Christopher Columbus did not discover Aruba.

This may come as a shock to some who believe Christopher Columbus discovered every island and inlet in the Americas, but Aruba definitely was not discovered by Columbus. Instead two other well-known Spanish explorers, Amerigo Vespucci and Alonso de Ojeda, did the honors in 1499. It is believed the island’s first inhabitants were Arawak Indians who migrated from the coast of Venezuela around 1,000 AD. The island nation was colonized by Spain in the early 1500s and remained under their administration for a century until the Dutch occupied Aruba in 1636 under Peter Stuyvesant, where it has remained since.

In 1805, during the Napoleonic wars, the British briefly took control over the island, but it was returned to Dutch control in 1816. A 19th Century gold rush was followed by prosperity brought on by the opening in 1924 of an oil refinery. The last decades of the 20th Century saw a boom in the tourism industry.

Part of the Kingdom of the Netherlands, Aruba has full autonomy on all internal affairs with the exception of defense, foreign affairs and some judicial functions. The island’s economy has been dominated by five main industries: gold mining, phosphate mining, aloe export, petroleum refineries and tourism. Today, tourism reigns.