Editing Aruba (section)

==== Conquistadors ====
[[Conquistador|''Conquistadors'']] were fascinated by legends of inexhaustible gold reserves of [[El Dorado]]. The conquest was characterized by bloodshed, destruction, and forced assimilation of the native peoples into European society, such as the initiation of Indian slavery by Columbus in 1492. Europeans had an advantage because they had superior weapons, such as firearms, steel swords, armor, ships, horses, and targeted military strategies. While expedition leaders mostly came from the higher echelons of late medieval society, their foot soldiers were usually from the lower middle class of southern Europe. These soldiers formed the basis of the future group of ''encomenderos.'' The [[encomienda]] system granted Spanish colonizers right by the Spanish Crown to extract tribute and labor from indigenous peoples. For example, indigenous communities had to give up a portion of the yields from their agricultural or farm land, known as ''conucos'' in [[Taíno|Taino]],{{Efn|The Papiamento word for agricultural land or farm land, "kunuku" (Aruba: cunucu), may have a Taino origin.<ref>{{Cite web |last1=Sijs |first1=N. van der |last2=Joubert |first2=S. |date=2020 |title=Antilliaans-Nederlandse woorden en hun herkomst |url=https://repository.ubn.ru.nl/handle/2066/227327 |journal=}}</ref>}} as a form of taxation and to provide for the food supply of the colonists. The defeated were often kidnapped and forced to participate in expeditions elsewhere in the New World as slave laborers.<ref name=":03" />

{{Multiple image
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| image1            = Vespucci first voyage.jpg
| image2            = Vespucci second voyage.jpg
| footer            = Reconstruction of the first and second voyage of Amerigo Vespucci by Luciano Formisano<ref>{{Cite book |last=Vespucci |first=Amerigo |url=http://archive.org/details/lettersfromnewwo0000vesp |title=Letters from a new world : Amerigo Vespucci's Discovery of America |date=1992 |publisher=New York : Marsilio |others=Internet Archive |isbn=978-0-941419-62-8}}</ref>
}}

The Caquetío population of the Leeward Antilles was incorporated into the Spanish colonial empire {{Circa|1500}}. On June 8 and 10, 1501, [[Alonso de Ojeda|Alonso De Ojeda]] acquired the exclusive right to exploit the current Venezuelan coastal area, known as [[Coquivacoa]], and the islands of the coast Curaçao, Aruba, and Bonaire, and probably also the Mongues and Aves Islands. De Ojeda had to form an administration as far west as possible on the ''[[Province of Tierra Firme|Tierra Firme]]'' to secure the Spanish presence. It is believed that de Ojeda and [[Amerigo Vespucci]] visited Bonaire and Curaçao, but neither Vespucci nor de Ojeda are thought to have set foot on Aruban soil. He was explicitly forbidden to enslave natives. However, de Ojeda lacked administrative skills and intentions, and he became a controversial figure. De Ojeda established a base named Santa Cruz at the tip of [[Guajira Peninsula|Guajira]], from whence he conducted trade and, probably even more importantly, carried out his raids, including slave hunts. During his third voyage to the New World in 1502, de Ojeda visited Curaçao, but his attempt to exploit the region failed. Instead, [[Bartolomé de las Casas|Bartolomé de Las Casas]] documented de Ojeda's raids, slave hunts, and atrocities in the rural areas of present-day [[Cartagena, Colombia|Cartagena]] in his book, {{lang|es|Historia General de las Indias}}. These raids were disastrous, even for the Spaniards, and marked the end of the first attempt to control the region.<ref name=":022">{{Cite book |last=Alofs |first=L. |title=Koloniale mythen en Benedenwindse feiten : Curaçao, Aruba en Bonaire in inheems Atlantisch perspectief, ca. 1499-1636 |year=2018 |pages=51–79 |trans-title=Colonial Myths and Leeward Realities: Curaçao, Aruba, and Bonaire from an Indigenous Atlantic Perspective, ca. 1499-1636 |chapter=Inheemse eilanden: een korte kennismaking |publisher=Sidestone Press |isbn=978-90-8890-602-2 |trans-chapter=Indigenous islands: a brief introduction |chapter-url=https://archive.org/details/BNA-DIG-9789088906022/page/19/mode/2up}}</ref>

