1.
Aruba
–
It measures 32 kilometres long from its northwestern to its southeastern end and 10 kilometres across at its widest point. Together with Bonaire and Curaçao, Aruba forms a group referred to as the ABC islands, collectively, Aruba and the other Dutch islands in the Caribbean are often called the Dutch Caribbean. Aruba is one of the four countries that form the Kingdom of the Netherlands, along with the Netherlands, Curaçao, the citizens of these countries all share a single nationality, Dutch. Aruba has no subdivisions, but, for census purposes, is divided into eight regions. Unlike much of the Caribbean region, Aruba has a dry climate and this climate has helped tourism as visitors to the island can reliably expect warm, sunny weather. It has an area of 179 km2 and is densely populated. Arubas first inhabitants are thought to have been Caquetío Amerindians from the Arawak tribe, fragments of the earliest known Indian settlements date back to 1000 AD. As sea currents made travel to other Caribbean islands difficult. Europeans first learned of Aruba following the explorations for Spain by Amerigo Vespucci, both described Aruba as an island of giants, remarking on the comparatively large stature of the native Caquetíos compared to Europeans. Gold was not discovered on Aruba for another 300 years, Vespucci returned to Spain with stocks of cotton and brazilwood from the island and described houses built into the ocean. Vespucci and Ojedas tales spurred interest in Aruba, and Spaniards soon colonized the island, because it had low rainfall, Aruba was not considered profitable for the plantation system and the economics of the slave trade. Aruba was colonized by Spain for over a century, simas, the Cacique, or chief, in Aruba, welcomed the first Catholic priests in Aruba, who gave him a wooden cross as a gift. In 1508, the Spanish Crown appointed Alonso de Ojeda as its first Governor of Aruba, Arawaks spoke the broken Spanish which their ancestors had learned on Hispaniola. Another governor appointed by Spain was Juan Martínez de Ampiés, a cédula real decreed in November 1525 gave Ampiés, factor of Española, the right to repopulate Aruba. In 1528, Ampiés was replaced by a representative of the House of Welser, the Dutch statutes have applied to Aruba since 1629. The Netherlands acquired Aruba in 1636, since 1636, Aruba has been under Dutch administration, initially governed by Peter Stuyvesant, later appointed to New Amsterdam. Stuyvesant was on a mission in Aruba in November and December 1642. The island was included under the Dutch West India Company administration, as New Netherland and Curaçao, in 1667 the Dutch administration appointed an Irishman as Commandeur in Aruba
2.
Netherlands Antilles
–
The Netherlands Antilles was a constituent country of the Kingdom of the Netherlands. The country consisted of several island territories located in the Caribbean Sea, the islands were also informally known as the Dutch Antilles. The country came into being in 1954 as the successor of the Dutch colony of Curaçao and Dependencies. All the island territories that belonged to the Netherlands Antilles remain part of the kingdom today, as a group they are still commonly called the Dutch Caribbean, regardless of their legal status. The islands of the Netherlands Antilles are all part of the Lesser Antilles island chain, within this group, the country was spread over two smaller island groups, a northern group and a western group. No part of the country was in the southern Windward Islands and this island sub-group was located in the eastern Caribbean Sea, to the east of Puerto Rico. There were three islands, collectively known as the SSS islands, Sint Maarten Saba Sint Eustatius and they lie approximately 800–900 kilometers north-east of the ABC Islands. This island sub-group was located in the southern Caribbean Sea off the north coast of Venezuela, the Leeward islands are subject to hurricanes in the summer months, while those islands located in the Leeward Antilles are warmer and drier. Spanish-sponsored explorers discovered both the leeward and windward island groups, however, the Spanish Crown only founded settlements in the leeward islands. In the 17th century the islands were conquered by the Dutch West India Company, from the last quarter of the 17th century, the group consisted of six undisputedly Dutch islands, Curaçao, Aruba, Bonaire, Sint Eustatius, Saba and Sint Maarten. In the past, Anguilla, the present-day British Virgin Islands, St. Croix, the various islands were united as a single country — the Netherlands Antilles — in 1954. The country was dissolved on 10 October 2010, in the second half of the 18th century Sint Eustatius became the commercial hub of the north-eastern Caribbean, earning the nickname the Golden Rock. From 1815 onwards Curaçao and Dependencies formed a colony of the Kingdom of the Netherlands, slavery was abolished in 1863, and in 1865 a government regulation for Curaçao was enacted that allowed for some very limited autonomy for the colony. Although this regulation was replaced by a constitution in 1936, the changes to the government structure remained superficial, the island of Curaçao was hit hard by the abolition of slavery in 1863. Its prosperity was restored in the early 20th century with the construction of oil refineries to service the newly discovered Venezuelan oil fields, colonial rule ended after the conclusion of the Second World War. In May 1948 a new constitution for the territory entered into force, among other things, universal suffrage was introduced. The territory was also renamed Netherlands Antilles, after the Dutch constitution was revised in 1948, a new interim Constitution of the Netherlands Antilles was enacted in February 1951. A consolidated version of this remained in force until the dissolution of the Netherlands Antilles in 2010
3.
