Caribbean and Central America Travel

The island of Saint Martin is the smallest island in the world that is divided into two seperate territories. The southern half of the island is part of the Windward islands of the Netherlands Antilles: Sint Maarten. The northern half of the island is an overseas territory of France: Collectivité de Saint-Martin. This entry is about the French half of the island.

This small island however, was first sighted by an Italian, who was and explorer for Spain: Christopher Columbus. It was said that he probably discovered the island on November 11, 1493, on the feast day of Saint Martin of Tours. In honor of the saint, Christopher Columbus named the island after him.

The Carib Indians were the islands first inhabitants. The 17th century found the European powers struggling for control over the West Indies: the French, the English, the Dutch, the Danes and the Spanish. In Saint Martin, it was mainly the Dutch and the French who squabbled for their claim in the island. However, in comes the Spanish, staking their claim and effectively taking control of the small island. The French and the Dutch were able to successfully gain the island back, but still fought with each other on stalking claim. The signing of the Treaty of Concordia gave birth to the border separating the two halves of the island.

The French Saint Martin has a European flare, giving it a slightly more polished edge over its Dutch counterpart. The two territories share an airport, which is located on the Sint Maarten side.

This entry was posted on Tuesday, July 3rd, 2007 at 4:35 pm and is filed under Caribbean, Saint Martin. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.