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History
History
Aruba's first inhabitants are thought to have been Caquetios Amerinds from the Arawak tribe, who migrated there from Venezuela to escape attacks by the Caribs.
Fragments of the earliest known Indian settlements date back from 1,000 AD.
Sea currents made canoe travel to other Caribbean islands difficult, thus Caquetio culture remained closer to that of mainland South America.
Europeans first learned of Aruba when Amerigo Vespucci and Alonso de Ojeda discovered it in August 1499.
Vespucci, in one of his four letters to Lorenzo di Pierfrancesco de' Medici, described his voyage to the islands along the coast of Venezuela.
He wrote about an island where most trees are of brazilwood and, from this island, he went to one ten leagues away, where they had houses built as in Venice.
In another letter he described a small island inhabited by very large people, which the expedition thought was not inhabited.[citation needed] .
Aruba was colonized by Spain for over a century.
The Cacique or Indian Chief in Aruba, Simas, welcomed the first priests in Aruba and received from them a wooden cross as a gift.
In 1508, Alonso de Ojeda was appointed as Spain's first Governor of Aruba, as part of "Nueva Andalucia." .
Another governor appointed by Spain was Juan Martinez de Ampues.
A "cédula real" decreed in November 1525 gave Ampués, factor of Española, the right to repopulate the depopulated islands of Aruba, Curaçao and Bonaire.
The natives under Spanish rule enjoyed more liberty than the average northern European farmer of the period.
In 1528, Ampues was replaced by a representative of the "House of Welser".
Aruba has been under Dutch administration since 1636, initially under Peter Stuyvesant.
Stuyvesant was on a special mission in Aruba in November and December 1642.
Under the Dutch W.I.C.
administration, as "New Netherland and Curaçao" from 1648 to 1664 and the Dutch government regulations of 1629, also applied in Aruba.
The Dutch administration appointed an Irishman as "Commandeur" in Aruba in 1667.
The United Kingdom occupied Aruba from the years 1799 to 1802 and from 1805 to 1816.
In August 1806, General Francisco de Miranda and a group of 200 freedom fighters on their voyage to liberate Venezuela from Spain stayed in Aruba for several weeks.
In 1933 Aruba sent its first petition for Aruba's separate status and autonomy to the Queen.
During World War II, together with Curaçao the then world-class exporting oil refineries were the main suppliers of refined products to the Allies.
Aruba became a British protectorate from 1940 to 1942 and a US protectorate from 1942 to 1945.
On February 16, 1942, its oil processing refinery was attacked by a German submarine (U-156) under the command of Werner Hartenstein, but the mission failed.
U-156 was later destroyed by a US plane as the crew was sunbathing; only one survived.
In March 1944, Eleanor Roosevelt briefly visited American troops stationed in Aruba.
In attendance were: His Excellency, Dr.
P.
Kasteel, the Governor of Curaçao, and his aide, Lieutenant Ivan Lansberg; Rear Admiral T.
E.
Chandler and his Aide, Lieutenant W.
L.
Edgington; Captain Jhr.
W.
Boreel and his aide, Lieutenant E.
O.
Holmberg; and the Netherlands aide to Mrs.
Roosevelt, Lieutenant Commander v.d.
Schatte Olivier.
The island's economy has been dominated by five main industries: gold mining, phosphate mining (The Aruba Phosphaat Maatschappij), aloe export, petroleum refineries (The Lago Oil & Transport Company and the Arend Petroleum Maatschappij Shell Co.), and tourism.
Source: CIA Factbook, Wikipedia
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