The NETHERLANDS ANTILLES is an area in the Caribbean Sea containing two groups of islands: Curaçao and Bonaire and the islands of Sint Eustatius, Saba, and Sint Maarten. Aruba was formerly part of the Netherlands Antilles, but achieved independence. According to this Wikipedia page, the Netherlands Antilles will undergo the process of dissolution on October 2010. The islands will still be part of the Netherlands (kind of like how Montserrat is an overseas territory of the United Kingdom), but the islands of Curaçao and Sint Maarten may form their own entity. The Netherlands Antilles' capital is Willemstad; the capital is located on Curaçao and has a whopping 125,000 inhabitants. The currency is the Netherlands Antillean Guilder; the ISO 4217 currency code is ANG.
UPDATE (October 13, 2010): The islands in the Netherlands Antilles are now more independent then they were before October. Starting on October 10, the islands of Aruba, Curaçao, and Sint Maarten are now considered constituent countries. What is a constituent country, you may ask? Well, it is a country that is part of a larger entity (according to Wikipedia constituent countries page). In this case, Aruba, Curaçao, and Sint Maarten are part of the Kingdom of the Netherlands (which is also comprised of the country Netherlands in Europe). Meanwhile, the BES Islands (Bonaire, Saba, and Sint Eustatius) are known as special municipalities, according to Wikipedia's BES Islands page.
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