North American Numbering Plan
–
The North American Numbering Plan is a telephone numbering plan that encompasses 25 distinct regions in twenty countries primarily in North America, including the Caribbean and the U. S. territories. Not all North American countries participate in the NANP, each participating country forms a regulatory authority that has plenary control over local numbering resources. The FCC also serves as the U. S. regulator, Canadian numbering decisions are made by the Canadian Numbering Administration Consortium. The NANP divides the territories of its members into numbering plan areas which are encoded numerically with a telephone number prefix. Each telephone is assigned a telephone number unique only within its respective plan area. The telephone number consists of a central office code and a four-digit station number. The combination of a code and the telephone number serves as a destination routing address in the public switched telephone network. For international call routing, the NANP has been assigned the calling code 1 by the International Telecommunications Union. The North American Numbering Plan conforms with ITU Recommendation E.164, from its beginnings in 1876 and throughout the first part of the 20th century, the Bell System grew from essentially local or regional telephone systems. These systems expanded by growing their subscriber bases, as well as increasing their service areas by implementing additional local exchanges that were interconnected with tie trunks and it was the responsibility of each local administration to design telephone numbering plans that accommodated the local requirements and growth. As a result, the Bell System as a developed into an unorganized system of many differing local numbering systems. The diversity impeded the efficient operation and interconnection of exchanges into a system for long-distance telephone communication. The new numbering plan was accepted in October 1947, dividing most of North America into 86 Numbering Plan Areas. Each NPA was assigned a Numbering Plan Area code, often abbreviated as area code and these codes were first used by long-distance operators to establish long-distance calls between toll offices. The first customer-dialed direct call using area codes was made on November 10,1951, from Englewood, New Jersey, to Alameda, California. Direct distance dialing was introduced across the country and by the early 1960s most areas of the Bell System had been converted and it was commonplace in cities. In the following decades, the system expanded to all of the United States and its territories, Canada, Bermuda. By 1967,129 area codes had been assigned, mexican participation was planned, but implementation stopped after two area codes had been assigned and Mexico opted for an international numbering format, using country code 52
4.
Telephone numbers in the Americas
–
Canada, the United States and some Caribbean countries use the country calling code 1. Local area codes in these countries are managed by the North American Numbering Plan, greenland and Aruba have a country calling code that has the number 2 as first digit, which mostly is used by countries in Africa. All other countries use codes that start with 5, country Code, +1International Call Prefix, 011Trunk Prefix,1 In the United States, Canada, Bermuda, and 18 Caribbean nations, area codes are regulated by the North American Numbering Plan. Currently, all area codes in the NANP must have 3 digits, historically, the second digit was always 0 or 1, while the second digit of the 3-digit exchange prefix was never 0 or 1. With the increased demand for area codes because of lines, FAX lines, pagers, cell phones. At the same time, the restriction on a local telephone numbers second digit. Under the new rules, a number such as 400-1234 is perfectly legal. Despite being one numbering plan, the cost of calling numbers in the NANP can vary depending on which country of the NANP the code is in. As a result, great care is needed on the part of a caller to avoid unexpectedly large bills, not all area codes correspond to a geographical area. Codes 8xx with the last two digits matching, such as 800,888,877,866, etc. are reserved for toll-free calls, Code 900 is reserved for premium-rate calls. Area code 710 is reserved for the United States Government, area code 600 is reserved for national Canadian services. All the extra costs of mobile telephony must be borne by the mobiles owner, local number portability applies across landline and mobile services. In some regions, customer can port a landline number to mobile service and vice versa, dialing plans vary from place to place depending on whether an area has overlays and whether the state requires toll alerting. The NANPA web site includes dialing plan information in their information on individual area codes, most areas allow permissive dialing of 1+10D even for calls that could be dialed as 7D. The number of digits dialed is unrelated to whether a call is local or toll, in some places, local calls to other area codes are 1+10D, in others they can be dialed as 10D without the leading 1. In areas with overlays, local calls are all dialed as either 10D or 1+10D, in areas with toll alerting, all toll calls must be dialed as 1+10D
