View source for Bonaire

===Dutch period===
{{Main|Dutch Caribbean}}

The [[Dutch West India Company]] was founded in 1602. Starting in 1623, ships of the West India Company called at Bonaire to obtain meat, water and wood. The Dutch also abandoned some Spanish and Portuguese prisoners there, and these people founded the town of [[Antriol]], which is a contraction of Spanish ''al interior'' (English: ''inside''). The Dutch and the Spanish fought from 1568 to 1648 in what is now known as the [[Eighty Years War]]. In 1633, the Dutch{{Snd}} having lost the island of [[St. Maarten]] to the Spanish{{Snd}} retaliated by attacking Curaçao, Bonaire and Aruba. Bonaire was conquered in March 1636. The Dutch built Fort Oranje in 1639.<ref>[[:nl:Fort Oranje (Bonaire)]]{{Circular reference|date=March 2019}}</ref>

While Curaçao emerged as a centre of the [[History of slavery|slave trade]], Bonaire became a plantation of the Dutch West India Company. [[edible salt|Salt]] became a major export product of the island; a small number of African slaves were put to work alongside Indians and convicts, cultivating dyewood and maize and harvesting solar salt around Blue Pan.<ref>{{cite journal |last1=Kennedy |first1=Cynthia M. |title=The Other White Gold: Salt, Slaves, the Turks and Caicos Islands, and British Colonialism |journal=The Historian |date=2007 |volume=69 |issue=2 |page=218 |doi=10.1111/j.1540-6563.2007.00178.x |jstor=24453659 |s2cid=144807834 |doi-access=free }}</ref><ref>{{cite book |last1=Misevich |first1=Phil |last2=Mann |first2=Kristin |last3=Silva |first3=Daniel B. Domingues da |last4=Richardson |first4=David |last5=Vos |first5=Jelmer |last6=Mann |first6=Kristin |title=The Rise and Demise of Slavery and the Slave Trade in the Atlantic World |date=2016 |publisher=University of Rochester Press |isbn=978-1-78204-656-1 |page=76 |id={{Project MUSE|83663|type=book}} }}</ref> Slave quarters, built entirely of stone and too short for a man to stand upright in, still stand in the area around Rincon and along the salt pans. The slave population grew in the 1710s when a famine and social unrest on Curaçao caused the Dutch to relocate a large number of slaves to Bonaire.<ref name="van Welie 2008">{{cite journal |last1=van Welie |first1=Rik |title=Slave trading and slavery in the Dutch colonial empire: A global comparison |journal=New West Indian Guide / Nieuwe West-Indische Gids |date=2008 |volume=82 |issue=1–2 |pages=47–96 |doi=10.1163/13822373-90002465 |jstor=43390702 |s2cid=128869753 |doi-access=free }}</ref> Historically, Dutch was not widely spoken on the island outside of colonial administration; its use increased in the late 19th and early 20th centuries.<ref>''Dede pikiña ku su bisiña: Papiamentu-Nederlands en de onverwerkt verleden tijd''. van Putte, Florimon., 1999. Zutphen: de Walburg Pers</ref> Students on Curaçao, Aruba and Bonaire were taught predominantly in Spanish until the late 18th century when the British took Curaçao, Aruba and Bonaire; the teaching of Spanish was restored when Dutch rule resumed in 1815.

During the [[Napoleonic Wars]], the Netherlands lost control of Bonaire twice, once from 1800 to 1803, and again from 1807 to 1816.<ref name="van Welie 2008" /><ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.britishempire.co.uk/maproom/bonaire.htm |title=The Map Room: Caribbean: Bonaire |publisher=British Empire |access-date=10 October 2010 |archive-date=6 October 2010 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20101006075743/http://britishempire.co.uk/maproom/bonaire.htm |url-status=live }}</ref> During these intervals, the British had control of the neighbouring island of [[Curaçao]] and of Bonaire. The [[ABC islands]] were returned to the Netherlands under the [[Anglo-Dutch Treaty of 1814]]. During the period of British rule, a large number of white traders settled on Bonaire, and built the settlement of Playa ([[Kralendijk]]) in 1810.

==== Emancipation ====

From 1816 until 1868, Bonaire remained a government plantation. In 1825, there were about 300 government-owned slaves on the island. Gradually many of the slaves were freed and became freemen with an obligation to render some services to the government. The remaining slaves were freed on 30 September 1862 under the Emancipation Regulation. A total of 607 government slaves and 151 private slaves were freed at that time.<ref name="Helm" />
[[File:Bonaire Red Slave Huts.jpg|thumb|Slave huts]]

