History of Curaçao 1.4

The island of Curaçao was first settled by the Arawaks, an Amerindian people native to the area. They are believed to have inhabited the island for many hundreds of years before the arrival of Europeans.

Curaçao (/ˈkʊrəsaʊ/ KUR-ə-sow or /ˈkjʊərəsaʊ/ KEWR-ə-sow; Dutch: Curaçao, pronounced [kyːraːˈsʌu̯];[6] Papiamento: Kòrsou) is a Lesser Antilles island in the southern Caribbean Sea and the Dutch Caribbean region, about 65 km (40 mi) north of the Venezuelan coast. It is a constituent country (Dutch: land) of the Kingdom of the Netherlands.

The country was formerly part of the Curaçao and Dependencies colony (1815–1954) and is now formally called the Country of Curaçao (Dutch: Land Curaçao;[7] Papiamento: Pais Kòrsou);[8] it includes the main island of Curaçao and the uninhabited island of Klein Curaçao ("Little Curaçao"). It has a population over 160,000 in an area of 444 km2 (171 sq mi), and its capital is Willemstad.

Before the dissolution of the Netherlands Antilles on 10 October 2010, Curaçao was administered as the "Island Territory of Curaçao"[9] (Dutch: Eilandgebied Curaçao, Papiamento: Teritorio Insular di Kòrsou), one of five island territories of the former Netherlands Antilles.