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CuraçaoVisited by Alonso de Ojeda and Amerigo Vespucci in 1499, Curaçao was not settled by the Spanish until 1527. The Dutch captured it in 1634 and remained in possession except for a brief period of British rule during the Napoleonic Wars. In the 18th cent. Curaçao was a base for a flourishing Dutch entrepôt trade. Economic prosperity declined after the abolition of slavery in 1863 but revived with the introduction of the petroleum industry in the early 20th cent. Curaçao was the scene of severe racial strife and rioting in 1969.
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- Mansfield, Edward
Mansfield, Edward, d. 1667, West Indian buccaneer. Possibly born in Curaçao of Dutch parentage, he is also called Edward Mansveld. He was engaged (1665) by the British governor of Jamaica, Sir...
- Willemstad
Willemstad, city (1992 pop. 24,235), Curaçao, capital of the Netherlands Antilles. The city is the commercial and industrial center of the Netherlands Antilles as well as a free port and touri...
- Stuyvesant, Peter
Stuyvesant, Peter, c.1610–1672, Dutch director-general of New Netherland. He served as governor of Curaçao and lost a leg in an expedition against St. Martin before succeeding Willem Kieft in ...
- De Leon, Daniel
De Leon, Daniel, 1852–1914, American socialist leader. Born on the island of Curaçao of Spanish-American parents, he was educated in Germany and the Netherlands before going (1872) to New York...
- liqueur
Liqueur, strong alcoholic beverage made of almost neutral spirits, flavored with herb mixtures, fruits, or other materials, and usually sweetened. The name derives from the Latin word to melt....
- Netherlands Antilles
Netherlands Antilles, island group, an autonomous part of the Netherlands (2005 est. pop. 220,000), 371 sq mi (961 sq km), West Indies. Formerly known as the Dutch West Indies and Netherlands ...
- curassow
Curassow, common name for the largest members of an order of game birds called pigeon-toed fowls, which includes the white-crested guan and the rufous-bellied chachalaca, Ortalis wagleri. Thes...
- Compton, Sir John
Compton, Sir John (John George Melvin Compton), 1925–2007, St. Lucian political leader, b. Canouan, Windward Islands (now in St. Vincent and the Grenadines). Compton attended high school in St...
- West Indies
West Indies, archipelago, between North and South America, curving c.2,500 mi (4,020 km) from Florida to the coast of Venezuela and separating the Caribbean Sea and the Gulf of Mexico from the...
