Conflict in Curacao: How Strife Influenced the Island in the 17th Century

Curacao in the 17th century was a place of transition and conflict.  Curacao had come to be a strategic and economic stronghold in the Caribbean for whatever European power controlled it.  Curacao was and remains an important port of call for goods being transported to and from South America, the Caribbean, and Europe.  During the 17th century Curacao was also an important slave depot.  These two circumstances made Curacao an coveted possession in the Caribbean for all European powers.  The wars in Europe usually spilled into the Caribbean the desire of different European powers to control Curacao led to conflict and war on the island.

As stated in earlier blog on this site, the Spanish were the first Europeans to discover and colonize Curacao.  The Spanish failed to realize Curacao's importance as a possession in their Caribbean empire, leaving the island lightly guarded.  They did not, however, fail to realize the potential of the island's inhabitants as slaves.  They exploited the Arawak Indians, capturing them and shipping them to silver mines on Hispaniola.  This can be described as strife on the island, as this was the first step to the eventual extinction of the Arawaks on Curacao.  By 1790, there would be no more full blooded Arawak Indians on the island and today there is very little indigenous lineage left on the island. 

Other European powers would recognize Curacao's potential.  The Dutch were the first.  On July 29, 1634, a fleet of six ships and a force 225 soldiers landed on Curacao to claim the island for the Dutch West India Company.  The battle was small, if non existent, as the Spanish quickly surrendered with only 32 soldiers.  They were allowed safe passage back to Europe and some natives were deported to South America as they supported the Spanish.  This action by the Dutch West India Company would shape the island's history going forward, as the Dutch quickly fortified the harbor on the island, built a large town (Willemstad), opened the island to commerce, and encouraged Dutch colonization of the island.  Curacao quickly became a center of trade and remains one to this day.  Willemstad grew between 1676 and 1732 was to remain practically unchanged until 1860. During the early 20th century, Willemstad was the busiest port in the Caribbean.  It remains one of the busiest in the Caribbean today. 

Willemstad's harbor area formed a melting pot of cultures. Seafarers from every corner of the globe gathered here. Crews were paid off after each voyage. It was then up to the men to look after themselves until they could find a new ship. Many seamen lived on Curaçao and most were either slaves, freed slaves or mulattos. Curaçao became the main base for Dutch privateers. The prosperity of the island owed much to these privateers. Moreover, they provided an essential protection against attacks by enemy privateers, something essential during the time when the English and Dutch were at war.

This is a rendition of Dutch ships in an unknown port of call.

This is the former headquarters for the Dutch West India Company in Amsterdam, Netherlands.

England would be the European power that would eventually wrench Curacao from the Dutch, even though it would take them til the 19th century, only to lose it to the Dutch again.  Between 1650 and 1670, England and the Dutch were constantly at or near war. Curacao's monopoly in the slave trade was especially envied by the English empire. Once they had chased the Dutch out of New York in 1665, the English focused their attention on Curacao. They commissioned privateers, or pirates, to harass Dutch commerce in the Caribbean.  This was one main example and seemed to help set a precedent of European powers using pirates, or privateers, to harass an opposing European power in the Caribbean. 

These happenings were the norm for Curacao in the 17th century.  Other European powers, especially England, saw Curacao's importance as a center of commerce and strategic possession in the Caribbean.  This history shapes Curacao today, as these powers policies at the time shaped the culture, population, and physical appearance of Curacao today.

Sources:

 Curacao Port Authority.  Curacao Maritime Museum.  "History."  http://www.curacaomaritime.com/history.htm.

Paul K. Sutton,  Europe and the Caribbean.  London : Macmillan Caribbean, 1991.

Dutch and Spanish Influence on the Early History of Curacao

The early history of Curacao is a varied and complicated one.  It was discovered by the Spanish and later taken by the Dutch.  Both exploited the natives on the island as slaves, and early on, the island was center in the Caribbean for the slave trade.  It would later become of strategic value in the Caribbean for the trade coming from South America into the Caribbean which led to European powers to fight for control of the island for years, with it exchanging hands on a number of occasions.  It remains in Dutch hands til the present day. 

