The History of Aruba

 

    Aruba is a beautiful island with an interesting history. Located twenty miles off the coast of Venezuela, the seventy square mile island is home to a small population of 112,309 people. The island was first conquered by the Spanish in 1499 and was used for cattle breeding and wood cutting because of its lack of natural resources. As it is an island made up of primarily beaches and the vegetation consists of mostly cactuses and aloe plants, it was named one of Spain's useless islands. After an eighty year-long war, the Dutch took control of Aruba from Spain in 1636. Due to the Dutch occupation, the official language of Aruba is Dutch. With the Dutch in control, there was very little slavery with the enslaved population never exceeding twenty-one percent of the total population. Slavery in Aruba was abolished in 1863 and was replaced with a peasant culture like many of the Caribbean islands had. Aruba was modernized during the 1920s when the oil industry was introduced to the economy. During World War II when gasoline was in high demand, thousands of jobs were created working at oil refineries across Aruba. As World War II was coming to a close and oil was no longer in demand, Aruba quickly switched the focus of its economy to tourism. With beautiful beaches and an incredible tropical climate, it was not difficult for the country to do this. Aruba quickly became a tourist hotspot and built up a large performing arts scene with theaters for music and plays. To this day, the main focuses of the Aruba economy are oil and tourism. This focus on tourism has shaped the culture of the island to reflect the culture of the tourists that visit there. Due to tourism many new religions and languages have been introduced to Aruba. After a long time of being controlled by the Dutch, Aruba gained autonomy in 1986. Aruba attempted to gain full independence from the Dutch in the '90s but this was put on hold indefinitely in 1994. To this day Aruba remains an autonomous part of the Netherlands.

    The islands I am considering for adoption are Aruba, Puerto Rico, and the Dominican Republic.