beautiful island, and on the west end, Royal Dutch Shell had a tiny refinery, the Eagle Refinery, which closed soon after the Second World War. The last decades of the 20th century CE saw a boom in the modern tourism industry, which became Aruba’s chief industry when the refinery closed in 1985 CE.
In 1986 CE, Aruba seceded from the Netherlands Antilles and became an autonomous, separate member of the Netherlands’ Kingdom under the Dutch crown. The movement toward complete freedom was halted at Aruba’s prerogative in 1990 CE. Aruba has a blend of people from Europe, South America, the Far East, and other Caribbean islands.