Curacao was discovered by Europeans in 1499 when Alonso de Ojeda, a Spainard and Lieutenant of Christopher Columbus, happened upon the island.  The island was considered of little importance by the Spanish at the time as there was no gold or mineral deposits.  However, they would eventually use the island for another large revenue generating activity: the slave trade. 

In 1505, Spanish Indieros settled on the island.  These Spaniards made their living in the slave trade.  They exported at least 2,000 indigenous people from Curacao, probably mostly all Arawak indians to Hispaniola to work in the Spanish silver mines on that island.  This plus the Columbian Exchange had a decimating effect on the native population of the island.  By the beginning of the 18th century, Curacao was one of the most important slave depots on the island, with as many as 14,000 slaves on the island at any given time and 40% of the slaves coming across the Atlantic would come to Curacao at some point in their shipment.  Who the ruling European power seems to be inconsequential, as all who ruled the island used it mostly as a slave depot.  This led to an even diluted indigenous population.  By 1790, the entire population of Arawak indians on Curacao would be extinct.

On July 29, 1634, Curacao would fall into Dutch hands.  The Dutch West India Company would send Johann Van Walbeek, a fleet of six ships and 225 soldiers to conquer the island from the Spanish.  It was easily conquered as the island was manned by only small garrison of Spanish soldiers.  The Dutch would fortify the island and allow the island to remain an important slave depot.

The society of the island would have three main groups of people at this time:  Western Europeans,  Sephardic Jews, and black slaves.  The Sephardic Jews had fled Brazil in 1654 and quickly became very important merchants and business men on the island and within the Caribbean itself.  As well as a slave depot, Curacao was a important port for goods coming out of South America being shipped to Europe.  The Brittish and French would be reliant on Dutch and Jewish merchants to move these goods along, so much so that they tried to take the island from the Dutch on a number of occasions.

Between 1650 and 1670, England was regularly at odds with the Dutch. Curacao's monopoly in the slave trade was especially irritating to the English. Once they had chased the Dutch out of New York in 1665, the English focused their attention on Curacao. They commissioned privateers, or pirates, to harass their Dutch enemy. Towards the close of the eighteenth century, the French occupied the Dutch Republic in Europe. The French navy was soon using Curacao as a harbor, and the island paid the cost. Moreover, the British, who were at war with France, blockaded the trade of the island.  The government on Curacao was ready to expel the French.  The island government was even prepared to accept British dominion. From 1800 to 1803 and from 1807 to 1816 Curacao was administered by the British. The Dutch regained the island in 1816. Meanwhile, the Dutch Republic had become the Kingdom of the Netherlands, with its own Royal Dutch Navy.

Curacao's early history is a turbulent one.  It transformed from a peaceful island of Arawak Indians, with 15 villages spread around the island, to a European slave depot and war zone.  The natives of the island would become all but extinct.  It would exchange hands amongst the European powers on a number of occasions, with the Dutch retaining the island from 1816 til today. 


Sources:

Brushaber, Susan, and Arnold Greenberg. 2002. Aruba, Bonaire & Curacao Alive!. Hunter Publishing, 2002. eBook Collection (EBSCOhost), EBSCOhost (accessed September 18, 2011).

 Curacao Port Authority.  Curacao Maritime Museum.  "History."  http://www.curacaomaritime.com/history.htm.

Paul K. Sutton,  Europe and the Caribbean.  London : Macmillan Caribbean, 1991.

According to Jair: The Arawak Influence on Curacao

Jair Jansen is a guest blogger on Island of Healing.  He was born and raised on Curacao and will be giving the blog a first hand account of the general history, culture, and issues of his home island from time to time.

Hey guys, it's Jair Jansen again and I'm glad to be back again to tell you more about my beautiful home, the island of Curacao.  Today I will be discussing the native inhabitants of Curacao, a branch of the Arawak speaking people who migrated from South America to throughout the Caribbean, including Curacao.

