The New New World

[JJohnson]

Part 7: Klein Venedig (Little Venice)

In the early 16th century, a German colony was formed in the Americas, starting in 1528. The Welser banking family of Augsburg obtained colonial rights in the Province of Venezuela in return for debts owed by Charles I of Spain. Their primary motivation was the search for the legendary golden city of El Dorado, which they never ended up finding. First led by Ambrosius Ehinger, who founded Neu-Nürnberg (New Nuremberg) in 1529.

Bartholomeus V. Welser was the head of the banking firm of Welser Brothers, who claimed he was descended from the Byzantine general Belisarius. They had great riches, and Bartholomeus, was created a prince of the empire, and made privy councilor to emperor Charles V, to whom he lent large sums. To repay these debts, he was granted in 1527, the province of Venezuela by royal charter in perpetuity so long as it is developed and the goods exported from the colony go only to Spanish or Hanseatic ports. The Welsers, for their part, were obligated to conquer the country at their own expenses, and enlist only German troops, as the Spanish king wanted no cost to his Empire, and to outfit three expeditions of eight vessels, and to build four cities and five forts within three years after taking possession. Since Venezuela had a reputation for containing gold mines, he later got permission to sent out 190 German miners and their families to search for the gold. Heinrich Ehinger and Hieronymus Sailer, either independently, or as agents of the Welsers, negotiated the rights.

The Welsers put Ehinger in charge of the colony as its first governor, and he set sail from Sanlúcar de Barrameda in early 1528 as captain general of the fleet. They landed at Santa Ana de Coro, which Ehinger renamed as Neu-Augsburg on landing in February 24, 1529. He replaced his Spanish deputy González de Leyva with Nicolaus Federmann.

In August, Ehinger made his first expedition to Marakaiben See, which was bitterly opposed by the Coquivacoa Indians. After winning a series of bloody battles, he founded the settlement on September 8, 1529, naming the lake after the chieftain Mara, of the Coquivacoa, who died in the fighting. The colony was slow-growing at first due to the death of colonists from tropical diseases, to which they had no immunity, or hostile Indian attacks during their frequent journeys deep into Indian territory in search of gold.

The Welsers transported miners, farmers, and other tradesmen with their families, believing they could get not only gold and silver, but also grow exotic foods to sell back in the Holy Roman Empire. In keeping with his promise to the king, Ehinger founded a fort at Neuberg (OTL Pueblo Nuevo) and Westberg (OTL Castilletes) first out of three rings of wood walls with towers in a pentagonal shape, with eight cannon each, to protect the bay from ships getting to Neu-Augsburg. Both forts were founded in 1530, and protected with 50 troops each. Soon thereafter, he hurried to consolidate control over the colony, sending expeditions and ships east, founding the settlement of West-München (OTL Caracas), and then Gürich (OTL Guiria) and the fort at Heinrichshaven (OTL Maneiro) by December in 1530.

Unfortunately, while he kept his word to the king, he did stretch his resources and colonists very thin, and even with the 4,000 African slaves as labor to work sugar cane plantations, the colony needed more settlers in addition to the 980 there so far. Ehinger continued pleading for colonists and additional troops for securing the realm, and the Holy Roman Empire provided a number of troops and families eager to leave due to the disruptions of the religious conflicts of the era. Austrian, Bavarian, Swabian, and Rhinelander German-speakers sailed in the Welser's ships, bringing in two years around 2500 people, men and women, to settle the colony. The women were given promises of property to entice them, at a time when women had few rights other than raising children and domestic duties. Their fare would be forgiven if they had at least 4 children, which produced muddled results in the colony's settlements but did increase the population.

From 1529 to 1535, the Ehinger governorship brought in 5200 settlers, saw the deaths of 1900 people, and the birth of 988 children who survived into adulthood, leaving the colony with 4,641 people overall by 1535, excluding slaves. Governor Ehinger came down with Malaria and left to recuperate in the relatively civilized comforts of Hispaniola in 1531. Upon his return, he took 130 foot soldiers and 40 horses with an unknown number of allied Indians to set off in search of gold to the west. They crosed the Oca and Valledupar mountains, where Ehinger recorded them by the name of the Grünwaldgebirge (Spanish: Serrania del Perija), then moved along the Kaiser River, then finally to the Zapatosa marsh, where they rested for three months, then continued south. They faced resistance from the Indian tribes there, so they turned east along the Lebrija River. During this expedition they lost most of their Indian allies, and had to eat some of their dogs and horses for food, before they rested at Hochburg (Machiques), finding some tubers and other food there to eat before finally heading back to Neu-Augsburg in early 1532.

Despite his success, Ehinger's Lieutenant, Federmann was not named governor when Ehinger left to return to Europe in 1534. Georg von Speyer, a fortune-seeker and an energetic persuader, caught the attention of the Welser family in Augsburg, and laid out their plans for making the colony a source of more revenue for the Welsers. He was named governor, and granted consent by Charles V, and was sent to Neu Augsburg, arriving in late 1534 with a fleet of 6 ships and 180 settlers he personally rounded up, tradesmen and their wives and sisters whom he promised land and more freedom than they had in Europe. It was by force of his personality that he was able to advertise the colony to Europe, sending glowing reports back to the Holy Roman Empire, which encouraged more settlers to the colony.

Landing in Neu-Augsburg, Von Speyer divided the people into troops and tradesmen, and had the troops improve the city wall, thickening its protective width from the jungle trees, and giving enough room to build new buildings in the city center. He commissioned the building of the first permanent Rathaus of Neu-Augsburg and the Cathedral for the city to worship in.

Neu-Augsburg Rathaus, South America (finished 1544)

Neu-Augsburger Dom, South America
(started 1532, finished 1644)

Von Speyer had spent time in Italy, and some of the architects he brought with him, notably Wilhelm von Memmingen, trained there on several famous buildings. The cathedral they drew up was based on the Bamberg Cathedral, the Rathaus (town hall) was based on the one in Augsburg in Bavaria, and under the influence of Heinrich Meißner, a fellow architect from Munich, convinced von Speyer to build new buildings out of stone, having experienced the burning of his home village when he was a child. Houses were built along the Gairenfluß (OTL Guaire River) in Neu-Nürnberg allowing them fresh water and easy navigation up and down the river to other businesses, who had docks for all the people who boated up and down the river.

Older houses along the Gairen River in Neu-Nürnburg

Old Schlacthaus in Neu-Nürnberg

By 1568, the colony had grown to around 12,500 people, most in Neu-Augsburg, with 7500 African slaves helping tend their farms. From Peru, a new tuber was introduced, which they found they could cook and eat, and have it provide a load of nutrition, which they called the Erdapfel. The crop would eventually make it to Europe, but here in Klein Venedig, it would become a staple, along with cattle, chicken, swine, and other local animals for meats. The tuber was easy to grow and was soon plentiful in the area, becoming one of its main crops exported to Europe. The colony started growing further, with more German-speakers seeing the colony as an option to the crowded and dirty cities of Europe. The people overall had a Swabian accent, due to the southeastern German-speakers coming into the colony, but now with Silesian elements and Prussian elements in some of the newer settlements being built.