====World War II====
During the [[German occupation of the Netherlands]] during World War II, Bonaire was a protectorate of Britain and the United States. The American army built the [[Flamingo International Airport|Flamingo Airport]] as an air force base. After Germany invaded the Netherlands on May 10, 1940, authorities declared [[martial law]], and many German and Austrian citizens, as well as Dutch thought to be German sympathizers, were interned in a camp on Bonaire.<ref>{{cite book |last1=van der Horst |first1=Liesbeth |title=Wereldoorlog in de West: Suriname, de Nederlandse Antillen en Aruba, 1940-1945 |date=2004 |publisher=Verloren |location=Hilversum |isbn=978-90-6550-794-5 |pages=69–74 |language=nl}}</ref> Some of these remained in this camp for the war's duration, and others were transferred to new camps built on the mainland in the first year of the war.<ref>{{Cite news | author = Anonymous | title = Imprisoned Innocents | url = http://bonairereporter.com/news/007PDFs/06-15-07.pdf | publisher = Bonaire Reporter | page = 7 | date = 15 June 2007 | access-date = 19 February 2009 | archive-url = https://web.archive.org/web/20110708082341/http://bonairereporter.com/news/007PDFs/06-15-07.pdf | archive-date = 8 July 2011 }}</ref><ref>{{cite book |last=Sint Jago |first=Junnes E. |title=Wuiven vanaf de waranda |year=2007 |publisher=Gopher |location=Utrecht |language=nl |isbn=978-90-5179-496-0 |oclc=150262823}}</ref><ref>{{cite book |last1=Captain |first1=Esther |title=Oorlogserfgoed overzee: de erfenis van de Tweede Wereldoorlog in Aruba, Curaçao, Indonesië en Suriname |date=2010 |publisher=Bakker |location=Amsterdam |isbn=978-90-351-3584-0 |language=nl |chapter=De interneringen in Suriname en de Nederlandse Antillen}}</ref> In 1944, [[Princess Juliana of the Netherlands|Princess Juliana]] and [[Eleanor Roosevelt]] visited the troops on Bonaire.<ref name="Helm" />

Bonairean sailors made an above-average contribution during World War II. German U-boats tried to eliminate shipping around the Aruba and Curaçao refineries and thus eliminate the island's considerable fuel production for the Allies. Bonairean-crewed ships also took part in these battles. Among the many missing after the war, were the 34 Bonaireans who died on these ships (more than on the other islands of the then Dutch West Indies). During hostilities, the site where the Divi Flamingo Beach Resort & Casino now stands served as an internment camp for Germans and Austrians living in the Antilles, mainly because they were distrusted. There were fears they could have sabotaged the giant oil refineries on Aruba and Curaçao that were supplying paraffin to the Allied air fleet.{{citation needed|date=October 2023}}

The camp was in operation from 1940 to 1947. In total, 461 people were interned during this period without trial, most of them completely innocent. Among them were Medardo de Marchena and also the photographer Fred Fischer, then still an Austrian citizen. Many German internees had just fled Nazi violence. But there were also German prisoners of war, some of whom remained after the war. In September 1943, the father of [[George Maduro]], after whom Madurodam is named, asked Queen Wilhelmina to exchange his son for the German internees on Bonaire. The government did not grant the request. After the war, the empty barracks became Bonaire's first hotel: Zeebad.
[[File:Aankomst van het koninklijk paar op het vliegveld van Bonaire, Bestanddeelnr 252-3827.jpg|thumb|Royal visit of [[Queen Juliana]] and [[Prince Bernhard]] in 1955]]

====Post-war====
After the war, the economy of Bonaire continued to develop. The airport was converted to civilian use and the former internment camp was converted to become the first hotel on Bonaire.<ref>{{cite web | url = http://www.divibonaire.com/ | title = Divi Flamingo Beach Resort Bonaire | access-date = 19 February 2009 | archive-date = 1 June 2020 | archive-url = https://web.archive.org/web/20200601090944/https://divibonaire.com/ | url-status = live }}</ref> The Dutchman [[Pierre Schunck]] started a clothing factory known as [[Schunck's Kledingindustrie Bonaire]], a partial solution for the large female surplus on the island. In 1964, [[Trans World Radio]] began broadcasting from Bonaire. [[Radio Netherlands Worldwide]] built two shortwave transmitters on Bonaire in 1969. The second major hotel (Bonaire Beach Hotel)<ref>{{cite web | url = http://www.geographia.com/bonaire/sunset/sunhot.htm | title = Bonaire Beach Hotel | access-date = 19 February 2009 | archive-date = 4 March 2016 | archive-url = https://web.archive.org/web/20160304052216/http://www.geographia.com/bonaire/sunset/sunhot.htm | url-status = live }}</ref> was completed in 1962. Salt production resumed in 1966 when the salt pans were expanded and modernized by the Antilles International Salt Company, a subsidiary of the International Salt Company. Part of the facilities extend into the Caribbean Sea and form the popular dive site known as Salt Pier.<ref>{{cite web | url = http://www.cargillsalt.com/ | title = Cargill Salt Company | access-date = 19 February 2009 | archive-date = 21 February 2009 | archive-url = https://web.archive.org/web/20090221043625/http://www.cargillsalt.com/ | url-status = live }}</ref> The Bonaire Petroleum Corporation (BOPEC) oil terminal was opened in 1975 for trans-shipping oil.<ref>{{cite web | url = http://www.rocargo.com/Bopec.html | archive-url = https://web.archive.org/web/20070301191150/http://www.rocargo.com/Bopec.html | archive-date = 2007-03-01 | title = Bonaire Petroleum Company | access-date = 19 February 2009}}</ref>
Politically Bonaire formed part of the [[Netherlands Antilles]] from 1954 to 2010; it is now a special municipality within the Netherlands.<ref name="WOLBES" /> In 2011 the island officially adopted the US dollar as its currency.<ref>{{cite web |url=https://www.government.nl/latest/news/2010/05/18/introduction-of-the-dollar-on-bonaire-saint-eustace-saba |title=Introduction of the dollar on Bonaire, Saint Eustace, Saba |date=18 May 2010 |access-date=26 June 2019 |archive-date=26 June 2019 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20190626202050/https://www.government.nl/latest/news/2010/05/18/introduction-of-the-dollar-on-bonaire-saint-eustace-saba |url-status=live }}</ref>