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Aruba: History

  • Alonso de Ojeda, a Spanish Explorer, discovers the island and claims it for Spain.

  • The Dutch colonize Aruba, making it a part of the Dutch West India Company.

  • The island is returned to the Dutch after being controlled by Britain during the Napoleonic Wars.

  • The discovery of gold on the island leads to a gold rush and prosperity for Aruba.

  • Aruba becomes part of the federation of the Netherlands Antilles.

  • Aruba secedes from the Netherlands Antilles and becomes a separate, autonomous member of the Kingdom of the Netherlands.

  • The Aruban government, in conjunction with the governments of the Netherlands and the Netherlands Antilles, decide to postpone indefinitely the transition to full independence. 

  • Aruba agrees to a deal with the United States to exchange tax data to fight money-laundering after previously being named as one of 35 "non-cooperative tax havens" in a report by the OECD.

  • OECD removes Aruba from an international list of uncooperative tax havens after it improves standards of transparency. 

Sources:

BBC News open_in_new
Britannica open_in_new