Between 1550 and 1570, several new settlements were built to help make the colony more self-sufficient, notably Grünberg (formerly Hochburg; OTL Machiques), Neu-Münchner-Hafen (Catia La Mar), Ritterhafen (Puerto Cabello), Falkensee (Valencia), Johannesdorf (Juan Antonio Rotillo), Zuckerstadt (Cumana), and Grünhafen (Carupano).

Map of early settlements in Klein Venedig by the end of the 16th century

The government of Klein Venedig moved from Neu-Augsburg to West-München in 1561, with the appointment of Philipp von Hutten, after von Speyer took three expeditions in search of gold, which all turned up nothing. It would be Johannes Federmann, a cousin of one of the colonists, who would finally find gold at what would eventually become Goldburg (El Callao), leading to a huge uptick in the colonization of the territory. Federman led an expedition from Johannesdorf, pausing near the Orinoco, founding a fort that became Ehingerstadt (Ciudad Bolivar), fording the river, then traveling east along the river, founding Guyanastadt (Ciudad Guyana), making it south and east to Goldfeld (El Callao), later called Reichsburg. Federmann brought back several pounds' worth of gold, having gotten help from the natives, with whom he traded and maintained good relations throughout his time in the colony.

The news of gold was a guarded secret that made its way to Vienna, and encouraged larger migrations into the land for people looking for riches, and others, also looking for land or more freedom from the religious conflicts between the Catholics and Protestants in Austria. Between 1561 and 1581, over 19,900 people left Europe, men, women, and children, and over 3,000 African slaves were brought over to help farm; the first issues of race arose when German farmers from Europe refused the Africans in their property, while those having been in the colony for decades were used to the Africans, who had since learned German, dressed like Europeans, and had been converted to Christianity. These slaves experienced discrimination, sure, but treatment was in general no overly harsh, as there were laws against severely beating slaves or denying them food or drink as punishments.

Tradesmen made Klein Venedig their home - brewers, doctors, architects, glass-makers, printers, farmers, ranchers, woodworkers, ship builders, painters, and others - and under von Hutten, the improvements of von Speyer continued. He directed the building of straight streets in West-München, widening them to what we would consider five auto lanes wide, so that in case of fire, people could evacuate more easily, and started laying brick paths for roads to prevent them from washing out and having horses throw shoes and wagons breaking wheels. Von Hutten asked for a Stadttag to send ten men from each city to meet twice a year in West-München to help govern the colony starting in 1563, which would later become the Landtag, the first legislature of the colony. The first act was to declare thanks to God for their safety; the second to declare Christianity the religion of the land and the mission of the settlers to spread the faith to the heathens. Third, the colonists passed an act instituting a small tax to help pay to build some paths and roads between the cities to help facilitate trade.

The Augsburg Peace of 1555 provided for a slow steady stream of settlers, people leaving for religious freedom, mostly Lutheran from Catholic areas, which eventually would turn Lutheran or Calvinist themselves in the coming decades. In the peace, Charles ceded his lands to Spain, except for Klein Venedig, which was a majority German-settled land, to the Holy Roman Empire. Ferdinand I was the first almost Protestant (though never publicly state) emperor of the Holy Roman Empire, with his tolerance of the new religion, actually attending some services within Protestant churches in addition to the Catholic churches in Vienna, and to the consternation of the Catholics, tolerated the presence of Protestantism.

In the colony, by the close of the 16th century, the colony had about 32,000 settlers, about 24,000 of which were Lutheran, 5,000 Calvinist, and the rest Catholic or Anglican (coming from the British West Indies colonies).

 

[Nivek]

The issue post holy roman empire..The colony would count as independent or align with one of german states?

 

[Unknown]

This is getting interesting...

 

[JJohnson]

Part 8-A: The Unity of the Dutch

In 1581, the States-General invited François, Duke of Anjou, the younger brother of King Henry III of France, to be its sovereign ruler. Anjou accepted on the condition that the Netherland officially renounce any loyalty to King Philip of Spain. The States-General that same year, issued the Act of Abjuration, which declared that the King of Spain, Philip, had not upheld his responsibilities to the people of the Netherlands, and therefore would no longer be accepted as the rightful sovereign of their lands. He arrived in February of 1582. Though he was welcomed in some cities, he was rejected by Holland and Zeeland. Most of the people distrusted him as a Catholic, and the States-General granted him very limited powers. He brought a small French army into the Netherlands, and then decided to seize control of Antwerp by force in January 1583. His attempt failed disastrously, and the Duke of Anjou left the Netherlands.

After that, Elizabeth, Queen of England, was offered the sovereignty of the Netherlands, but declined. Having exhausted all options for foreign royalty, the States-General eventually decided to rule as a republican body instead.

----

Duke of Anjou

Anjou arrived February 10, 1582, when he was officially welcomed by William of Orange in Flushing. Despite the joyous entries he was accorded in Bruges and Ghent, and his ceremonious installation as Duke of Brabant and Count of Flanders, Anjou wasn't popular witht he Dutch or Flemish, who continued to see the Catholic French as enemies to the majority Calvinist Netherlands; the provinces of Zeeland and Holland refused to recognize him as their sovereign, and William, the central figure of the "Politiques" who worked to defuse religious hostilities, was widely criticized for his "French politics". He is now thought to have been the patron behind the "Valois tapestries" presented to Catherine, which presented major figures in Catherine's court against scenes of festivity. When Anjou's French troops arrived in late 1582, William's plan seemed to pay off, as even the Duke of Parma feared that the Dutch would now gain the upper hand.

The Duke of Anjou was dissatisfied with his limited power, and decided to take control of the Flemish cities of Antwerp, Bruges, Dunkirk, and Ostend by force. He would personally lead the attack on Antwerp. To fool the citizens of Antwerp, Anjou proposed that he should make a "Joyous Entry" into the city, a grand ceremony in which he would be accompanied by his French troops. On 18 January 1583, Anjou entered Antwerp, but the citizens had not been deceived. The city militia was ready for him, and ambushed and destroyed Anjou's force in the French Fury. Anjou barely escaped with his life.

Map of the Netherlands in 1583

The debacle at Antwerp marked the end of his military career. His mother, Catherine de' Medici is said to have written to him that "would to God you had died young. You would then not have been the cause of the death of so many brave gentlemen". Another insult followed when Elizabeth I formally ended her engagement to him after the massacre. The position of Anjou after this attack became impossible to hold, and he eventually left the country in June. His departure also discredited William, who nevertheless maintained his support for Anjou.

Soon Anjou fell seriously ill with malaria. Catherine de' Medici brought him back to Paris, where he was reconciled to his brother, King Henry III of France, in February 1584. Henry even embraced his brother, whom he had famously called le petit magot ("little macaque"). By June, the Duke of Anjou was dead. His premature death meant that the Huguenot Henry of Navarre became heir-presumptive, thus leading to an escalation in the French Wars of Religion.

