Sint Cunera

Sint Cunera, officially the Republic of Sint Cunera (Dutch: Republiek van Sint Cunera) is an island country in the Caribbean between the islands of Puerto Rico and the French department of Guadaluope. It is surrounded by the Caribbean Sea and consits of four main islands, namly Cunera Island, the largest and most populus island, Alberic Island, Lidwina Island and Rimbert Island. There are smaller, unihabited islands within the nation's control but only 4 are occupied.

With a population of 650,100, it is one of the largest nations in the Caribbean, and also one of the largest in terms of area. It also has one of the highest GDP's and HDI's in the region due to its industrialisation and development under the Dutch rule, which helped to accelerate it.

After first being sighted by the Spanish, it was then colonised by the Dutch West India Company in 1635. Then, after successive colonisation attempts by the Spanish, British and French, the island has been under Dutch rule from 1815 to 1959, when Sint Cunera became independent.

Etymology
The name 'Sint Cunera' comes from the name of patron saint of the Utrecht city Rhenen in the Netherlands, and patron saint against cattle and throat diseases. The first Dutch settlers of the island believed that the saint brought them good will on their voyage from the Netherlands.

Pre-Colonial
The island of Sint Cunera was first sighted by Christopher Columbus on his second voyage to the West Indies in 1543. But viewing from near Saba the island appeared mountainous, rocky and uninhabited. He had not, however, seen the Bay of Cunera, with its accessible coast and flat land suitable for a settlement. His sighting, however, meant that the Spanish deemed colonisation of the island a low priority. Columbus had also only viewed the North East coast but had not investigated the more even more accessible Western coasts near Sint Velsen.

Between the first sighting by Columbus and the colonisation, both the Spanish and the British had settlements on the island, but neither fully colonized it due to its relatively large size within the Caribbean.

Colonial
There is evidence that native Caribs lived on the island beforehand, but in 1635, a year before the Netherlands claimed Sint Eustatius, the Dutch West India Company claimed the island for the Dutch area of Zeeland. The Dutch West India Company were expanding in the Caribbean at the time and found that the island would be a convenient colony between their settlement in New Amsterdam and Brazil. This position would also be fulfilled by the newly colonized Sint Maarten. They named the island and the first two towns, Sint Velsen and Cunera, after Dutch saints that they believed had brought them good fate on their expeditions.

After the colonisation of Sint Cunera, the Dutch also took control of the nearby Saba and Sint Eustatius. These three islands became economically integrated and were by far the most important areas in the Dutch Caribbean.

When the Dutch West India Company claimed the island they send out several explorations to map the island and identify the best agricultural land for the new plantations. This lead to the first commercial agricultural development on the islands and ultimately lead to the formation of the first towns, including the current day capital, Sint Velsen.

However, due to the Dutch West India Company expanding the commercial success of the island, the British and French became interested in it, along with the Spanish once again. This meant that in 1715, the Spanish attempted to colonise the island, and managed to access the western half of the Island, including the capital of Sint Velsen. This forced the Dutch into the second major settlement of Cunera. In 1716, the Spanish progressed eastwards and took control of the entire island, driving the Dutch forces to the nearby Dutch colonies of Sint Eustatius and Saba. The Dutch Navy then launched a counter colonisation in 1722, which was successful and by 1723 the island was wholly controlled by the Dutch once again.

The island remained Dutch until 1745 until the French attempted to colonise the capital, but failed due to the Dutch's strong preparations to prevent further attacks from colonial powers. These failed, however, since, during the British’s expansion in the region in the late 18th century, the island was captured by the British in 1785.

During the British occupation, the Dutch still claimed the island and recognised it as part of their territory, but the British developed the island to their standards and ideals. This included changing the system of Government from the Estates of Sint Cunera to the Parliament of Sint Cunera, although this still had little powers due to the political structure of colonies.

When the Dutch West India Company dissolved in 1792 due to rising difficulty in trade, the Dutch Government made Sint Cunera part of the Curaçao and Dependencies colony of the Kingdom of the Netherlands, despite it still being occupied by the British.

