Curacao: Willemstad, an UNESCO Protected City
26 May 2008
Similarly to Bonaire, Curacao is a desert-like island filled with low brush bushes, cactus, and land where nothing grows. People also speak 4 languages, with Papiamento being the primary language. But unlike Bonaire, Curacao has a significant infrastructure. After 1614 when the Dutch West Indian Company conquered the island to mind salt to preserve their herring industry, the Dutch focused on developing a cattle and farming industry and by the 1800s Curacao had become a major trading center for the Dutch with a large slavery industry (only abolished in 1863.) In the 1800s Curacao became a smuggling capital for trade between warring nations - Spain, Britain and France. With the great droughts at the beginning of the 20th century, Curacao focused on phosphate mining which saved the island's economy. Phosphate was exported to Europe to be used in washing power - mining can still be seeing on some areas such as the north coast of Klein Curacao. Oil was discovered in the early 1900s and a Shell refinery was built. This made Curacao very prosperous.
However, in the1950s Curacao decided to also focus on tourism which has further enriched the island. Its capital harbor city of Willemstadt has amongst some of the oldest buildings in the Caribbean, including the oldest working synagogue in the western hemisphere -The Mike Israel-Emmanuel Synagogue. Walking through the streets of Willemstadt is like walking through old streets in Amsterdam as its buildings and architectural styles have been preserved and restored after UNESCO declared it a world heritage in 1997.