The first inhabitants

Aruba 's first inhabitants were the Caquetios Indians from the Arawak tribe, who migrated there from Venezuela to escape attacks by the Caribs. Fragments of the earliest known Indian settlements date back to about 1,000 A.D. Due to Aruba's mostly distant location from other Caribbean islands and strong currents in the sea which made canoe travel to the other islands difficult, the Caquetios remained more tied to South America than the Caribbean. They lived here from 290 BC and in the caves they lived in you can still find their drawings on the cave walls. Today, many of the names of towns and other geographical areas originate from the earliest indian chiefs and warrior settlers, such as Turibana, Camacuri, Bushiri and Guadirikiri.

The first Europeans

The first Europeans on Aruba were the Spanish. Spanish explorer Alonso de Ojeda is regarded as the first European to arrive in about 1499. Although he established a colony there, it never amounted to much. Unlike many other Caribbean islands, no plantation society evolved on Aruba. Instead, the Spanish sent many Caquetios to Hispaniola, where they were enslaved in the mines. They occupied the island around 1499 and in 1513 took the entire population (a couple hundred indians) to Santa Domingo to work in the copper mines. In 1527 some indians were brought back to work for the Spanish on Aruba.

The Dutch

In 1634 the Dutch took over Curaçao, Bonaire and Aruba and started breeding horses. Unlike the Spanish, the Dutch didn't enslave the indians. The indians were very good horse breeder's and they started working for the Dutch. The last indian died around 1862.

Gold mines

In 1824 gold was discovered and it was mined extensively. Along with aloe and phosphate it became a major export product.The way the gold was mined became to expensive and the once booming gold-mining industry ceased in 1916.

Oil refinery

In 1928 the dutch oil company Shell built the Eagle oil refinery which was immediately followed by the refinery in San Nicolas, built by Lago oil. In 1932 Exxon took over the Lago refinery and Dutch Shell stopped it's refinery in 1953. Exxon closed the refinery in 1985, but it was reopened in 1991 by the Coastal Oil Company. Finally the refinery was taken over by the Valero company who's operates it at present.

Independence

Aruba seceded from the Netherlands Antilles on January 1st 1986, and became a separate, self-governing, member of the Kingdom of the Netherlands. Movement toward full independence by 1996 was halted at Aruba's request in 1990