----
The Siege of Antwerp took place during the Eighty Years' War from July 1584 to September 1584. At the time, Antwerp was not only the largest Dutch city, but was also the cultural, economic, and financial center of the Seventeen Provinces and of northwestern Europe. On November 4, 1576, the unpaid Spanish soldiers mutinied and plundered and burnt the city in what was called the Spanish Fury. Thousands of citizens were massacred, and hundreds of houses were burned down, targeting Protestants, but the targeting backfired. The city became more engaged in the rebellion against the rule of Habsburg Spain. Antwerp joined the Union of Utrecht (1579), and became the capital of the Dutch Revolt, which was no longer just a Protestant rebellion, but a revolt of all Dutch provinces.

During the recapture of Flanders and Brabant, the leader of the troops, Caspar de Robles had blocked the Schelde river, with a bridge of ships in order to starve the city. In response to this, the Dutch flooded the lowlands adjacent to the Scheldt, effectively submerging most roads in scattered areas, and leaving Spanish forts either flooded or isolated on small islands. Despite this ingenious tactic, the Spanish largely held firm, since many of their forts had been equipped with cannon and high-quality troops. Several attempts were made by the Dutch to steer 'fire ships' into the pontoon bridge made by the Spanish, but troops stationed in the adjacent forts managed to push them off course with pikes, though with heavy loss of life when the fire ships exploded. Dutch troops made several attempts to break through the blockade, but they all failed, till finally, the Dutch sent three ships containing gunpowder. The first ship exploded in the center of the blockade, the second to the right of that, and the third exploded right where de Robles was sleeping, and exploded with devastating force, instantly killing over 1100 Spanish soldiers, including de Robles, the commander of the Spanish forces attempting the siege of Antwerp.

De Robles died, and with his death, the hopes of the Spanish to hold Antwerp. Dutch forces from the North forced the Spanish surrender, and ensured the unity of the Dutch people in the north and south Netherlands. The population of the city, formerly 100,000 people, now around 85,000 after the two-month siege, was a traumatic event for the city and its Catholic population, most of whom would leave for Catholic lands. Skilled tradesmen still in the city contributed to the commercial foundation of what would become the 'Dutch Golden Age' of the united provinces. It also contributed to the social stigma of the Walloon dialect, which was associated with France and Catholicism, leading to its decline over the next several centuries.

Part 8-B: Dutch Islands

Excerpted from Wikipedia:

Aruba

The Netherlands acquired Aruba in 1636. Initially by Peter Stuyvesant, who was later appointed to New Amsterdam (New York City). He was on a special mission in Aruba in November and December 1642. The island was included under the Dutch West India Company (W.I.C.) administration, as "New Netherland and Curaçao", from 1648 to 1664. In 1667 the Dutch administration appointed an Irishman as "Commandeur" in Aruba. Today, the island is about 55% Dutch, 25% Arawak, 15% Black, and 5% mixed ethnicity.

Bonaire

The Dutch West India Company was founded in 1621, and starting in 1623, their ships called at Bonaire for meat, water, and wood. They also abandoned some Portuguese and Spanish prisoners there, who founded the town of Antriol, a contraction of the Spanish 'al interior' (English: inside). The Dutch and Spanish fought from 1568 to 1648 in what is now known as the Eighty Years' War. In 1633, the Dutch, having lost St Maarten to the Spanish - retaliated by attacking Curaçao, Bonaire, and Aruba. Bonaire itself was conquered in March of 1636. Three years later, the Dutch built Fort Oranje in 1639.

While Curaçao became the center of the slave trade in that area of the Caribbean, Bonaire became a plantation of the Dutch WIC. A small number of African slaves were put to work alongside Indians and convits, cultivating dyewood and maize, and harvesting solar salt around Blue Pan. Salve quarters, entire build of stone, and barely 6 feet tall, still stand in the area around Rincon, and along the saltpans as a reminder of Bonaire's past


Slave huts.

During the Napoleonic Wars, the Netherlands lost control of the island twice, in 1800 to 1803, and again frmo 1807 to 1816. During these two periods, the British had control of both Curaçao and Bonaire. The three ABC islands were returned to the Netherlands in the Anglo-Dutch Treaty of 1814. During British rule, a large number of white traders settle on Bonaire, founding Kralendijk (Playa) in 1810.

From 1816 to 1868, Bonaire remained a government plantation. In 1825, there were around 300 government-owned slaves on the island. Gradually, they were freed, and became freedmen with an obligation to render some services to the island's government. The remaining slaves were freed in the Emancipation Regulation on September 30, 1862. A total of 607 government and 151 private slaves were freed at that time, with the legal requirement that they know how to read, write, cipher (do mathematics), and know the Protestant Faith.


Curaçao

The Arawak peoples were the original inhabitants of Curaçao. Their ancestors had migrated to the island from South America, likely hundreds of years before Europeans arrived. They were believed to have migrated from the Amazon Basin.

The first Europeans who were recorded as seeing the island were members of a Spanish expedition, under the leadership of Alonso de Ojeda in 1499. The Spaniards enslaved most of the Arawak as their labor force. They sometimes forcibly relocated the survivors to other colonies where workers were needed. In 1634, after the Netherlands achieved a full and unified independence from Spain, Dutch colonists started to occupy the island. The early to mid 17th century was a time when many European powers were trying to establish bases in the Caribbean.

The Dutch West India Company (WIC) founded the capital of Willemstad on the banks of an inlet called the 'Schottegat.' Curaçao had been ignored by colonists, because it lacked gold deposits. The natural harbor of Willemstad proved to be an ideal spot for trade. Commerce, shipping, and piracy became Curaçao's most important economic activities for much of its early history. In addition, in 1662 the Dutch West India Company made Curaçao a center for the Atlantic slave trade, often bringing slaves here for sale elsewhere in the Caribbean and on the mainland of South America.

Sephardic Jews with ancestors from the Iberian Peninsula settled here with the Dutch and in Dutch Brazil; they have had a significant influence on the culture and economy of the island, starting up the first print shops on the island in Dutch and Yiddish. Some Jewish merchants were part of the Dutch colonial slave trade, as were a wide variety of people involved in trade and shipping.

In the Franco-Dutch War, Count Jean II d'Estrées planned to attack Curaçao. His fleet, which included 12 men of war, three fireships, two transports, a hospital ship, and 12 privateers, met with disaster, losing seven men-of-war and two other ships when they struck reefs off the Las Aves archipelago. They had made a serious navigational error, hitting the reefs on 11 May 1678, a week after setting sail from Saint Kitts. Curaçao marked the events by a day of thanksgiving, celebrated for decades into the 18th century, to commemorate the island's escape from being invaded by the French, and revived in the middle 20th century. This day of Thanksgiving is celebrated to this day on May 11th on the island.

Although a few plantations were established on the island by the Dutch, the first profitable industry established on Curaçao was salt mining. The mineral was a lucrative export at the time and was a major factor for the island being part of international commerce.

