Curacao. Information.
CURACAO is an island in the southern Caribbean Sea, off the Venezuelan coast. The Country of Curaco is a constituent country of the Kingdom of the Netherlands. Area - 444 sq.km. Population - 141 766 Capital - Willemstad. The first Europeans to see the island were members of a Spanish expedition under the leadership of Alonso de Ojeda in 1499. The Spaniards enslaved most of the indigenous population and forcibly relocated the survivors to other colonies where workers were needed. The island was occupied by the Dutch in 1634. The Dutch West India Company founded the capital of Willemstad. During the 18th and 19th centuries, the island changed hands among the British, the French, and the Dutch several times. Stable Dutch rule returned in 1815, at the end of the Napoleonic wars, when the island was incorporated into the colony of Curacao and Dependencies. Prior to 10 October 2010, when the Netherlands Antilles was dissolved, Curacao was administered as the Island Territory of Curacao, one of five island territories of the former Netherlands Antilles. Currency : Netherlands Antillean guilder (ANG) .