Following the Anglo-Dutch treaties of 1814 and 1824, the island was returned to the Dutch in 1815 and has remained Dutch ever since. Following the de-occupation from the British, the Dutch Government invested heavily in infrastructure which had been ignored by the British. This included the road network, which was designed entirely to be right-hand-drive orientated. With the industrial revolution occurring in Europe at the time, Sint Cunera became more important than ever to supply the continent with refined products such sugar and tobacco. This rapid expansion of agriculture led to a boom in the economy, making it one of the most important nations in the Caribbean at the time. In 1863, when slavery was abolished, the economy was hit, causing a recession lasting over 5 years. This was due to plantation-based agriculture economy, which was adversely affected by the abolition. Many of the plantations closed and unemployment was at an all-time high.

In 1865, during a constitutional reform, members of Curaçao and Dependencies, including Sint Cunera were given more autonomy from the Netherlands, although it was still referred to as a colony of the Netherlands. This reform was pushed for by Sint Cunera during its economic difficulties. The economy, through plans brought forwards by the newly enhanced Estates of Sint Cunera, recovered with a different industrial focus.

Post-Colonial
Following the Dutch Constitution of 1922, the Constitution of Curaçao was enacted in 1936, which followed the basic principles of the new Dutch Constitution. The reference to Sint Cunera, and other members of Curaçao and Dependencies being a colonies was removed and further autonomy was granted, although Sint Cunera was still part of Curaçao and Dependencies.

During the Second World War, Sint Cunera was controlled by the Dutch Government in Exile in London and was protected from much of the activities of the war, and following the war, after Constitutional changes in the Netherlands, new autonomy was promised for the territories, with the newly created Netherland Antilles, Suriname and the Netherlands were all made to become equal under the wider Kingdom of the Netherlands. However, Sint Cunera, with the largest economies of all the Caribbean Netherland countries, decided via a referendum not continue being part of the Netherland Antilles, so left the Kingdom of the Netherlands in 1959. This decision was prompted by an independence movement on the island with many believing that independence would benefit the island and its economy.

The current flag has been used since Independence and was designed during a national competition whereby citizens submitted ideas for the flag post independence. The current flag features two blue bands, representing the sky and sea, two yellow bands representing the sand and the sun and a single black band representing a unity of all people throughout time. There was a controversy at the time that one of the islands key features, of Mount Sint Gerlach, was not depicted on the chosen flag, despite its great cultural and spiritual connection with the islands' people.

Sint Cunera was a founding member of CARICOM in May 1974, and is also part of the Customs Union that the organisation provides. This also provides a free-movement market, similar to that of the EU's which exists in those member states. Supporters of Sint Cunera's membership to CARICOM say this freedom has been invaluable to the growing tourism sector, which provides a large percentage of the economy and also job along the coastline. Many residents on the island do say, however, that their own job and social prosperity has been harmed by tempoary workers arriving in Sint Cunera for the high season, which has lead to some politicans on the island advocating for the removal of Sint Cunera from the customs union of CARICOM.

Sint Cunera is also an associate member of Association of Caribbean States since 2000. The Estates of Sint Cunera did not approve of full membership to the organisation, since it felt that the CARICOM market was suffieicent, without being 'burdened' with super-national trade deals.
 * Recent Politics

Climate
Like many of the Carribean islands, Sint Cunera has a tropical climate, with a dry season in the winter months and wetter weather during the summer months, howveer due to its equatorial location, a high temperature is maintainted throughout.

Transport
The island is served by two main airports, Sint Cunera International Airport, which features direct flights to Europe, including to destinations such as Amsterdam, London and Barcelona. It also hosts flights from European travel airlines such as TUI and Thomas Cook, as the island and its resorts are popular with holiday-goers. The airport also hosts North and South American Airlines, and has direct flights to Miami and Atlanta in Carolina, along with Los Angles in the US, among other locations. Regional flights usually use Cunera Regional Aiport, on the east of the island. Winair has direct flights to other nearby islands, such as Sint Maartin, Saba and Saint-Barthélemy, along with flights to mainland airports with other airlines. Sint Cunera has no official national airline, although the airline of Cunair has its base on the island and is widely regarded as the national airline. There are no railway lines on the island and buses are the main form of public transport. Local Busses run around all the main towns including Sint Velson and Cunera, and island-wide shuttle services are also provided which use the island's main ring road. Although it is officially classed as a motorway, the A1 is a controlled access, single or dual carriageway which circumnavigates the island, with a spur to Sint Cunera International Airport, which is dual or triple carriageway due to the high levels of tourist coaches and hire cars. Ferries are common and are the only way to access the smaller islands to the North West of Sint Velson. There are also ferry services to Cunera to Sint Velson, along with services to Saba and Sint Eustatius. Water Taxies are also common between the smaller islands, due to the high density of tourist resorts and facilities on these islands.