Dutch architecture along Willemstad's harbor

Many Dutch colonists grew affluent from the slave trade, and the city built impressive colonial buildings. Curaçao architecture blends Dutch and Spanish colonial styles. The wide range of historic buildings in and around Willemstad has resulted in the capital being designated as a UNESCO World Heritage Site. Landhouses (former plantation estates) and West African style kas di pal'i maishi (former slave dwellings) are scattered all over the island. Some have been restored and can be visited on tours run by the island's many tourist shops.

In 1795, a major slave revolt took place under the leaders Tula Rigaud, Louis Mercier, Bastian Karpata, and Pedro Wakao. Up to 4,000 slaves on the northwest section of the island revolted. More than one thousand slaves took part in extended gunfights. After a month, the slave owners suppressed the revolt, killing 700 slaves, and selling 900 more to the Spanish.

Curaçao's proximity to South America resulted in interaction with cultures of the coastal areas. For instance, architectural similarities can be seen between the 19th-century parts of Willemstad and the nearby Venezuelan city of Neu-Augsburg. The latter has also been designated a UNESCO World Heritage Site. In the 19th century, Curaçaoans such as Manuel Piar and Luis Brión were prominently engaged in the wars of independence of Colombia and Klein Venedig. Political refugees from the mainland (such as Simon Bolivar) regrouped in Curaçao. Children from affluent Venezuelan families were educated on the island.

During the 18th and 19th centuries, the island changed hands among the British, the French, and the Dutch several times. In the early 19th century, Portuguese and Lebanese migrated to Curaçao, attracted by the business opportunities. Stable Dutch rule returned in 1815 at the end of the Napoleonic wars, when the island was incorporated into the colony of Curaçao and Dependencies.

The Dutch abolished slavery in 1863, bringing a change in the economy with the shift to wage labor, and 'repatriated' (deported) at least a third of the former slaves to Africa. Some inhabitants of Curaçao emigrated to other islands, such as Cuba, to work in sugar cane plantations. Other former slaves had nowhere to go and remained working for the plantation owner in the tenant farmer system. This was an instituted order in which the former slave leased land from his former master. In exchange the tenant promised to give up for rent most of his harvest to the former slave master. This system lasted until the beginning of the 20th century.

Historically, Dutch was widely spoken on the island, even outside of colonial administration. All slaves were taught Dutch and the use of their former languages was harshly discouraged. Students on Curaçao, Aruba, and Bonaire were taught predominantly in Dutch or German until the late 19th century. There were also efforts to introduce bilingual popular education in Dutch and in the creole Dutch that developed on the island amongst a minority of African islanders called Papiamentu in the late 19th century (van Putte 1999). When in 1914, oil was discovered in the Maracaibo Basin town of Mene Grande, the fortunes of the island were dramatically altered, and a number of European Dutch emigrated to the island.

In 1915, the Royal Dutch Shell (Shell) and the Dutch government decided to establish an extensive oil refinery installation on the former site of the slave-trade market at Asiento. The oil company suddenly had many jobs for the local population; it attracted a wave of immigration from surrounding nations, most notably New Holland and Klein Venedig. Shell has been the largest employer on the island since 1918. Of the 44,519 inhabitants in 1929, 10,924 worked for the oil industry. This number peaked in 1952, with 12,631 employees. The refinery was an important source of fuel for allied forces in World War II. Economically, the refinery has been the mainstay of Curaçao since 1915.

In the early 20th century, the government made Dutch the sole language of instruction in the educational system to facilitate schooling for the children of expatriate employees of Royal Dutch Shell. Papiamentu, the local Creole language, was tentatively reintroduced in the school curriculum during the mid-1980s.

Curaçao gained self-government on 1 January 1954, as an island territory of the Netherlands Antilles. The islanders did not fully participate in the political process until after the social movements of the late 1960s. The legislature, which became called the States General of Curaçao, first met in July of 1954.

The island has developed a tourist industry. It offered low corporate taxes to encourage companies to set up holdings in order to avoid higher taxes elsewhere. It has emphasized its diverse heritage to expand its tourism industry. Since the late 20th century, immigrants have come from neighboring countries, such as Klein Venedig, but also from the surrounding islands, and the Anglophone Caribbean and Colombia. In the early 21st century, a number of Dutch pensioners (pensionados) have settled on the island for its mild climate.

On 2 July 1984, the 30th anniversary of the first elected Island States General, the legislature inaugurated the national flag and the official anthem. In the 2000s, the political relationship with the other islands of the Netherlands Antilles, and with the Netherlands, came under discussion again. In a referendum held on 8 April 2005, the residents voted for separate status outside the Netherlands Antilles, similar to Aruba. They rejected the options for full independence, becoming part of the Netherlands, or retaining the status quo.

On 1 July 2007, the island of Curaçao was due to become a country within the Kingdom of the Netherlands. On 28 November 2006, this was delayed when the island council rejected a clarification memorandum on the process. A new island council ratified this agreement on 9 July 2007. On 15 December 2008, Curaçao was scheduled to become a separate country within the Kingdom of the Netherlands (as Aruba and the Netherlands Antilles were). A non-binding referendum on this plan took place in Curaçao on 15 May 2009, in which 52 percent of the voters supported these plans.

The dissolution of the Netherlands Antilles came into effect on 10 October 2010. Curaçao became a country within the Kingdom of the Netherlands, with the Kingdom retaining responsibility for defense and foreign policy. The kingdom was also to oversee the island's finances under a debt-relief arrangement agreed between the two. Curaçao's first prime minister under this new arrangement was Jaan Schotte. He was succeeded in 2012 by Stanley Betrian, ad interim. After elections in 2012 Gerrit Schotte became the third prime minister, on 31 December 2012. The prime minister since 31 August 2015 is Ben Van der Pol.

Political debate has centered on the issue of Papiamentu becoming the sole language of instruction. Proponents argue that it will help preserve the language and will improve the quality of primary and secondary school education. Proponents of Dutch-language instruction argue that students who study in Dutch will be better prepared for the university education offered to Curaçao residents in the Netherlands.

Saba

Columbus is said to have sighted the island on November 13, 1493, but did not land, having been deterred by the perilous rocky shores. In 1632, some shipwrecked Englishmen landed upon Saba. They reported that they found the island uninhabited when they were rescued, but had seen clear evidence indicating that Caribs and Arawak had lived on the island.

In 1635, a stray Frenchman claimed Saba for King Louis XIII of France, but a few years later, the Dutch governor of the neighboring island of St Eustatius sent several Dutch families over to colonize the island for the Dutch WIC. These Dutch family names included Heyliger, Leverock, Zagers, and Vanderpool, to name a few still prominent on the island today. In 1664, refusing to swear allegiance to the English crown, these original Dutch settlers were evicted to St Maarten by Thomas Morgan and other English pirates, but returned within the months and years soon afterwards. The Dutch have been in continuous possession of Saba since 1816, after numerous changes in the flag of the island in previous centuries. By 2016, the island was French 12 years, English 18 years, and Dutch 345 years.

