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

 * Etymology

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.