Small islands in the Caribbean: the last remains of the tropical Netherlands

More than 350 years ago, ships of the Dutch West-Indian Company sailed into St. Anna Bay, Curacao and conquered the Island from the Spanish. Soon the island became a stronghold for buccaneers and a depot for the flourishing Dutch slave trade. In the course of time, the colony of Curacao grew to encompass the Islands of Aruba and Bonaire and the Dutch Leeward Islands (St. Maarten1, Saba and St. Eustatius) situated more than 900 kilometres further north.