In the 17th and 18th centuries, its major industries were sugar, indigo, and rum produced on plantations owned by Dutchmen living on St Eustatius, and later fishing, particularly of lobster. In the 17th century, the island of Saba was believed to be a favorable hideout for Jamaican pirates. England also deported its "undesirable" people to live in the Caribbean colonies, and some became pirates, and a few took haven on Saba. The island is forbidding and steep, a natural fortress, so the island became a private sanctuary for the families of smugglers and pirates. Later, piracy diminished and legitimate sailing and trade increased in importance, and many of the men on the island took to the sea, during which time something called "Saba lace," made by the island's women, became an important trade product. While most of the men were out at sea, the island became known as "The Isle of Women."


Sint Eustatius

The island of Sint Eustatius was first seen by Christopher Columbus in 1493, and claimed by many different nations. From the first settlement in the 17th century, until the early 19th century, St Eustatius changed hands 22 times.

In 1636, the chamber of Zeeland, one of the seventeen provinces, of the Dutch WIC, took possession of the island which was then reported as uninhabited. By 1678, the islands of Saba, St Eustatius, and Sint Maarten fell under the direct control of the Dutch WIC, whose commander was stationed on St Eustatius to govern all three islands. At this time, the island was of some importance for the cultivation of sugar, tobacco, and the production of molasses and rum.

In the 18th century, the unique geographic position of St Eustatius in the middle of the British (Jamaica, St Kitts, Barbados, Antigua), French (St Domingue, Ste Lucie, Martinique, Guadeloupe), Spanish (Cuba, Santo Domingo, Puerto Rico), and Danish (Virgin Islands) territories, along with its neutrality, large harborage, and status from 1765 as a free port with no customs duties all contributed to it becoming a major transit point for the shipment of goods out of the Caribbean and Central and South America, and a locus of trade for contraband. Its economy developed by ignoring the monopolistic trade restrictions of the French, British, and Spanish Islands. Under the Dutch, the economy of St Eustatius flourished, and it became known as the Golden Rock.

The Dutch settling this island predominately came from Dunkirk, and the surrounding areas, lending to its predominate West Flemish accent, with some East Flemish tendencies.

The island is notable for the "First Salute" of the fledgling United States with the ship USS Halifax sailing to the island, signaling its arrival with a 15-gun salute, one for each colony in rebellion against the British, and receiving a 13-gun salute in reply, as the custom was to return a salute with two cannon less than given.

Sint Maarten

In 1493, during Christopher Columbus' second voyage to the West Indies, he sigted the island, naming it Isla de San Martín after Saint Martin of Tours, because it was November 11th, St. Martin's Day. Though he claimed it as a Spanish territory, Columbus never landed there, and Spain made the settlement of the island a low priority. The French and Dutch, on the other hand, both coveted the island.

While the French wanted to colonize the islands between Trinidad and Bermuda, the Dutch found San Martín a convenient halfway point between their colonies in New Amsterdam (present day New York) and New Holland (Brazil). With few people inhabiting the island, the Dutch easily founded a settlement there in 1631, erecting Fort Amsterdam as protection from invaders. Jan Claeszen Van Campen became the first governor of the island, and soon thereafter the Dutch West India Company began its salt mining operations. French and British settlements sprang up on the island as well. Taking note of these successful colonies and wanting to maintain their control of the salt trade, the Spanish now found St. Martin much more appealing. The Eighty Years' War which had been raging between Spain and the Netherlands provided further incentive to attack.

Spanish forces captured Saint Martin from the Dutch in 1633, seizing control and driving most or all of the colonists off the island. At Point Blanche, they built what is now Old Spanish Fort to secure the territory. Although the Dutch retaliated in several attempts to win back St. Martin, they failed. Fifteen years after the Spanish conquered the island, the Eighty Years' War ended. Since they no longer needed a base in the Caribbean and St. Martin barely turned a profit, the Spanish lost their inclination to continue defending it. In 1648, they deserted the island, at which time the Dutch on the island seized the territory that was formerly Spanish. Dutch Colonists came from St Eustatius, New Holland, and Saba, and the French also jumped at the chance to re-establish their settlements.

After some initial conflict, the French realized that the Dutch would not yield to them, and they signed the Treaty of Concordia in 1648, in which the Dutch gained control of the entire island, but the French gained fishing rights in their waters for 99 years, and duty-free anchorage for 50 years. Despite this treaty, the relations between the two sides were not always cordial. Between 1648 and 1816, conflicts between French sailors and Dutch settlers resulted in some violence and shooting on several occasions. The entire island came under effective French control from 1795 when the Netherlands became a puppet state of the French Empire until 1815.

With the new cultivation of cotton, tobacco, and sugar, the Dutch imported a massive number of slaves to work on the plantations. The slave population quickly grew larger than that of the land owners. Subjected to cruel treatment, slaves staged rebellions, and their overwhelming numbers made them impossible to ignore. In 1863, the Dutch abolished slavery in their Caribbean colonies, and then proceeded to repatriate them to Africa, notably the Cape Colony. They were replaced with poor Flemish and Walloon, who would come to the island to work for a season, and sail back to Europe, though a number of them would stay on the island and raise families, contributing to the unique dialect on the island, which to Dutch ears sounds like a semi-French-sounding Dutch.

 

[JJohnson]

Part 9-A: American Islands

The Bahamas

History of the Bahamas

The Taino people moved into the uninhabited southern Bahamas from Hispaniola and Cuba some time around the 11th century, having migrated there from South American, becoming known later as the Lucayan people. an estimated 30,000 Lucayans inhabited the Bahamas at the time of Christopher Columbus's arrival in 1492. Columbus's first landfall in the New World was on an island he called San Salvador (Lucayan: Guanahani). Some researchers believe this site to be on present-day Watling's Island (called San Salvador Island in Spanish), situated in the southeastern Bahamas. An alternate theory is that Columbus landed to the southeast on Samana Cay, according to calculations made in 1987 by National Geographic writer Jean Pierre DuPont, based on Columbus's logs. The evidence for this remains inconclusive, however. According to his logs, Columbus first made contact with the Lucayans and exchanged goods with them.

The Spanish forced much of the Lucayan population to the island of Hispaniola to be used as forced labor. As slaves, they suffered from harsh conditions and most died from contracting diseases to which they had no immunities. Half of the Taino Indians died from smallpox alone. The population of the Bahamas was severely diminished.

In 1648, the Eleutherian Adventurers, led by William Saylor, migrated from Bermuda. These English Puritans established the first permanent European settlement on the island which they called Eleuthera, a name which derived from the Greek word for freedom. Later, they settled New Providence, naming it Saylor's Island, after one of their leaders. To survive on this island, they salvaged goods from wrecks.

In 1670, King Charles II granted the islands to the Lords Proprietors of the Carolinas in North America. They rented the islands from the king with rights of tax, trading, appointing governors, and administering the islands. In 1684, Spanish corsair Juan de Alcon raided the capital, Charles Town (later renamed as Nassau). In 1703, a joint French-Spanish expedition briefly occupied the Bahaman capital during the War of Spanish Succession.

