Aruba's first inhabitants are thought to have been Caquetios Amerinds from the Arawak tribe, who migrated there from Venezuele to escape attacks by the Caribs. Fragments of the earliest known Indian settlements date back to 1000 AD. Sea currents made canoe travel to other Caribbean islands difficult, thus Caquetio culture remained closer to that of mainland South America.
During the beginning of the Ceramic period (1000-1515 AD), five large Indian villages were founded on the best agricultural soil, producing corn and yucca. Indians buried their dead ceremoniously in different ways, indicating a hierarchical socio-political system. They made coarse pottery as well as finer well-crafted pieces.
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.
Europeans first learned of Aruba when Amerigo Vespucci and Alonso de Ojeda happened upon it in August 1499. Vespucci, in one of his four letters to Lorenzo di Pierfranceso dè Medici , described his voyage to the islands along the coast of Venezuela. He wrote about an island where most trees are of brazil wood and, from this island, he went to one ten leagues away, where they had houses built as in Venice. In another letter he described a small island inhabited by very large people, which the expedition thought was not inhabited.
Aruba was colonized by Spain for over a century. The Cacique or Indian Chief in Aruba, Simas, welcomed the first priests in Aruba and received from them a wooden cross as a gift. In 1508, Alonso de Ojeda was appointed as Spain's first Governor of Aruba, as part of "Nueva Andalucía."
Another governor appointed by Spain was Juan Martinez de Ampíes. A "cédula real" decreed in November 1525 gave Ampíes, factor of Española, the right to repopulate the depopulated islands of Aruba, Curacao and Bonaire.
In 1528, Ampíes was replaced by a representative of the House of Welser. Aruba has been under Dutch administration since 1636, initially under Peter Stuyvesant . Stuyvesant was on a special mission in Aruba in November and December 1642. Under the Dutch W.I.C. administration, as "New Netherland and Curaçao" from 1648 to 1664 and the Dutch government regulations of 1629, also applied in Aruba. The Dutch administration appointed an Irishman as "Commandeur" in Aruba in 1667
