In literature and oral tradition, the village of Savaneta is considered the oldest European settlement on Aruba. The Spanish stationed their administrators there between about 1501 and 1636 and after the takeover by the West India Company, the Dutch rulers also established their administrative center on the bay, which automatically acquired the name Commandeursbaai.

The Archaic Ceramic Age site at Savaneta. comprised a large habitation site with a main period of use during ad 950–1250, although they are thought to have been inhabited up to the arrival of the Spaniards in the early 16th century.

In the eighteenth century the Commandeurs and other employees of the West India Company were the only Europeans allowed on the island.
Colonial settlement in Aruba was not permitted until June 17, 1754. The residence of the Commandeur was located in a coastal area called Commandeurs Baai (Commanders’ Bay), in an area known today as Savaneta.