During this proprietary rule, the Bahamas became a haven for pirates, including the infamous Blackbeard (c. 1680-1718). To put an end to this 'Pirates' republic' and to restore orderly government, the Lords Proprieters ordered the construction of the Carolina Navy, more an assemblage of privateers, under the command of William Edward Rogers. After three excursions lasting days to weeks a piece, he succeeded in suppressing the piracy and bringing the islands back under control of what would become South Carolina. In 1720, Rogers led a local militia to drive off a Spanish attack.

During the American War for Independence in the latter half of the 18th century, the islands became a target for American naval forces under the command of Commodore John William Rogers, hoping to retake the Carolinian islands for America. US Marines occupied the capital of Nassau, and the islands remained under American control till British defeat at Yorktown. In 1782, a Spanish fleet appeared off the coast of Nassau and captured the city without a fight, but the Spanish returned possession of the Bahamas to the Americans, gaining back their island of Cuba, which was traded for expanded territory along Moskito and British Honduras the following year under the terms of the Treaty of Paris. Before the news was received, however, the islands were recaptured by a small British force led by Thomas Tremblay.

After American Independence, Carolinians settled their islands with about 8500 Patriots, including Major Martin DuMont, one of the officers responsible for the success at Yorktown. These settlers established plantations on several islands and soon became the dominant political force in the capital. European Americans were outnumbered by African slaves they brought with them till the latter half of the 19th century after the abolition of slavery on the islands.

Bermuda

Bermuda was discovered in 1503 by the Spanish explorer Juan de Bermúdez. It is mentioned in Legatio Babylonica, published in 1511, by historian Pedro Mártir de Anglería, and was also included on Spanish charts in that year. Both Spanish and Portuguese ships used the islands for a replenishment spot to take on fresh meat and water. Soon legends arose of spirits and devils, now thought to have come from the calls of raucous birds, most likely the Bermuda Petrel, and the loud noise heard at night from wild hogs. Combined with the frequent storm-wracked conditions and the dangerous reefs of the islands, the archipelago became known as the Isle of Devils. Neither Spain nor Portugal attempted to settle it.

For the next century, the island was visited frequently, but never settled. After the failure of the first two English colonies in Virginia, a more determined effort was initiated by King James I of England, who granted a royal charter to the Virginia Company. It established a colony at Jamestown, Virginia in 1607. Two years later, a flotilla of seven ships left England under the Company's admiral, Sir George Somers, and the new Governor of Jamestown, Sir Thomas Gates, with several hundred settlers, food, and supplies to relieve the colony of Jamestown. Somers had prior experience sailing with both Sir Francis Drake and Sir Walter Raleigh. The flotilla was broken up by a storm. As the flagship, Sea Venture, was taking on water, Somers drove it onto Bermuda's reef, and gained the shores safely with smaller boats. All 150 passengers, three cats, and a dog survived. They stayed 10 months, starting a new settlement, and building two small ships to continue to sail to Jamestown. The group of islands were claimed for the English Crown, and the charter of the Virginia Company was later extended to include the Somers Isles.

In 1610, all but three survivors of the Sea Venture sailed on to Jamestown. Among these sailing was John Rolfe, whose wife and child died and were buried in Bermuda. Later in Jamestown, he married Pocahontas, a daughter of the powerful Powhatan, leader of a large confederation of about 30 Algonquin-speaking Indian tribes in coastal Virginia. In 1612, the English began the intentional settlement of Bermuda with the arrival of the ship Plough. St George was settled that year, and declared Bermuda's first capital. It is the oldest continually inhabited English town in the New World.

While under the Virginia Company, many place names on the mainland were named for the islands, such as Bermuda City, and Bermuda Hundred. The first English coins to circulate in North America were struck in Bermuda.

Due to its limited land area (only 21 square miles), Bermuda has had difficulty with over-population. In its first two centuries of settlement, it relied on steady human emigration to keep its population manageable. Before the American Revolution, more than 10,000 Bermudans, which represented over half the total population through the years, gradually immigrated, primarily to the southern United States, and Georgians, Virginians, and Carolinians emigrated to the island. As Great Britain displaced Spain as the dominant European imperial power, it opened up more land for colonial development. A steady trickle of outward migration from the island continued. With seafaring as its only real industry in the early decades of settlement, by the end of the 18th century, around 1/3 of the island's manpower was at sea at any one time.

The limited land area of the archipelago and its resources led to the creation of what may be the earliest nature conservation laws of the New World. In 1616, and later in 1620, acts were passed banning the hunting of certain birds and young tortoises, which are still in effect to this day, and even influenced the passage of one such law on Mainland Virginia in 1693.

During the English Civil War in 1649, related tensions on Bermuda resulted in a small-scale civil war on the island, which was ended by the militias. The majority of the colonists developed a strong sense of devotion to their brothers on the mainland for helping solve the violence and the success of the militias. Having returned to the Crown, dissenters such as Puritans and Independents, were pushed to settle the Bahamas under William Saylor. Bermuda and Virginia became subject of an act of the Rump Parliament prohibiting trade, which acted like a declaration of war. Virginia and Bermuda, along with Antigua, and Barbados were threatened with invasion. Virginia and Bermuda eventually reached an agreement with the parliamentarians in England, the result of which tied Bermuda more to the Virginians than before the civil war.

In the 17th century, the Virginia Company suppressed shipbuilding, as they wanted Bermudans to farm to generate income from the land. Agricultural production was of limited success in comparison to mainland Virginia, however. There is limited area for cultivation, highly alkaline soil, and the excessive farming depleted the soil quality. Eventually the Bermuda cedar boxes used to ship tobacco to England were reportedly worth more than their contents in dubious accounts of the era. The colony of Virginia's mainland far surpassed the quality and quantity of tobacco produced, and Bermudans turned to using their cedar boxes to pack the tobacco as a sign of quality Virginian tobacco, becoming a sign of luxury. Bermudans, after this brief attempt at farming, turned to maritime trade in the early 18th century when the Virginia Company realized the futility of trying farming on the small island. Some on the island during this time wanted their island to become a separated colony from Virginia, but the low population numbers and the change from forced farming diminished the desire for a separate colonial administration.

At this time, Bermudans rapidly abandoned agriculture and turned to shipbuilding, replanting the farmland with the native Bermuda Cedar (Juniperus bermudiana, or the Bermudan Juniper) trees that grew thickly over the entire island. Once the British established effective control over the Turks Islands, Bermudans deforested some of their landscape to begin a salt trade as well. This trade became the world's largest, and remained the cornerstone of Bermuda's economy for the next century. Bermudan sailors and merchants relied on more than the export of salt, however. They also pursued whaling, privateering, and merchant trade.

The Bermuda sloop soon became highly regarded for its speed and maneuverability, and was soon adapted for service in the Royal Navy. The Bermuda sloop HMS Pickle, built with Bermuda Cedar, carried dispatches of the victory at Trafalgar, and the news of the death of Admiral Nelson, to England.

American Independence led to great changes for Bermuda. Before the war, with no useful landmass or natural resources, Bermuda was largely ignored and left on its own by the London Government. By being so deeply involved in trade, Bermudan merchants and financiers had played roles out of proportion to the colony's size in relation to the development of the Triangle Trade, and the trans-Atlantic English and British Empires.