Between 1513 and 1515, the Leeward Antilles, including Curaçao, Aruba, and Bonaire, were depopulated. Captain Diego Salazar led this effort, which affected an estimated 2,000 indigenous inhabitants from these islands, and likely more from Tierra Firme.<ref name=":4" /> Most of the Caquetío were taken to [[Hispaniola]] as forced laborers. Many of them likely died on the way or later in the gold mines by the Spanish colonizers or during the devastating smallpox epidemic of 1518. Later on, new Indians migrated from the mainland to Aruba, while Indians were brought to Curaçao by [[Juan Martínez de Ampiés|Juan de Ampiés]]. The indigenous population was under encomienda, which ended the autonomy of Caquetío community in the islands. Their relatives on the mainland did not fare any better. After an unsuccessful attempt by Bartolomé de Las Casas to convert the local population to Christianity, the coastal region of the mainland was leased to the banking firm of the [[Welser family|Welsers]] in 1528.<ref>{{Citation |last=Montenegro |first=Giovanna |title=Germans in the Habsburg Empire in South America (Colonial Venezuela) |date=2022-03-23 |work=Oxford Research Encyclopedia of Latin American History |url=https://oxfordre.com/latinamericanhistory/display/10.1093/acrefore/9780199366439.001.0001/acrefore-9780199366439-e-1039?d=/10.1093/acrefore/9780199366439.001.0001/acrefore-9780199366439-e-1039&p=emailAsrcM7BiANrYE |access-date=2025-05-08 |language=en |doi=10.1093/acrefore/9780199366439.001.0001/acrefore-9780199366439-e-1039?d=/10.1093/acrefore/9780199366439.001.0001/acrefore-9780199366439-e-1039&p=emailasrcm7bianrye |isbn=978-0-19-936643-9}}</ref> This led to the violent conquest of the Caquetío kingdom.<ref name=":022" /> Before 1634, Curaçao, along with its neighboring islands Bonaire and Aruba, were considered part of the province of Venezuela. They had been separated from Venezuela only during the period of the Welser grant.<ref name=":4">{{Cite book |last=Alofs |first=Luc |url=http://archive.org/details/BNA-DIG-9789088906022 |title=Koloniale mythen en Benedenwindse feiten : Curaçao, Aruba en Bonaire in inheems Atlantisch perspectief, ca. 1499-1636 |date=2018 |publisher=Leiden : Sidestone Press |isbn=978-90-8890-602-2 |pages=81–110}}</ref>

The appropriation of the Caribbean region turned out to be a failure for the Spaniards. The exploitation of the West Indian islands proved unprofitable, and gold mining on Hispaniola and [[Puerto Rico]] declined. Spanish settlers moved elsewhere, and In 1569, the Spanish Crown banned settlement on the Caribbean islands by royal decree. This measure that did not apply to the leased islands of Curaçao, Aruba, and Bonaire. The colonization of the large Caribbean islands, such as [[Cuba]], was encouraged while the small islands were abandoned. Most of the islands remained largely uncontrolled and undefended, making them a potential opportunity for northwestern European countries that wanted to break Spain's monopoly on colonizing the New World. England, France, the Netherlands, and Denmark explored the possibilities of piracy and trade on the Caribbean islands.<ref name=":03" />

On the continent, the great empires declined, but indigenous societies continued to exist and were exposed to a long process of [[miscegenation]]. In the Falcón-Zulia province, among other places, Caquetío societies survived on Tierra Firme, although their cultures and social structures were largely destroyed by the Spaniards. On the (former) Caquetío coastal islands of Aruba, Curaçao, and [[Trinidad]], indigenous people lived well into the colonial period. The indigenous history of the Guajira peninsula extends to the present day. The [[Wayuu people|Wayú]] are increasingly being recognized on the Leeward Antilles as possible contemporary ancestors or lost relatives from prehistoric times.<ref name=":03" />