1893 Perron map CURACAO, NETHERLANDS ANTILLES (#22)

Description

Perron18_022
1893 Perron map CURACAO, NETHERLANDS ANTILLES (#22)
Nice map titled
Curacao,
from wood engraving with fine detail and clear impression, nice hand coloring. Overall size approx. 17.5 x 17 cm, image size approx. 10 x 7.5 cm. From
La Nouvelle Géographie universelle, la terre et les hommes
, 19 vol. (1875-94), great work of Elisee Reclus. Cartographer is Charles Perron.
Curaçao
island of the Lesser Antilles, in the Caribbean Sea, and a country within the  Kingdom of the Netherlands. It is situated some 37 miles (60 km) north of the  coast of Venezuela, near the southwestern extreme of the Lesser Antilles. The  capital is Willemstad.
Curaçao was first visited by Europeans in 1499 and was settled by the Spanish in  1527 and then by the Dutch, who established it as a major centre of trade for  the Dutch West India Company. The entire native Indian population was deported  to Hispaniola in 1515. Curaçao is the home of the oldest continuously inhabited  Jewish community in the Western Hemisphere, having originally been formed by  Sephardic Jews who immigrated from Portugal in the 1500s.
The island provided one special advantage for the Dutch—one of the finest  natural harbours in the West Indies. At the southeastern end of the island, a  channel, Sint Anna Bay, passes through reefs to a large, deep, virtually  enclosed bay called Schottegat, the site of the capital town, Willemstad. The  need for salt to preserve herring initially drove the Dutch to the Caribbean.  During the period 1660 to 1700, the Dutch West India Company flourished; the  slave trade boomed, and the port of Curaçao was opened to all countries both to  receive the incoming food supplies and to dispose of products from the  plantations of South America. The island was subjected to frequent invasions  from competing privateers and suffered during the wars between the English and  Dutch. It has remained continuously in Dutch hands since 1816.
In 1845 Curaçao was one of the six Dutch dependencies in the West Indies that  were brought under collective administration. Those dependencies were  reorganized as the Netherlands Antilles in 1954 and granted autonomy in internal  affairs. In 2006 the people of Curaçao, along with those of the other islands  and the Dutch government, agreed to dissolve the Netherlands Antilles. On  October 10, 2010, Curaçao and Sint Maarten became—like Aruba, which had  separated from the Netherlands Antilles in 1986—countries within the Kingdom of  the Netherlands.
The head of state is the Dutch monarch, represented by a governor, and the head  of government is the prime minister. A Council of Ministers, presided over by  the prime minister, forms government policy. A minister plenipotentiary from  Curaçao resides in the Netherlands and represents the country there at meetings  of the Netherlands Council of Ministers. Curaçao has a unicameral Parliament  (Staten), with 21 members elected on the basis of proportional representation  for a term of no more than five years. Voting is open to all residents of  Curaçao with Dutch nationality who are at least 18 years old. Curaçao is  independent in internal affairs, but the government of the Netherlands is  responsible for defense, foreign relations, and similar matters. The judiciary  consists of a Court of First Instance and a Common Court of Justice of Aruba,  Curaçao, Sint Maarten and Bonaire, Sint Eustatius and Saba. Both courts handle  civil and criminal cases. The Supreme Court of the Netherlands is the court of  final appeal.
In spite of having scant rainfall or little fertile soil, the island developed a  major sugarcane-plantation economy under Dutch colonial rule. It now produces  oranges, the dried peel of which is the base for the famous Curaçao liqueur that  is distilled there. Aloes, which had originally been imported from Africa, do  not require irrigation and are still exported for pharmaceutical uses. All fresh  water used on the island is distilled from seawater.
The economy of Curaçao depends heavily on petroleum imported from Venezuela. The  harbour can accommodate large tankers, and the island is located at the junction  of trade routes that pass through the Panama Canal. The Dutch found oil in Lake  Maracaibo, Venezuela, but, because the lake was too shallow for oceangoing  ships, the oil was transported in smaller vessels to Curaçao for refining and  transshipment. Curaçao developed large modern dry-docking and bunkering  facilities and became one of the largest ports in the world in terms of total  tonnage handled.
In spite of the government's attempts to diversify the economy by encouraging  light industry, there are only a few manufacturing firms, and all consumer goods  and food must be imported. The decline of phosphate mining and automation in the  oil industry aggravated problems of unemployment. The expanding tourist sector  is key to the island's economy. In addition, Willemstad is an important  Caribbean banking centre. The currency is the Netherlands Antillean guilder, to  be replaced eventually with a new Caribbean guilder.