Bonaire is located 60 miles north of Venezuela. It is a total of 285 sq kilometers big and has a population of 14,500. There is evidence that humans inhabited Bonaire as far back as 3,000 years ago, living on fish, shellfish, crabs, birds and iguanas. Some sources say the original inhabitants were Arawaks, others say it was a different people group and that the Arawaks arrived in Bonaire about 1000 – 1500 years ago, when farming began. The Arawaks cultivated maize, manioc, squash and beans.

The Spanish laid claim to the island in 1499. The Spanish enslaved the Arawaks. In 1515, the Spaniards decided the island was useless and shipped off all the Arawaks and convicts to work in the copper mines on the island of Hispanola (the island Haiti and the Dominican Republic share). In 1526, the Spanish decided to use Bonaire as a cattle plantation. They brought back some of the natives from Hispanola and established a small settlement called Rincon, in the fertile northern valley near freshwater springs. From Rincon’s higher points you can see the ocean both to the east and west, protecting the Spanish from surprise attacks, but since they were in a valley, they were hidden from view from the shore. They also used prisoners for labor on the plantation.

The Dutch and Spanish fought from 1568 1648 in what is known as the “Eighty Year War”. In 1634, the Dutch won a series of battles and gained control of Bonaire. Salt was a very important component of Holland’s vast herring industry (salt was used to preserve meat and fish prior to refrigeration) and Bonaire’s low lying and flat south side seemed the ideal place to make salt. The Dutch West India Company colonized the island primarily for salt production, but they also kept the plantation running to raise livestock, maize and cultivate dyewoord for other islands in the Caribbean under Dutch control. In the late 1600’s, Africanslaves were imported, and all the slaves were forced to work under horrific conditions. The island was habited almost solely by the slaves and prisoners, with just a few company supervisors and soldiers. Somewhere along the lines, the Arawaks died out, and now all that is left are a few inscriptions in some remote caves.

In 1791, Holland took control of Bonaire away from the Dutch West India Company and joined it into the Netherlands Antilles, a network of 6 islands in the Caribbean that were part of the Kingdom of the Netherlands. The slaves were given plots of land to farm for subsistence up in Rincon, a 7 hour walk from where they worked in the salt flats to the south. They usually stayed at the flats during the week and walked home on weekends to farm.

You may recall in the history of France that Napoleon Bonaparte tried to conquer all of Western Europe while he was in power. France did manage to seize the Netherlands for a few years. Britain was at war with the France, so the Dutch territories were now fair game. The British seized control of Bonaire twice in the early 1800’s, the first time for 3 years, the second time for 8 years. Many whites settled on Bonaire during the British rule and founded the town now called Kralendijk. After Bonaparte was defeated at Waterloo, the Treaty of Paris restored the Netherlands, including all her former territories, so the British had to give Bonaire back.

When slavery was abolished in 1862, the salt factory closed. The government sold most of the land to two private land owners, leaving no jobs and no land to farm for the people. Many moved away. The locals who stayed lived simple lives and were largely ignored by the world.

During World War II, the Americans built a military base on Bonaire. After the war, Bonaire was left with an airport and barracks. The barracks were turned into Bonaire’s first hotel. And so tourism began. After WWII, there was a general boom in the economy. In addition to tourism, new industries developed and the salt ponds reopened, this time using machines for the hardest work. In 1954, the Dutch changed the Netherland Antilles status to be a separate nation under the protection of the Netherlands.

In the 70’s, some forward looking Bonairian leaders recognized how special and frail the ecosystem of the island is. In 1979, all the coastal waters around the islands were declared a marine park. Not long after, a big portion of the northern end of the island was made a nature preserve, as well as a section of land in the south. Today, Bonaire’s main source of income is tourism, and they pride themselves on being able to develop tourism in an ecologically friendly way.

It sounds like the Netherlands Antilles was never a unified coalition. It also sounds like the Bonairians disagreed with the way things were administered in the capital of the Netherlands Antilles,Curacao (pronounced Kir-ah-sauw). We surmise the Bonarians wanted direct contact with the Netherlands without having to go through Curacao. In 1986, Aruba separated itself from the rest of the Netherlands Antilles, and is now an independent nation under the protectorate of the Netherlands. In 2008, the remaining five islands in the Netherlands Antilles agreed to begin dissolution of the nation. Two of the islands chose to follow in Aruba’s footsteps and become independent nations under the Dutch protectorate. The other three, including Bonaire, chose to have closer ties with Holland and become a direct municipality of the Netherlands. The change in status should be officially completed in 2010.