Bonaire, with a surface of 111 square mile, is the second largest island of the Dutch Antilles after Curaçao. It is located in the southern part of the Caribbean Sea, right off the coast of Venezuela and is part of the ABC-islands. According to the 2007 records, the number of habitants of Bonaire was 14.479, of which 12,531 live in the capital Kralendijk
and 1,788 live in the suburbs neighborhood, Rincon. There are various ethnic groups living on the island of Bonaire like Dutch, Venezuelans, Colombians and people from The Dominican Republic. Mr. Glenn Thode is the authority of the island.
The official language on Bonaire is Dutch, but the majority of the inhabitants speak Papiamentu, while 12% speak Spanish and only 9% Dutch. The main economic sectors are tourism and salt production. The south of Bonaire is designed for environmentally friendly salt production.
Just off the coast of Kralendijk, you will find Klein Bonaire. Klein Bonaire is a smaller island a little over 8 square yard, which is overgrown with shrubs and cactuses. The island is home of at least 76 different plant species and approximately 55 animal species. The beaches on the North- and West coast are the main nesting sites for sea turtles. The island is surrounded by coral reef.
History
Around the year 1000 the Caiquetio Indians came from Venezuela to Bonaire. In 1499 Alonso de Ojeda and Amerigo Vespucci came to the island as two of the first Europeans. They took the island in possession from Spain. The local Indians were removed to serve as slaves on the plantations in South America. In 1526 the Spanish introduced cattle on the island of Bonaire. As a result of that, there is still a large amounts of gouts and donkey’s living in the wild.
In 1633 the Dutch took Bonaire over from Spain. The island came under control of the West Indian Company, they imported a small amount of slaves to work on the plantations (wood and corn fields) and salt industry. The slave huts, barely higher then 6.5 feet, can still be seen on Bonaire. It was not before 1863 that slavery was abolished.
In the nineteenth century Great-Britain conquered the Antilles twice from the Dutch. When the islands where definitively assigned to The Netherlands in 1816, Ford Oranje was build in Kralendijk to protect Bonaire.
During the twentieth century the harbor was renewed and the airport, Flamingo Airport, was constructed. In the 2e World War Bonaire acted as a concentration camp for arrested German and Dutch Nazi prisoners.