UA - Key Persons
Job Titles:
- Coordinator International Affairs
Aruba's strategic location was recognized by the Dutch who initially occupied the island in 1636 to protect their salt supply from the mainland and establish a naval base in the Caribbean during their 80-year war with Spain. Further economic development continued through the Dutch West India Company located on the neighboring island of Curaçao. Aruba remained in Dutch hands, except for a brief hiatus under English rule from 1805-1816, during the Napoleonic Wars.
G Suite is a set of cloud computing, productivity, and collaboration tools, software, and products developed by Google. Every registered student will obtain access to their own G Suite account and can make use of its email (Gmail), cloud storage (Google Drive with a capacity of 30 GB), and other tools, such as Google Docs. This eliminates the need to use external storage devices such as USB sticks during your studies, minimizing the risks of viruses and losing your data. G Suite also allows you to access your information from any computer, eliminating the need to sync your data on different computers. The data on G Suite is available from your smartphone, tablet, laptop, or computer.
Your student email will be attached to your G Suite account. Important announcements are distributed via your student email. You are expected to consult your email regularly to stay up to date with student affairs and notifications.
When explorer Alonso de Ojeda discovered Aruba in 1499 and claimed it for the Spanish throne, he named it la Isla de Los Gigantes (Spanish: the Island of Giants). The tall Indians descended from Aruba's very first settlers. After a decade, Aruba's moniker was changed to Isla Inutíl, a useless island, as no gold or treasures were found.
In 1513, the entire Indian population was enslaved and taken to work on the Spanish estates in Hispaniola, now the Dominican Republic and Haiti. At the beginning of the Indian Historic Period in 1515, some Indians returned while others arrived from the mainland and lived in small villages in the northern part of the island.
With the return of the Spanish, the Indians were recruited as laborers for cattle and horse breeding. From the 17th century on, the majority of Indians migrated from the South American mainland. Indian preachers were Aruba's Catholic spiritual leaders well into the 18th century. At the beginning of the 19th century, Indians made up about one-third of the island's 1700 inhabitants, but in 1862, historians believe that Aruba's last Indian died.