Curaçao Colonial Records

Spanish Colonization (1499-1634)
Spain discovered Curacao on July 26, 1499. At that time about 2,000 Caquetios lived on the island. By 1515 almost all Caquetios were enslaved and taken away to Hispaniola. The Spanish settled on the island in 1527 and governed it from one of the Spanish-Venezuelan cities.

Dutch Colonization (1634-present)
The Netherlands broke from Spain in 1581 and the Dutch West India Company was chartered in 1621. The West India Company invaded the island in 1634 and the Spaniards on the island surrendered in San Juan in August. After the bankruptcy of the Dutch West India Company in 1791, Curaçao became a Dutch colony. The British held Curaçao from 1800-1803 and from 1807 to 1816. In 1816, Britain gave Curacoa back to the Dutch under the terms of the Treaty of Paris. The country was part of the Netherlands Antilles from 1954–2010, as Island Territory of Curaçao. Curaçao was given autonomous status on October 10, 2010 when Netherlands Antilles was dissolved. It is now formally called the Country of Curacao, which includes Curacao and the small island of Klein Curacao. It is a constituent country of the Kingdom of the Netherlands. The island is not part of the European Union.