Curaçao, island (1989 est. pop. 146,100), 178 sq mi (461 sq km), largest and most populous of the Netherlands Antilles, West Indies. Curaçao is semiarid; most of the plant life is of desert character. Oil refining is the principal industry, and the island has one of the world's largest refineries, receiving oil from the enormous reserves at nearby Lake Maracaibo, Venezuela. There are also phosphate deposits. Other major industries include tourism (Curaçao is a free port and has a number of resorts and casinos) and ship repairing. Curaçao's ship-repair dry dock is one of the largest in the Americas.

History

Visited by Alonso de Ojeda and Amerigo Vespucci in 1499, Curaçao was not settled by the Spanish until 1527. The Dutch captured it in 1634 and remained in possession except for a brief period of British rule during the Napoleonic Wars. In the 18th cent. Curaçao was a base for a flourishing Dutch entrepôt trade. Economic prosperity declined after the abolition of slavery in 1863 but revived with the introduction of the petroleum industry in the early 20th cent. Curaçao was the scene of severe racial strife and rioting in 1969.