The Netherlands Antilles] ( ), Papiamentu: Antia Hulandes), also referred to informally
as the Dutch Antilles, was an autonomous Caribbean country within the Kingdom of the Netherlands.
Although the country has now been dissolved, all of its constituent islands remain part
of the kingdom under a different legal status and the term is still used to refer to these
Dutch Caribbean islands.
The Netherlands Antilles consisted of two distinct island groups.
The ABC Islands of Aruba, Bonaire, and Curaçao are located in the southern Caribbean Sea,
just off the Venezuelan coast.
The SSS islands of Sint Maarten, Saba, and Sint Eustatius are in the Leeward Islands
southeast of the Virgin Islands near the northern end of the Lesser Antilles, approximately
800–900 kilometers northeast of the ABC Islands.
The Dutch colonized the various islands in the 17th century and united them in the new
constituent state of the Netherlands Antilles in 1954.
Aruba became a separate state within the Kingdom of the Netherlands in 1986.
The Kingdom of the Netherlands dissolved the Netherlands Antilles on 10 October 2010, reconstituting
Curaçao and Sint Maarten as new constituent countries and Bonaire, Sint Eustatius, and
Saba as special municipalities within the Netherlands.
History
Spanish-sponsored explorers discovered both the leeward and windward island groups, but
Spain founded settlements only in the leeward islands.
In the 17th century, the islands were conquered by the Dutch West India Company and were used
as military outposts and trade bases.
From the last quarter of the 17th century, the group consisted of six undisputedly Dutch
islands: Curaçao, Aruba, Bonaire, Sint Eustatius, Saba and Sint Maarten.
Before, Anguilla, the present-day British Virgin Islands, St. Croix and Tobago had also
been Dutch.
In the second half of the 18th century Sint Eustatius became the commercial hub of the
north-eastern Caribbean, earning the nickname "The Golden Rock."
This invoked the envy of the French and English who from 1795 made sure the island lost that
position by occupying the island and ruining it—the French through their taxes and the
English by closing the island off and diverting all trade to their own islands.
From 1815 onwards, Curaçao and Dependencies formed a colony of the Kingdom of the Netherlands.
Slavery was abolished in 1863, and in 1865 a government regulation for Curaçao was enacted
that allowed for some very limited autonomy for the colony.
Though this regulation was replaced by a constitution in 1936, the changes to the government structure
remained superficial, and Curaçao continued to be ruled as a colony.
The island of Curaçao was hit hard by the abolition of slavery in 1863.
Its prosperity was restored in the early 20th century with the construction of oil refineries
to service the newly discovered Venezuelan oil fields.
Colonial rule ended after the conclusion of the Second World War.
Queen Wilhelmina had promised in a 1942 speech to offer autonomy to the overseas territories
of the Netherlands, and British and American occupation—with consent by the Dutch government—of
the islands during the war led to increasing demands for autonomy within the population
as well.
In May 1948, a new constitution for the territory entered into force, allowing the largest amount
of autonomy allowed under the Dutch constitution of 1922.
Among others, universal suffrage was introduced.
The territory was renamed to "Netherlands Antilles" as well.
After the Dutch constitution was revised in 1948, a new interim Constitution of the Netherlands
Antilles was enacted in February 1951.
Shortly thereafter, on 3 March 1951, the Island Regulation of the Netherlands Antilles was
issued by royal decree, giving fairly large autonomy to the various island territories
in the Netherlands Antilles.
A consolidated version of this regulation remained in force until the dissolution of
the Netherlands Antilles in 2010.
The new constitution was only deemed an interim arrangement, as negotiations for a Charter
for the Kingdom were already underway.
On 15 December 1954, the Netherlands Antilles, Suriname, and the Netherlands acceded as equal
partners to an overarching Kingdom of the Netherlands as established in the Charter
for the Kingdom of the Netherlands.
With this move, the United Nations deemed decolonization of the territory complete and
removed it from the United Nations list of Non-Self-Governing Territories.
Aruba seceded from the Netherlands Antilles on 1 January 1986, paving the way for a series
of referendums among the remaining islands on the future of the Netherlands Antilles.
Whereas the ruling parties campaigned for the dissolution of the Netherlands Antilles,
the people voted for a restructuring of the Netherlands Antilles.
The coalition campaigning for this option became the Party for the Restructured Antilles,
which ruled the Netherlands Antilles for much of the time until its dissolution on 10 October
2010.
Dissolution
Even though the referendums held in the early 1990s resulted in a position in favour of
retaining the Netherlands Antilles, the arrangement continued to be an unhappy one.
Between June 2000 and April 2005, each island of the Netherlands Antilles had a new referendum
on its future status.