As I stated in an earlier blog, the Caiquetio tribe of Native Americans are considered the earliest people on the island of Curacao.  They were stated by the Spanish explorers to be giants.  They were not, however, an isolated tribe but a branch of Arawak speaking people that migrated from deep in the Amazon in South America and settled throughout the Caribbean basin, including the Lesser and Greater Antilles. They
include the Taíno, from the Greater Antilles and the Bahamas; the Nepoya and Suppoyo, from Trinidad and the Igneri; and the Lokono. The Arawak language was the most used in the Pre-Columbian Americas.  Before the arrival of the Spanish they were driven from the Lesser Antilles by the Carib Indians, who were a constant threat and enemy of the peaceful Arawaks.  The Arawaks would suffer greatly throughout the Caribbean from the Columbian Exchange, with some groups on different islands, including Curacao, being completely wiped out by disease and European political policies.

 The Arawak speaking peoples of the Caribbean are thought to be peaceful traders, using slow, ocean going canoes.  They traded fruit and other goods, such as elaborately decorated pottery, throughout the Caribbean and as far north as the Bahamas.  On Christopher Columbus's historic discovery of the New World for Europe on October 12, 1492, the first native peoples he encountered were an Arawak speaking people in the Bahamas.  He mistakenly called them "indians," thinking he had reached India.  This is a picture of Columbus on probably Hispaniola with Arawak natives.

As stated before, the Arawaks were a peace loving people that were mostly interested in trade, religious practices, and agriculture.  They were constantly harassed by the Caribs who enslaved captured Arawaks and were even rumored to eat captured male Arawaks.  This did not hinder their trade amongst themselves in the Caribbean as they had developed large, ocean going canoes.  Europeans reported that Arawaks were not very concerned with clothing and often were naked.  They were farmers, hunters, and fishers.  They developed farming practices that kept their yields high, such as slow burning underbrush and using fish remains to fertilize the soil they were tilling for farming.  This allowed for population booms and large villages.  Scholars state that they believe that a large Arawak village would be surrounded by large, organized farming fields.  Their dwellings were circular huts that surrounded a large, central religious building used for idol worship and it is where the religious leaders probably lived.  A picture of a Taino dwelling can be see here.

 Their religious practices were shamanistic, or there was a religious hierarchy that was headed by a shaman, or witch doctor.  They are believed to have a very visible distinction between chiefs, shamen, and commoners. Chiefs wore special body adornments, including feathers, shells, and rare stones.  This a picture of a probable Arawak chief or shaman.

The Arawak worshiped idols or icons called "zemis," which is believed to usually had some type of ancestral religious value.  Some may have just been "good luck charms."  Curiously, women were not allowed to see the zemis.  Christopher Columbus thought the Arawaks would be easily converted to Christianity since he believed "they have no religion."  Arawaks worshiping zemis can be seen in this picture.

The Arawaks had something to contribute to American culture as well, as the "bar b que" was a common practice of the Arawaks.  One can be seen in this picture.

Thank you again for allowing me to tell you a general history of my home, Curacao.  The Arawak natives had a strong influence on Curacao and the Caribbean as a whole, even after they had disappeared in many places.  It pains me to say that very little lineage of the original Caiquetio inhabitants on Curacao still remain.  This is common in the Caribbean.  There is very little if any remaining lineage of the Taino branch of the Arawaks in the Bahamas, which was the first natives to encounter Columbus.  I look forward to talking to you again and telling you more about Curacao.

Sources:

Sepehri, Sandy. 2009. "Arawak." Rourke's Native American History & Culture Encyclopedia no. 1: 18-19. Book Collection: Nonfiction, EBSCOhost (accessed September 11, 2011).


Symcox, Geoffrey, and Blair Sullivan. 2005. Christopher Columbus and the enterprise of the Indies : a brief history with documents / Geoffrey Symcox and Blair Sullivan. Boston, MA : Bedford/St. Martin's, c2005., 2005.

