Curaçao is an autonomous country within the Royal Dutch Kingdom and together with its neighbors Aruba and Bonaire it constitutes the so-called 'ABC' islands or Leeward Antilles.
The history of Curaçao begins with Amerindian Arawaks. The Arawaks and their subgroups migrated from regions of South America some 6,000 years ago, settling on various islands they discovered as they embarked on a centuries-long northward trek. The group that ended up in Curaçao were the Caiquetios, who gave the island it's name.
After the late 15th-Century voyages of Christopher Columbus the Caribbean was put, literally, on the maps which made the area wide open for European exploration. The Spanish soldier and explorer Alonso de Ojeda, joined by the Italian Amerigo Vespucci, set out on a voyage (1499 - 1500) to chart much of the South American coast and, in turn, several offshore islands in the area. One story has it that during this voyage, a number of sailors came down with scurvy, and Ojeda had them dropped off on Curaçao which was on the way to South America.
On Ojeda's return, he found the sailors alive and happy—presumably cured by the abundance of Vitamin C-laden fruit on the island. Ojeda was then said to have named the island Curaçao, after an archaic Portuguese word for "cure". Of course, Vespucci was Italian, not Portuguese, and de Ojeda was Spanish, but these stories seem to take on a life of their own, and are often much more fun than the real story. A more convincing theory is that the Spaniards called the island Curazon, for "heart", and the mapmakers of the day converted the spelling to the Portuguese Curaçao.
At any rate, soon after de Ojeda's voyage, the Spanish came in larger numbers. By the early 16th century they had pretty well determined that the island had little gold and not enough of a fresh water supply to establish large farms, and they abandoned it. Finally, the Dutch West India Company, a quasi-private, government-backed company, laid claim in 1634.
Learn more about the history of Curaçao by visiting these museums: Curaçao Museum in Otrobanda, Kura Hulanda Museum, Maritime Museum, and Mongui Maduro Library, to name a few.