Introduction Netherlands Antilles
Background:
Once the center of the Caribbean slave trade, the island of Curacao
was hard hit by the abolition of slavery in 1863. Its prosperity
(and that of neighboring Aruba) was restored in the early 20th
century with the construction of oil refineries to service the newly
discovered Venezuelan oil fields. The island of Saint Martin is
shared with France; its southern portion is named Sint Maarten and
is part of the Netherlands Antilles; its northern portion is called
Saint-Martin and is part of Guadeloupe.
Geography Netherlands Antilles
Location:
Caribbean, two island groups in the Caribbean Sea - one includes
Curacao and Bonaire north of Venezuela; the other is east of the
Virgin Islands
Geographic coordinates:
12 15 N, 68 45 W
Map references:
Central America and the Caribbean
Area:
total: 960 sq km
note: includes Bonaire, Curacao, Saba, Sint Eustatius, and Sint
Maarten (Dutch part of the island of Saint Martin)
water: 0 sq km
land: 960 sq km
Area - comparative:
more than five times the size of Washington, DC
Land boundaries: total: 10.2 km border countries: Guadeloupe (Saint Martin) 10.2 km
Coastline: 364 km