The four options that could be voted on were the following:
closer ties with the Netherlands remaining within the Netherlands Antilles
autonomy as a country within the Kingdom of the Netherlands
independence Of the five islands, Sint Maarten and Curaçao
voted for status aparte, Saba and Bonaire voted for closer ties to the Netherlands,
and Sint Eustatius voted to stay within the Netherlands Antilles.
On 26 November 2005, a Round Table Conference was held between the governments of the Netherlands,
Aruba, the Netherlands Antilles, and each island in the Netherlands Antilles.
The final statement to emerge from the RTC stated that autonomy for Curaçao and Sint
Maarten, plus a new status for Bonaire, Sint Eustatius, and Saba would come into effect
by 1 July 2007.
On 12 October 2006, the Netherlands reached an agreement with Bonaire, Sint Eustatius,
and Saba; this agreement would make these islands special municipalities.
On 3 November 2006, Curaçao and Sint Maarten were granted autonomy in an agreement, but
this agreement was rejected by the then island council of Curaçao on 28 November.
The Curaçao government was not sufficiently convinced that the agreement would provide
enough autonomy for Curaçao.
On 9 July 2007 the new island council of Curaçao approved the agreement previously rejected
in November 2006.
A subsequent referendum approved the agreement as well.
The acts of parliament integrating the "BES" islands into the Netherlands were given royal
assent on 17 May 2010.
After ratification by the Netherlands, the Netherlands Antilles, and Aruba, the Kingdom
act amending the Charter for the Kingdom of the Netherlands with regard to the dissolution
of the Netherlands Antilles was signed off by the three countries in the closing Round
Table Conference on 9 September 2010 in The Hague.
Constitution
The Constitution of the Netherlands Antilles was proclaimed on 29 March 1955 by Order-in-Council
for the Kingdom.
Together with the Island Regulation of the Netherlands Antilles it formed the constitutional
basis for the Netherlands Antilles.
The fact that the Constitution depended on the Island Regulation, and the fact that the
Island Regulation gave fairly large autonomy to the different island territories, and the
fact that the Island Regulation was older than the Constitution, has led many scholars
to describe the Netherlands Antilles as a federal arrangement.
The head of state was the ruling monarch of the Netherlands, who was represented in the
Netherlands Antilles by a governor.
The governor and the council of ministers, chaired by a prime minister, formed the government.
The Netherlands Antilles had a unicameral legislature called the Estates of the Netherlands
Antilles.
Its 22 members were fixed in number for the islands making up the Netherlands Antilles:
fourteen for Curaçao, three each for Sint Maarten and Bonaire, and one each for Saba
and Sint Eustatius.
The Netherlands Antilles were not part of the European Union, but instead listed as
overseas countries and territories.
This status was kept for all the islands after dissolution, and will be kept until at least
2015.
Island territories
The Island Regulation originally divided the Netherlands Antilles into four island territories:
Aruba, Bonaire, Curaçao, and the Windward islands.
In 1983, the island territory of the Windward islands was split up to form the new island
territories of Sint Maarten, Saba, and Sint Eustatius.
In 1986, Aruba seceded from the Netherlands Antilles, reducing the number of island territories
to five.
After the dissolution of the Netherlands Antilles in 2010, Curaçao and Sint Maarten became
autonomous countries within the Kingdom and Bonaire, Sint Eustatius and Saba became special
municipalities of the Netherlands.
Geography
The two island groups of which the Netherlands Antilles consisted were:
the "Leeward Islands", part of the Leeward Antilles island chain off the Venezuelan coast.
Aruba Bonaire, including an islet called Klein Bonaire
Curaçao, including an islet called Klein Curaçao
the "Windward Islands" east of Puerto Rico and the Virgin Islands.
These are part of what are in English called the Leeward Islands, but French, Spanish,
Dutch and the English spoken locally these are considered part of the Windward Islands.
Sint Maarten, the southern half of the island Saint Martin.
Saba Sint Eustatius
The windward islands are all of volcanic origin and hilly, leaving little ground suitable
for agriculture.
The leeward islands have a mixed volcanic and coral origin.
The highest point was Mount Scenery, 887 metres, on Saba.
Climate
The Netherlands Antilles had a tropical climate, with warm weather all year round.
The windward islands are subject to hurricanes in the summer months, while the leeward Islands
are warmer and drier.
Economy
Tourism, petroleum transshipment and oil refinement, as well as offshore finance were the mainstays
of this small economy, which was closely tied to the outside world.
The islands enjoyed a high per capita income and a well-developed infrastructure as compared
with other countries in the region.
Almost all consumer and capital goods were imported, with Venezuela, the United States,
and Mexico being the major suppliers, as well as the Dutch government which supports the
islands with substantial development aid.
Poor soils and inadequate water supplies hampered the development of agriculture.
The Antillean guilder had a fixed exchange rate with the United States dollar of 1.79:1.