Its people were settlers and founders of new colonies, especially in the American South. Its merchant fleet and a web of expatriate Bermudan merchants dominated trade through a number of American Atlantic Seaboard ports and the West Indies. Bermudans fished for cod on the Grand Banks off Newfoundland, and were involved in the lumber industry in Central America. Most importantly, they dominated the North American salt trade with de facto control of the Turks Islands, till 1783.

The close economic, family, and historical ties ensured Bermudians were strongly sympathetic with the rebels at the start of the War. They supplied the rebels illegally with ships, salt and gunpowder. As the war progressed, economic realities caused Bermudians to seize opportunities; they turned to privateering against the British.

At the end of the war, profound changes took effect. Following the war, with the build-up of naval and military forces in Bermuda to defend it from capture by the British, the primary leg of the Bermudan economy became defense infrastructure, with the establishment of Fort de Grasse, named for the French Admiral who helped the Americans win at Yorktown, in 1787.

Fort de Grasse, temporarily called Fort Devonshire in 1798

After the war, Virginia established firmer control over the island to its fortune, causing inhabitants to seek to emigrate to the mainland for more opportunity. During the War of 1812, when the British captured the island, the mainland developed some of its own sources of salt, diminishing Bermuda's main marked for salt. The most important thing that happened next was the capture of the island in the 1860s by Union naval forces to prevent possible British or French resupply of Confederate ports, which the Union was blockading. In 1864, to help firm up Republican control over Congress, Bermudans established a loyal, Republican government, signing loyalty oaths and were admitted to the Union as the State of Bermuda, separate from Virginia, which was still part of the CSA at this time.

In 1870, Virginia went to the Supreme Court over Bermuda, in the same case as with West Virginia, but the Supreme Court decided in favor of the two new states, despite the population being under 60,000, which had been the threshold for other states on the mainland.

By the end of the 19th century, Bermuda was considered a quiet, rustic backwater, now that it was separated from Virginia, and had mostly its naval and military facilities to drive its economy. With the more widespread availability of steam, coal, and later petroleum-driven ships, tourism to the island began increasing in the mid-20th century and became its dominant industry soon afterwards.

 

[JJohnson]

Part 10-A: German Islands

Nachtigal-Inseln (Nightingale Islands, or Spratly Islands)

Description
The Nightingale Islands were, in 1939, fourteen coral islets mostly inhabited by countless seabirds. According to a German 1986 source, the Nightingale Islands consist of 14 islands or islets, 6 banks, 113 submerged reefs, 35 underwater banks, 21 underwater shoals.

The area northeast of the Nightingales is known to mariners as Dangerous Ground and is characterised by its many low islands, sunken reefs, and degraded sunken atolls with coral often rising abruptly from ocean depths greater than 1,000 metres (3,300 ft) – all of which makes the area dangerous for navigation.

The 14 islands are all of the same nature. They are cays (or keys); sand islands formed on old degraded and submerged coral reefs.

The Nightingale Islands contain almost no significant arable land, have no indigenous inhabitants, and very few of the islands have a permanent drinkable water supply.

All of the 14 islands are occupied by the Republic of Germany, but they are claimed by other nations; by the Philippines (7 islands, Thitu Island, West York Island, Northeast Cay, Nanshan Island, Loaita Island, Flat Island, Lankiam Cay and 3 reefs), the Republic of China (often called South China) (1 island Taiping Island, also known as Itu Aba Island and 1 reef), and Vietnam (6 islands, Spratly Island, Southwest Cay, Sin Cowe Island, Sand Cay, Namyit Island, Amboyna Cay, 16 reefs and 6 banks). Due to the presence of a German military installation and the frequent naval patrols of the islands, and German oil extraction infrastructure, none of these governments have been willing to press their claims in any official manner.

Natural resources include fish and guano, as well as some oil and natural gas reserves. Economic activity has included commercial fishing, shipping, guano mining, and more recently, tourism. The Nightingales are located near several primary shipping lanes.

Names (German, English)
1. Kaiser Friedrich III Insel, Itu Aba Island; claimed by South China (as Taiping Island); 113.668 acres (46 ha)
2. Prinzess Charlotte Insel, Thitu Island; claimed by the Philippines (as Pagasa Island); 91.9232 acres (37.2 ha)
3. Ostfaleninsel, West York Island; claimed by the Philippines (as Likas Island); 45.9616 acres (18.6 ha)
4. Nachtigalinsel, Spratly Island; claimed by Vietnam (as Trường Sa Island); 32.1237 acres (13 ha)
5. Nordostsandinsel, Northeast Cay; claimed by the Philippines (as Parola Island); 31.38238 acres (12.7 ha)
6. Südwestsandinsel, Southwest Cay; claimed by Vietnam (as Song Tử Tây Island); 29.6526 acres (12 ha)
7. Prinz Sigismund Insel, Sin Cowe Island; claimed by Vietnam (as Sinh Tồn Island); 19.7684 acres (8 ha)
8. Prinzess Viktoria Insel, Nanshan Island; claimed by the Philippines (as Lawak Island); 19.59546 acres (7.93 ha)
9. Heinrichssandinsel, Sand Cay; claimed by Vietnam (as Son Ca Island); 17.2974 acres (7 ha)
10. Margarets Vogelinsel, Loaita Island; claimed by the Philippines (as Kota Island); 15.9383 acres (6.45 ha)
11. Einsamkeitsinsel, Namyit Island; claimed by Vietnam (as Nam Yet Island); 13.0966 acres (5.3 ha)
12. Müllerssandinsel, Amboyna Cay; claimed by Vietnam (as An Bang Island); 3.95369 acres (1.6 ha)
13. Glattinsel, Flat Island; claimed by the Philippines (as Patag Island); 1.4085 acres (0.57 ha)
14. Albert Limbach Sandinsel, Lankiam Cay; claimed by the Philippines (as Panata Island); 1.08726 acres (0.44 ha)



History
In 1883, a German oceanographic exploration led by Friedrich Nachtigal surveyed the Spratly and Paracel islands, and annexed the islands to the fledgling German Empire, naming them after members of the royal family and members of his expedition (Karl Müller, his wife Margaret, Albert Limbach). In negotiation in the German territory of Kiatschau Bay, the Germans confirmed the Paracel Islands to China in exchange for perpetual cession of the Spratly Islands to Germany, later recognized in the Congress of Berlin (1885). The islands were more of a vanity territory than a colonization target, but German explorers and naturalists explored the islands, and brought several research stations to several of the islands, and a coaling station on Kaiser Friedrich III Insel for naval ships patrolling the area.

The rich quantity of guano brought regular German vessels and men to mine the guano for German farmers in Europe and Africa, meaning that Germans were drawn more to Africa in their efforts to settle, given the regular supplies of fertilizer from the small islands.

After the first Great War, the islands remained in German control, to French ire, who demanded the islands in 1921, against German protests. The islands' ownership remained questionable by the weakened German government, French obstinacy, and British and American lack of focus after the war. Germany could not afford a larger navy and could not contest the claims except diplomatically. During the second Great War, afterwards called the Second World War, the islands were seized by the Empire of Japan, and in the treaty with Japan afterwards, returned to clear German ownership after nearly 25 years.

The China-Korea War brought a division between north and south China, and confirmed the unity of Korea, but North China, under a 'national socialist workers' democracy,' claimed the islands. Germany rebuilt its military presence in 1949, and rebuffed the North Chinese efforts on the islands to expand outward. To help their claims, a more extensive set of homes were built on Nachtigalinsel, with 20 houses built along the northeastern side of the island. This was joined in the 1980s by an airstrip, three docks, and five hotels (with up to 5000-people capacity), along with several restaurants and shops to support the hotels, a desalinization plant to provide freshwater, a boardwalk along the beach, and a sailing/diving shop for nature lovers to see the reefs and go diving.

The largest island, the Kaiser Friedrich III Insel, is divided by its airstrip, but in 1999, civilian development was allowed, bringing in several hotels and shops, alongside the naval air station and docks on the southwest portion of the island. The island is currently the most popular of the Nachtigal islands with tourists, given its larger size and its trees, being a favorite for exotic bird watchers from around the world. There is a cruciform Lutheran chapel for 120 people on the island, and a congress (semicircular meeting hall) for common meetings, and public performances on the island. There are approximately 380 German naval and air force personnel permanently stationed on the island, and at least 120 hotel personnel to serve tourists on the island.

Tourism to the islands is sparse, but does exist, with four airports (on Kaiser Friedrich III Insel, Nachtigalinsel, Prinzess Charlotte Insel, and Swallow Reef) providing transport to the islands, whose beaches became popular in the late 70s / early 80s. A cellular telephone tower was erected on the islands in 2006, and upgraded in 2015.

Most power on the islands is provided by solar panels, with Germany being a leading developer of the technology since 1993.

EDIT: changed the 1921 events based on comments.

 

[Nivek]

That Update did not make sense? how germany got the islands back if they loss the equivalent of WW1 and france take it? what happened to france? that not make sense at all, germany would worry for other things that those islands.

 

[JJohnson]

Part 11: Extraterritorial Areas around the World

11A: Kiautschou-Bucht

Original territory of Kiautschou-Bucht in 1899

Larger map of Kiatschou Bucht, showing the island reach of the territory out to sea.

For a better look at the area in 1912, please see this map.

History
Negotiations with the Chinese government began and on 6 March 1898 the German Empire retreated from outright cession of the area and accepted a leasehold of the bay for 99 years, or until 1997 (as the British did in Hong Kong's New Territories). One month later the Reichstag ratified the treaty on 8 April 1898. Kiautschou Bay was officially placed under German protection by imperial decree on 27 April and Kapitän zur See [captain] Carl Rosendahl was appointed governor. These events ended Admiral von Diederichs' responsibility (but not his interest) in Kiautschou; he wrote that he had "fulfilled [his] purpose in the navy."

As a result of the lease treaty, the Chinese government gave up the exercise of its sovereign rights within the leased territory of approximately 83,000 inhabitants (to which the city of Jiaozhou did not belong), as well as in a 50 km wide neutral zone ("neutrales Gebiet"). According to international law, the leased territory ("territoire à bail") remained legally part of China but for the duration of the lease, all sovereign powers were to be exercised by Germany.

Moreover, the treaty included rights for construction of railway lines and mining of local coal deposits. Many parts of Shandong outside of the German leased territory came under German influence. Although the lease treaty set limits to the German expansion, it became a starting point for the following cessions of Port Arthur to Russia, of Weihaiwei to Great Britain and Kwang-Chou-Wan to France.

The territory was invaded and annexed by Japan in 1938, as a result of the Treaty of Versailles, which limited Germany's naval forces and their ability to project power, meaning the area was defenseless against the Japanese. In 1946, the sovereignty was restored to Germany, and after the Chinese-Korean War, Germany signed a treaty with South China, which ceded the territory in perpetuity in return for German cancellation of Chinese debts to their government, while the socialist North China refused to accede to the cession. In 1997, North China massed troops on the border in a show of force, but Germany's naval forces and corresponding buildup forced them to back down.

Today the territory has a population of around 2.1 million, with 1.45 million German, 580,000 Chinese, and the remainder a mix of Americans, British, French, Dutch, and other nationalities.


Description
Kiautschou-Bucht is located on the southern coast of the Shandong Peninsula (German: Schantung-Halbinsel) in East China. It separates Huangdao District from Qingdao City and borders on Kiautschou-Stadt.

The bay is 32 km long and 27 km wide with a surface area of 469 km², approximately two-thirds the area of 100 years ago. According to official data, the surface area has decreased from 560 km² in 1928 to 469 km² by 2003 due to sustained land reclamation activities in recent decades. The marine species also decreased by two-thirds during the last 50 years due to urban and industrial development and growth of adjacent areas around the bay.

Kiautschou-Bucht is a natural inlet of the Yellow Sea (German: Gelbes Meer), with 10 to 15 meters depth to the seabed and deeper, dredged channels to three major ports around the bay: Kiautschou-Stadt (Qingdao), Gelbinsel (Huangdao), and Luthershafen (Hongdao), all of which are ice-free during winter.


Economy
The Kiatschou-Bucht economy is dominated by both tourism and the finance industries, being a tax-free zone for items shipping out of China. A large number of skyscrapers line the streets at the Auguste Viktoria Bucht, the heart of the financial district, which houses a number of highly modern skyscrapers that boomed between 1999 and 2007. Companies like Volkswagen, AU (Auto-Union, a merger of Audi, DKW, Horch, and Wanderer), Daimler-Benz, Deutsche Bank, Deutsche Hansabank (DHB), SDAW (Süddeutsches Autowerk), BMW, and Deutsche Telekom have their Asian headquarters in Kiatschou.

Government
The Kiatschou Bucht is governed by a territorial governor (Militärgouverneur) who is appointed by the President of Germany, since 1951. The area has a population of 2.1 million, the majority of those of German and mixed German-Chinese descent. Chinese entry into the area was restricted until 1919, then allowed on a limited basis till 1937, when the Japanese attacked and took over the base. After the Chinese-Korean War, where a number of German marines and army forces took part, Chinese entry was again halted till 1992, and then only for refugees of North China.

The territory has a Landtag of 203 Abgeordneten that is popularly elected every 4 years, and has responsibility for education, environment, energy, internal taxation, land zoning, and a few other issues, while the German government maintains control over foreign relations, military defense, and foreign trade. In theory, the German government can dissolve the Landtag, but in practice it has never exercised this power.

Race relations were strained in the territory till the early 1970s, when ethnic Chinese who had assimilated (speaking German, attending Christian churches, and having lived in the territory since the 1940s) were allowed to hold government positions, and allowed to attend the same schools as Germans. By the 1980s, tensions had eased to the point where children of the 1980s thought it normal to have ethnic Chinese friends.