History
The first traces of settlement date back to 4000 BC. Around the year 800, the island is in the settlement area of the Tainos (Arawaks) who reside there. In the 14th century, they were replaced by the Caribbean. Several archaeological sites concerning these two groups have been unearthed (an exhibition dedicated to them at the Saint-Martin museum in Marigot).
Christopher Columbus, upon his return from Hispaniola during his second voyage, passing offshore with his fleet of 17 ships, between 11, day of the feast of Saint Martin of Tours, and November 13, 1493, the would have called. However, local tradition designates the island by two other names in the Caribbean language: “Soualiga” (“salt island”) and “Oualichi” (“women island”).
From 1627, the Dutch carried out various reconnaissance missions in search of natural saltworks, before installing in July 1631 a small garrison of thirty men and four cannons on a peninsula of the Great Bay, at the current site of Philipsburg . Some French families from the nearby French colony of Saint-Christophe Island grow tobacco on the eastern part of Saint-Martin.
In 1638, the Spanish wishing to protect their regional hegemony attacked the Dutch garrison, settled and built their fort there, according to a French technique. They leave a small garrison there in connection with Puerto Rico. In 1644, this fort resisted an attack by the famous Dutch captain Pieter Stuyvesant. It was during this aborted fight that he received an injury which subsequently caused his leg to be amputated.
Following this attack, the Spanish dismantle their fort and leave the island, leaving some French and Dutch who hasten to notify their respective governments, of Saint-Christophe for the French and Saint-Eustache for the Dutch. After a few intimidation maneuvers, the two parties preferred to transact and split the island into two zones with distinct sovereignties while laying down rules of mutual cooperation.
On March 23, 1648, the said Concordia convention was thus drawn up and signed by the Chevalier Robert de Lonvilliers de Poincy on behalf of the King of France and Captain-Major Martin Thomas on behalf of the Prince of Orange.
This agreement has never been repealed and is still in force despite numerous incidents and slippages over the past 350 years. Nowadays, de facto, Article V is no longer really respected. The layout of the current border dates from 1817.
The treaties of Westphalia of October 24, 1648 put an end, among other things, to Spanish territorial claims on the Lesser Antilles.
Subsequently pirates make several destructive raids there and the British military forces occupy the island many times depending on conflicts and alliances in Europe.
The economy of the island is successively based on tobacco, indigo, sugar cane, cotton, salt, livestock. Since the late 1960s, tourism, with zero-rated shopping, has been the island’s primary economic resource.