Demographics
A large percentage of the Netherlands Antilleans descended from European colonists and African
slaves who were brought and traded here from the 17th to 19th centuries.
The rest of the population originated from other Caribbean islands as well as Latin America,
East Asia and elsewhere in the world.
In Curaçao there was a strong Jewish element going back to the 17th century.
The language Papiamentu was predominant on Curaçao and Bonaire.
This creole descended from Portuguese and West African languages with a strong admixture
of Dutch, plus subsequent lexical contributions from Spanish and English.
An English-based creole dialect, formally known as Netherlands Antilles Creole, was
the native dialect of the inhabitants of Sint Eustatius, Saba and Sint Maarten.
After a decades-long debate, English and Papiamentu were made official languages alongside Dutch
in early March 2007.
Legislation was produced in Dutch but parliamentary debate was in Papiamentu or English, depending
on the island.
Due to a massive influx of immigrants from Spanish speaking territories such as the Dominican
Republic in the Windward Islands, and increased tourism from Venezuela in the Leeward Islands,
Spanish had also become increasingly used.
The majority of the population were followers of the Christian faith, with a Protestant
majority in Sint Eustatius and Sint Maarten, and a Roman Catholic majority in Bonaire,
Curaçao and Saba.
Curaçao also hosted a sizeable group of followers of the Jewish faith, descendants of a Portuguese
group of Sephardic Jews that arrived from Amsterdam and Brazil from 1654.
Most Netherlands Antilleans were Dutch citizens and this status permitted and encouraged the
young and university-educated to emigrate to the Netherlands.
This exodus was considered to be to the islands' detriment, as it created a brain drain.
On the other hand, immigrants from the Dominican Republic, Haiti, the Anglophone Caribbean
and Colombia had increased their presence on these islands in later years.
Culture
The origins of the population and location of the islands gave the Netherlands Antilles
a mixed culture.
Tourism and overwhelming media presence from the United States increased the regional United
States influence.
On all the islands, the holiday of Carnival had become an important event after its importation
from other Caribbean and Latin American countries in the 1960s.
Festivities included "jump-up" parades with beautifully colored costumes, floats, and
live bands as well as beauty contests and other competitions.
Carnival on the islands also included a middle-of-the-night j'ouvert parade that ended at sunrise with
the burning of a straw King Momo, cleansing the island of sins and bad luck.
Sports
Netherlands Lesser Antilles competed in the Winter Olympics of 1988, notably finishing
29th in the bobsled, ahead of Jamaica who famously competed but finished 30th.
Baseball is by far the most popular sport.
Several players have made it to the Major Leagues, such as Jair Bogaerts, Xander Jan
Bogaerts, Hensley Meulens, Randall Simon, Andruw Jones, Jair Jurrjens, Roger Bernadina,
Sidney Ponson, Didi Gregorius, Shairon Martis, Wladimir Balentien, and Yurendell DeCaster.
Xander Bogaerts competed in the 2013 World Series for the Boston Red Sox against the
St. Louis Cardinals.
Andruw Jones played for the Atlanta Braves in the 1996 World Series hitting two home
runs in the first game against the New York Yankees.
Three athletes from the former Netherlands Antilles competed in the 2012 Summer Olympics.
They, alongside one athlete from South Sudan, competed under the banner of Independent Olympic
Athletes.
Miscellaneous topics Unlike the metropolitan Netherlands, same-sex
marriages were not performed in the Netherlands Antilles, but those performed in other jurisdictions
were recognised.
The main prison of the Netherlands Antilles was Koraal Specht, later known as Bon Futuro.
It was known for ill treatment of prisoners and bad conditions throughout the years.
The late Venezuelan President Hugo Chávez claimed that the Netherlands was helping the
United States to invade Venezuela due to military games in 2006.
Curaçao is under consideration as a Cooperative Security Location, not a full Main Operating
Base.
See also American West Indies
British West Indies Danish West Indies
French West Indies Spanish West Indies
Index of Netherlands Antilles-related articles
Notes
References Borman, C. Het Statuut voor het Koninkrijk,
Deventer: Kluwer.
Oostindie, G. and Klinkers, I. Het Koninkrijk inde Caraïben: een korte geschiedenis van
het Nederlandse dekolonisatiebeleid 1940–2000.
Amsterdam: Amsterdam University Press.
External links Government
GOV.an – Main governmental site Antillenhuis – Cabinet of the Netherlands
Antilles' Plenipotentiary Minister in the Netherlands
Central Bank of the Netherlands Antilles General information
Netherlands Antilles entry at The World Factbook Netherlands Antilles from UCB Libraries GovPubs
Netherlands Antilles at DMOZ Wikimedia Atlas of Netherlands Antilles
History (English) Method of Securing the Ports and
Populations of All the Coasts of the Indies from 1694.
The last five pages of the book are about life, economy and culture of the Netherlands
Antilles.