Aruba navigating globalizing world.pdf - sociology-of-development

of the Spanish, to no avail. Around 1499, Alonso de Ojeda, Amerigo Vespucci, and
Juan de la Cosa encountered Curaçao (and possibly Aruba and Bonaire). Ojeda described
the islands he saw as the ‘Islas adyacentes a la costa firme’ (“islands adjacent to
the mainland”) [translation by author]. It is doubtful that Aruba was among these
islands. The map they drew up after this trip, the mapamundi, only shows two islands,
and it is fairly certain Aruba is not one of these islands. It is plausible that the
Spanish first learned of Aruba between the years 1502 and 1505. 2
On Aruba, the Spanish encountered a group of native Amerindians speaking an
Arawakan language. These Amerindians, called Caquetíos, inhabited the coastal regions
of the mainland and the ABC islands. Before the arrival of the Spanish, strong
economic, political, and cultural bonds existed between the Caquetíos of the coastal
region and the ones inhabiting the islands. They were united under chieftains, called
caciques, of whom the cacique of Paraguaná (the Venezuelan peninsula east of Lake
Maracaibo) was recognized as the highest authority to which all others were subordinate
(Goslinga 1979:4,6). Aruba might have been one of several trading outposts
of the coastal Caquetíos (Dijkhoff 1997:78).
In June of 1501, after he returned to Spain, Ojeda was appointed governor over the
costal regions of Coquibacoa (Coro) and Guajira, forming one administrative entity
to which the ‘islas adyacentes’ belonged. In general, the European encounter with the
‘New World’ had severe implications for the Amerindian communities; within one
or two generations most of the islands of the Caribbean had lost over 80% of their
Amerindian populations (Versteeg 1991:21). This was certainly the case for Aruba.
In 1513, the Spanish decided that the ABC islands were useless (‘Islas Inútiles’), and
deported the inhabitants more than 400 miles away, to Hispaniola (modern-day
Haiti and the Dominican Republic), where they were enslaved. By 1515, most of the
Aruban population had been deported (Dijkhoff 1997:82; Linville 2005:82, 87).
In this respect, the arrival of the Spanish not only resulted in great changes for the
Amerindian society on Aruba, it also meant a disruption of inter-group connections
and economic ties throughout the entire region.
This disruption did not entirely end the ties between Aruba and the mainland. The
history of Aruba, Bonaire and Curaçao under the Spanish remained closely related
2 Dijkhoff, R. A. C. F. Aruba 500 Years? Historia di Aruba.
http://web.archive.org/web/20010412153456/arubafm.com/aruba5001.htm, (accessed July 8, 2009).
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