Demographics
In the 2016 census, the population of the island nation was 650,103.

Births and deaths

Languages
English is the dominant language on the island, and Spanish is also widly spoken due to high levels of migration from South America in order to supply the growing Tourism industry. Dutch, despite the long connection to The Netherlands, is not spoken widly - mainly just among the legal profession, as the constituion and most legal bills are bilungual - written in Dutch and English.

Education
The Caribbean International Academy was founded in 2003 on the island of St. Maarten, and in 2005, opened schools in Cunera and Sint Velson and are now the most favourable, and largest private schools on the island. Education is funded by the Government for ages 6 to 16, with optional years from 3-6 and from 16-18 being partially funded, resulting in low uptake of these sections off education by the majority of the poorer population on the island. However, the literacy rate on the island has risen in the past few decades, due to investment in rural schools and education, including the opening of 13 new schools, 10 new primary schools (Ages 6 to 11) and 3 high schools (Ages 12 to 16), in rural and poorer communities.

The American University of the Caribbean School of Medicine (AUC), founded in 1978, was previously located on Montserrat. Because of the eruption of the Soufrière Hills volcano in 1995, AUC moved its campus to Sint Cunera later that year, although Sint Maarten had previously been chosen but was later reversed due to the smaller population. A permanent campus was completed in 1998 in Cunera.

The University of Sint Cunera (USC) is located in Cunera, and is the only home-university on the island. It offers a wide range of courses and has a student population of around 3000.

Food
The island's cuisine is a unique blend of West African, European (mainly British and Dutch) and East Indian cuisine; this creates dynamic meal dishes such as Stew chicken, rice and peas, fish broth or fish water, and soups packed full with fresh locally produced vegetables. Typical essential foodstuffs are potatoes, onions, celery, thyme, coconut milk, the very hot scotch bonnet peppers, flour and cornmeal. All mainstream meat and poultry are eaten in Sint Cunera; meat and seafood are normally stewed and browned to create a rich gravy sometimes served over ground provisions or rice. These bakes can be served with different sides, such as saltfish which is either sautéed or lightly fried along with red, green peppers, onions, and seasoned well. This is the most common way for bake to be prepared, though it can also be served with meats such as stewed chicken or beef.

One popular Sint Cunerian dessert is the pastry called turnover. The pastry is made with sweetened coconut that is boiled with spices, some sugar, and whatever is satisfying. It is boiled until cooked to a light or dark brown color; then the mixture is separated into various size portions placed on a rolled out piece of dough. The dough size may vary too depending on how much is desired, and lastly, it is baked in the oven until the color of the turnover is nicely browned.

Sports
Popular team sports in Sint Cunera include baseball, cricket, and soccer. Recreational fishing, golf, and water sports (including diving, kayaking, snorkelling, and yachting) are popular amongst tourists.

The Sint Cunera Soccer Association was founded in 1979. The organisation is a member of FIFA, but also became an associate member of CONCACAF in 2001, and a full member in 2012. The national football team debuted in 1979, and plays its home games at the Cunera Sports Complex, which has a 6,500-spectator capacity. After an initial period of popularity during the 1990s, including an appearance at the 1993 Caribbean Cup, interest in football declined, with the national team playing its last official match in 2005. However, Sint Cunera is scheduled to return to international competition in June 2016, in the 2017 Caribbean Cup qualification tournament.

The Sint Cunera Cricket Association is a member of the Leeward Islands Cricket Association (LICA), which is in turn a member of the West Indies Cricket Board (WICB). With rare exceptions, the national cricket team plays only against other LICA members, though Sint Cunerians may go on to play for the Leeward Islands team at regional level and for the West Indies team internationally. The primary venue for cricket is the Sint Velson Cricket Park.

Prior to cricket becoming popular, baseball was preferred. No national team existed, although Sint Cunerians were eligible to play for the Netherlands Antilles baseball team before its dissolution. Several Sint Cunerians have passed through the American baseball system, playing at college level or in the minor leagues.