A Brief History of Bonaire
Bonaire would logically mean “good air,” but the French never stayed on the island long enough to have much of an influence, so historians assume the name is derived from the Arawak word bonah, which means low country. Historic Dutch and Spanish journals record the name as both Bojnaj and Bonaire.
Early Inhabitants
Caiquetio Indians, a branch of the Arawak tribe, lived on Bonaire at least as early 1000 AD and evidence of their civilization has been found at various archeological sites on the island. Rock paintings made with red stain from local dyewood trees are still visible in the limestone caves at Spelonk, Onima, Ceru Pungi, and Ceru Crita-Cabai.
Europeans Arrive
European explorers Amerigo Vespucci and Alonso de Ojeda arrived in 1499 to claim the island for Spain. When no gold was found, and the land proved too dry for large-scale cultivation, the Caiquetios were rounded up and taken to Hispaniola (Dominican Republic/Haiti) to work as slave laborers in the mines and on plantations. Within 15 years, few natives were left on Bonaire.
Juan de Ampues (the governor of Aruba, Bonaire, and Curaçao) attempted to make the island profitable in 1526 by starting a ranching venture. He brought a number of Caiquetios back to Bonaire to care for the livestock, whose hides turned out to be a more valuable export than their meat. Many of the animals were allowed to wander untended about the island, and the land was quickly overrun by roving sheep, goats, cows, pigs, and donkeys.
The governor also allowed the island to be used as a dumping ground for prisoners and, for more than a century, Bonaire was a rather unsavory colony of convicts and feral beasts. Nevertheless, the Dutch set their sights on the island (along with Aruba and Curaçao) when they went seeking vengeance on all things Spanish during their war for independence. In 1633, after losing St. Maarten to Spain, the Dutch captured the ABCs as a consolation prize.
Curaçao was the most valuable of the three islands because of its deepwater harbor, but the DutchWest India Company saw potential for producing salt, livestock, dyewood, and corn on Bonaire. Caiquetios, prisoners, and African slaves were put to work. The tiny stone hovels where they slept after long hours of labor still stand near the village of Rincón and beside the salt pans at the southern end of the island.
When the Dutch West India Company collapsed in 1791, the government of the Kingdom of the Netherlands seized the slave workers along with the company’s other assets. These government slaves, known as Katibu di Rei (Papiamentu for “Slaves of the King”), were allowed to farm and sell the produce that they grew, and many managed to buy their freedom. However, living conditions on the island were harsh, and some of the slaves began stirring up trouble during the 1830s. Plantation owners and businesses controlled growing discontent by throwing major instigators into jail and separating minor rabble-rousers.
Both the British and the French tormented the Dutch in the Caribbean during the early 1800s, and the British were able to gain brief control from 1800 until 1803 and again from 1807 until 1815. At one point, the British leased Bonaire to a North American shipping mogul, who methodically stripped the island of its lumber. When the Dutch regained possession through the Treaty of Paris in 1816, they constructed Fort Oranje to defend Bonaire from future attacks.
The salt industry, Bonaire’s major enterprise, began a sharp decline after the abolition of slavery in 1862. The Dutch government divided the island into five sections and auctioned them to businessmen who were interested in lumber and ranching potential. Many residents, faced with unemployment or low-paying jobs, left to work in South America or on other Caribbean Islands.
Oil and Tourism in Bonaire
Bonaire lingered in depression and despair until oil was discovered in northern Venezuela in the early 1900s, and refineries were built on Aruba and Curaçao. Booming prosperity on the sister islands spread to Bonaire, and living conditions improved dramatically.
Suddenly, the island had money to spend. Electricity was installed, the harbor at Kralendijk was rebuilt, and roads all over the island were paved. Men were given the right to vote in 1936, and Dutch Queen Juliana granted the island self-rule as an autonomous member of the Netherlands Antilles within the Kingdom of the Netherlands in 1954.
Tourism took off in the Netherlands Antilles during the 1960s, and Bonaire’s first hotel opened in 1962, the same year Don Stewart first sailed his Valerie Queen to the island. Captain Don, a Californian, was awed by the sea life on the pristine coral reefs surrounding Bonaire and soon made the island his home. Today, he is known as the father of divetourism on Bonaire and credited with the island’s popularity among scuba enthusiasts.
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