St Martin: History

Pre-20th-Century History

St Martin, like the rest of the Caribbean, was originally inhabited by Amerindians who migrated there from the American mainland. The island was known to these early inhabitants as 'Soualiga' (Land of Salt) in honour of its many salt ponds. The first European to explore this land of saline puddles was Christopher Columbus. The famous Spanish explorer reached the northern islands of the Caribbean in 1492 while looking for a westward route to Asia. He made it to the Eastern Caribbean the following year, with Dominica the first island sighted, on 3 November. Just eight days later he 'discovered' St Martin and named it for Bishop St Martin of Tours, a name which both the Dutch and French have managed to agree on despite historical differences about sovereignty.

There is now some argument in history circles about whether the island Columbus came across was actually St Martin or the more southerly Nevis. Whatever the 'discovered' island's real identity, it took 138 years before any attempts were made to colonise it. Following England's example, which established a Caribbean stronghold in 1623 on St Kitts, the French and Dutch arrived in the Eastern Caribbean to claim land, both staking a claim on St Martin in 1631. The two powers were unceremoniously thrown off the premises two years later by the Spanish, who had been the first to claim, but not colonise, the island. The original claimants proceeded to fortify their reclaimed booty, and, notably, defeated a 1644 Dutch attempt to reclaim the island, in which renowned Dutch coloniser Peter Stuyvesant (he of New York fame) lost a leg. Four years later the Spanish reassessed their Eastern Caribbean interests and simply left of their own accord.

Both the French and the Dutch were quick to re-establish their claim over St Martin and, despite making an agreement in 1648 to share the island, tussled over its ownership until 1817, when the current boundaries were peacefully established. The intervening years saw both sides control the entire island at different times, with 16 (non-consecutive) years of English rule thrown in for good measure.

During this period St Martin, in step with the rest of the Caribbean, established a lucrative plantation economy - and contributed to one of the most abhorrent social injustices in history - using slaves imported from Africa. Native forests were cleared and tobacco, indigo, cotton, cocoa, coffee and, most importantly, sugarcane were grown. By the early 1800s, however, sugar's place in the sun had melted away. Merchants grew sick of British-French military skirmishes interrupting supplies and began replacing Caribbean cane with European-grown beet sugar. The abolition of slavery in St Martin in 1848 (41 years after the English had abolished the slave trade) sounded the final death knell of the island's plantation tradition. Along with many Eastern Caribbean islands, St Martin slipped into a subsistence economy.

Modern History

Harmonious governance of the bi-national island continued until World War II, when first the French (after the Dutch fell to the Nazis) then the Allies (after the French fell) took 'protective control' of it. The island received a much-needed boost when the USA built a military airfield, now Juliana Airport, on Dutch Sint Maarten in 1943. Following the end of the war, the airport - the region's largest - facilitated the island's growth as a regional hub and ushered in the tourism industry, which today is the mainstay of St Martin's economy.

Recent History

Looming large in St Martin's recent history are a number of hurricane disasters. In 1995 Hurricane Luis wreaked major havoc on the island, killing six people and causing US$1000000000.00 worth of damage. Hurricane Lenny in 1999 also caused significant damage. The local tourist industry suffered greatly as a result of the storms, with hotels closing and staff being laid off - although St Martin fared better than its Dutch neighbour Sint Maarten. Although it has taken some time to recover, St Martin is now back to business as usual.

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