Tennesen, Michael. 2010. "Uncovering the Arawaks." Archaeology 63, no. 5: 51-56. Academic Search Premier, EBSCOhost (accessed September 11, 2011).

According to Jair: How Curacao was settled.

Jair Jansen is a guest blogger on Island of Healing.  He was born and raised on Curacao and will be giving the blog a first hand account of the general history, culture, and issues of his home island from time to time.

Hi, my name is Jair Jansen.  I am a native of Curacao and have lived here my whole life.  I will give you today a general history of how and by whom my island was settled.

Curacao was the economic and administrative center of the Dutch Antilles at the pinnacle of European colonization in the Caribbean.  The island was founded by the Dutch West India Company in the 17th century and remains to this day an important port of call for trade between Europe and the Caribbean.  However, the Dutch were most definitely not the original inhabitants of Curacao.

The oldest human remains in the Caribbean have been discovered here in Curacao, dating back to 2450 B.C.  This leads scientists to believe that Curacao may have the one of the first if not the first Caribbean island to be inhabited by early Native Americans.  These early inhabitants did not leave much behind to study and archaeologists have to jump to 500 B.C. in the archaeological record to have much to work with in terms of extensive study.   It is at that time that the Caiquetio group of Arawak Indians are found to be the main inhabitants of Curacao.  This same group also inhabited the neighboring islands of Aruba and Bonaire, which would also later become a part of the Dutch Antilles.  Historians and archaeologists mostly believe that this particular group of natives were peace loving hunters, fishers, and gatherers.  Cave drawings on Curacao have also depicted these natives as ocean going traders with advanced dugout canoes.

Europeans arrived in Curacao in 1499 in the form of Spanish explorer Alonso de Ojeda.  Due to the usual European short stature and the size of the Caiquetio natives, the island was originally called "Islas de los Giagantes," or, the "Island of the Giants."  An early depiction can be seen in this early picture.

The Spanish did not put much value in its discovery as Curacao's dry climate, lack of fresh water, lack of agricultural opportunities, and lack of precious metals caused the Spanish to include Curacao on their list of "islas inulties," or "worthless islands" in the Caribbean.  The Spanish failed to see Curacao strategic advantage in its location in the Caribbean and a century later the French, Brittish, Dutch, and Spanish would fight for control of the island well into the 19th century.

In the 16th century Curacao would become a huge slave depot of both native and African slaves.  It was also during this time that Curacao would become a prosperous ranching island for horses under Spanish control.  Pirates became a problem for the island as well during this time as they harassed Spanish ships by stealing their stores.  Other European powers, envious of the Spanish control of the Caribbean began harassing Spanish fleets taking extracted good from Spanish possessions back to Europe. 

This continued until 1634, when the Dutch West India Company sent Johan Van Walbeek,  a fleet of six ships, and 225 soldiers to claim Curacao for the Dutch.  The Spanish only had a small garrison of soldiers on the island and they surrendered quickly.  The soldiers, the Spanish population, and some natives were given safe passage back to Europe.  The Dutch would quickly fortify the island, building Fort Amsterdam on Santa Anna Bay seeing their advantage with this strategic possession in the Caribbean.  Fort Amsterdam is still the political seat of government in the Dutch Antilles today.  The Dutch invasion also spelled extinction for the Caiquetio natives as the Dutch expelled them from the island and the Caiquetio line on the island was completely extinct by the 1790's.  Curacao remains a Dutch possession to this day.

Thank you for allowing me to give you a brief history of how my beautiful island was settled.  I look forward to telling you more about my island in the future.

Sources:
"History." Aruba, Bonaire & Curacao Alive Guide, 3rd ed. 3rd ed. Hunter Publishing, Inc., 2008. 243+. General OneFile. Web. 4 Sep. 2011.

 Sullivan, Lynne M. "A brief history." Aruba, Bonaire & Curacao Adventure Guide. Hunter Publishing, Inc., 2002. 206+. General OneFile. Web. 4 Sep. 2011.