Netherlands Antilles

Overview

The islands of the Netherlands Antilles and Aruba are spread out through the Caribbean. Aruba , Bonaire and Curacao , also known as the ABC islands, are located just of the Venezuelan coast in the south of the Caribbean Sea. Aruba lays the closest to the coast, just 25 km. The island is independent now, but it's still considered as one of the ABC islands in the Dutch Leewards. Curacao is 35 miles from Venezuela, so on clear days you can see the continent. It is the political, cultural and population centre of the Dutch islands. Bonaire is a little bit further out the coast. Bonaire is known for two attractions. It's a paradise for divers and its bird life. So Bonaire should be visitied by nature lovers. Two of the "S" islands of the Dutch West Indies, St. Eustatius and Saba are thimble-size islands south of St. Martin (Sint Maarten). St. Martin is is half Dutch and half French. The Windward or SSS-islands lay about 550 miles more to the north. The lay in the north eastern part of the Caribbean ring, very close to the British island of Anguilla and the French St. Bartolomy . All these islands are located very close to each other.

History

Once the center of the Caribbean slave trade, the island of Curacao was hard hit by the abolition of slavery in 1863. Its prosperity (and that of neighboring Aruba) was restored in the early 20th century with the construction of oil refineries to service the newly discovered Venezuelan oil fields. The island of Saint Martin is shared with France; its southern portion is named Sint Maarten and is part of the Netherlands Antilles; its northern portion is called Saint-Martin and is part of Guadeloupe (France).