Dutch Caribbean


The Dutch Caribbean are the territories, colonies, and countries, both former and current, of the Dutch Empire and the Kingdom of the Netherlands that are located in the Lesser Antilles archipelago of the Caribbean Sea.
Currently the Dutch Caribbean consists of the constituent countries of Aruba, Curaçao and Sint Maarten; and the special municipalities of Bonaire, Sint Eustatius and Saba. The contemporary term is sometimes also used for the Caribbean Netherlands, an entity consisting of the three special municipalities forming part of the constituent country of the Netherlands since 2010. The Dutch Caribbean has a population of 337,617 as of January 2019.

History

The islands in the Dutch Caribbean were, from 1815, part of the colonies Curaçao and Dependencies or Sint Eustatius and Dependencies, which were merged with colony of Suriname and governed from Paramaribo until 1845, when all islands became part of the colony again called Curaçao and Dependencies.
In 1954, the islands became the country Netherlands Antilles. The autonomy of the Netherlands Antilles' island territories was stipulated in the Islands Regulation of the Netherlands Antilles. Initially the Netherlands Antilles consisted of four island territories: Aruba, Bonaire, Curaçao and the Windward Islands. The latter split into the Island Territories Saba, Sint Eustatius and Sint Maarten in 1983.
The island of Aruba seceded from the Netherlands Antilles in 1986 to become a separate constituent country of the Kingdom of the Netherlands, leaving five island territories within the Netherlands Antilles. This situation remained until the complete dissolution of the Netherlands Antilles as a unified political entity in 2010. In that year Curaçao and Sint Maarten became autonomous constituent countries within the Kingdom ; while Bonaire, Sint Eustatius, and Saba became special municipalities of the Netherlands proper. The Netherlands proper is located in the European Union.

Geography

Currently, there are two main divisions in the Dutch Caribbean:
There are three Caribbean islands that are countries within the Kingdom of the Netherlands: Aruba, Curaçao, and Sint Maarten. The Netherlands is the fourth and largest constituent country in the Kingdom.
Sint Maarten comprises approximately one half of the island of Saint Martin. The northern half of the island – the Collectivity of Saint Martin – is an overseas territory of France.

Special municipalities

The three Caribbean islands that are special municipalities of the Netherlands alone are Bonaire, Sint Eustatius, and Saba. Collectively, these special municipalities of the Netherlands are also known as the "BES islands" or the Caribbean Netherlands.

Comparison

Grouping of islands

The islands have also been informally grouped in the following ways: