b>Netherlands Antilles (Dutch: Nederlandse Antillen, Papiamentu: Antia Hulandes), also referred to informally as the Dutch Antilles, was an autonomous Caribbean country within the Kingdom of the Netherlands. Although the country has now been dissolved, all of its constituent islands remain part of the kingdom under a different legal status and the term is still used to refer to these Dutch Caribbean islands.
There were two island groups in the Netherlands Antilles, both in the Lesser Antilles. The ABC islands of Aruba, Bonaire, and Curaçao are in the Leeward Antilles just off the Venezuelan coast, and the SSS islands of Sint Maarten, Saba, and Sint Eustatius are in the Leeward Islands southeast of the Virgin Islands.
Aruba became a separate country within the Kingdom of the Netherlands in 1986. The rest of the Netherlands Antilles was dissolved on 10 October 2010, with Curaçao and Sint Maarten becoming two new constituent countries and with the other islands becoming special municipalities within the Netherlands.
Read more about Netherlands Antilles: History
Famous quotes containing the words netherlands and/or antilles:
“Greece is a sort of American vassal; the Netherlands is the country of American bases that grow like tulip bulbs; Cuba is the main sugar plantation of the American monopolies; Turkey is prepared to kow-tow before any United States pro-consul and Canada is the boring second fiddle in the American symphony.”
—Andrei Andreyevich Gromyko (1909–1989)
“When a bachelor of philosophy from the Antilles refuses to apply for certification as a teacher on the grounds of his color I say that philosophy has never saved anyone. When someone else strives and strains to prove to me that black men are as intelligent as white men I say that intelligence has never saved anyone: and that is true, for, if philosophy and intelligence are invoked to proclaim the equality of men, they have also been employed to justify the extermination of men.”
—Frantz Fanon (1925–1961)