Setting

Willemstad is situated on the island of Curaçao, one of the Leeward Islands off the coast of Venezuela which belong to the Lesser Antilles. Curaçao lies in the tropics, in approximately 120 north latitude and at 680 longitude west. The Greater and Lesser Antilles lie in the Caribbean Sea and form an elongated archipelago shaped like a hair-pin reaching from Cuba to Aruba. Three of the Leeward Islands off the Venezuelan coast were age-long Dutch colonies (Aruba, Bonaire and Curaçao), as were three much smaller Windward Islands (Saba, Sint Eustatius and Sint Maarten [only part of the latter, the other part being French]). Curaçao is centrally situated between Aruba and Bonaire and is the largest of the six islands. This was one of the reasons that it became the ‘main island’ of the Netherlands Antilles. Willemstad is situated on the south-west side of Curaçao, which is roughly speaking approximately twice the size of the Dutch island of Texel. This hilly island has several bays which could function as natural ports. The largest and most important is St. Anna Bay, which also provides access to a much wider expanse of water, namely the inland Schottegat. A large oil refinery was established on the north side of the Schottegat already before World War II and contributed to Willemstad's continuing growth. The town was also the centre of trade and the seat of the Colonial Government of ‘the West’.