The Amerindian Arawaks were the 1st inhabitants of Curaçao, before the Spanish lieutenant Alonso de Ojeda visited our island in 1499.

In 1634, long after the Spanish had abandoned Curaçao, the Dutch West Indies Company claimed the island. In 1642, Peter Stuyvesant was installed as governor. Curaçao soon became a Dutch commercial center and developed extensive slave trade activities. During this period, the local language Papiamentu-a mixture of Portuguese, Spanish, Dutch, and African dialects, developed by the slaves-became the main means of communication. Peter Stuyvesant left Curaçao in 1647 to become Governor of New Amsterdam, later to become New York City.

Soon after, Jewish families from Holland, other parts of Europe, and Asia settled in Curaçao-with the total population reaching 2,000 by the early 1700s. In 1732, the community created the Mikve Israel-Emanuel Synagogue in Willemstad, the oldest still functioning synagogue in the Western Hemisphere.

With the discovery of oil in 1914, at Lake Maracaibo in Venezuela, the Caribbean Petroleum Company decided to build a refinery on Curaçao. It became operative in May 1918. The 440 ha. refinery at Schottegat was later acquired in the 1960s in hands by Shell Curaçao N.V. and at one time employed 25,000 people from all over the world.

What about the name?

There are different theories for the origins of the word Curaçao (pronounced kyur uh sow). The most likely explanation stems from the Spanish calling the island "Corazon" (Heart) at some point. The famous Portuguese mapmakers adopted this word into their own language as "Curaçau" or "Curaçao." Today, locally, our island is known as "Dushi Korsou" (Sweet Curaçao).