Some 150 years have passed since Curaçao’s first postage stamps were put into circulation. With an area of 171 square miles, slightly less than Andorra, the island in the Caribbean Lesser Antilles is one of the world’s smallest countries. Following a referendum, it has been an autonomous democratic federal state within the Kingdom of the Netherlands since 2010.
In the 16th century, Spaniards were the first Europeans to claim the island after its discovery. After the conquest by Admiral Johann van Walbeeck for the Dutch West India Company, the Spaniards surrendered in August 1634 and were deported to Venezuela. From 1662, the slave trade became the island’s most profitable use for two centuries. It was not until 1 July 1863 that the Dutch also put an end to slavery. Between 1807 and 1815, the British occupied Curaçao during the Napoleonic Wars before the island became
