The Netherlands and France share this noisy island. On the French side, gourmets rule restaurants, while on the Dutch side, casinos will delight gamblers.
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The legend says, that the border separating both territories was traced when a French and a Dutch, walking by the island in opposite direction, met at a point. It is said, that the Dutch zone is smaller because the Dutch was fat, or dull or lost time drinking gin, or the three of them. Actually to cross the border is something informal; in fact, some signs erected by the Dutch and French citizens to commemorate more than 200 years of peaceful cohabitation go unnoticed for tourists.

Whatever the origin of this border, the truth is that it divides in two parts, one of the smaller territories in the world (96 square km.). South of the island, the tiniest of both halves, known as St. Maarten, is part of the Dutch Antilles. North is St-Martin the French zone, which since 1946, has the official rank of Departement of France. Therefore, this island offers two very distinctive cultures. St-Martin is a quiet place with French style boutiques and restaurants, while St. Maarten has great resorts, as well as casinos and chains of fast food restaurants.

Two Different Landscapes
On the western end is a coral reef enclosing a lagoon in the middle. In contrast east of the island arises a chain of conic hills. In fact, St-Martin is crossed by two parallel mountain chains. The first, going north from Cole Bay Hill, where is the Pick du Paradis, the highest peak of the island with more than 420m high. The second goes from Point Blanche to Oyster Pond, in a series of rocky steep cliffs along the southeast coast. Between these two mountain chains are Great Bay and Salt Pond, the Belle Plaine and the tiny salty lagoons of Le Galion.

It’s a landscape with smooth, easy climbing hills, fertile meadows to feed cattle and horses, and beautiful beaches. Long ago the wild boars of the Terres Basses disappeared, however sea turtles still deliver in their coasts, and fishing is excellent.

A Cosmopolitan Atmosphere
You can’t say St. Martin people have a definite identity, and you’ll never know, exactly, how many live here.
Some sources say there are, at least, 62,000 legal residents (32,000 on the French side and 30,000 on the Dutch). You have to add thousands of illegal foreigners living here, coming from all corners of the world.

Contrasting to the French side, of strong French character, the Dutch zone, though keeping some influence from the Netherlands, has turned out into a cosmopolitan place with a mixture of people from so distant places as the US, other Caribbean islands and Asia. This can be noticed in the diverse languages spoken in St. Martin. The main languages are Dutch, French, English, Spanish, patois and Papiamento. The latter was introduced by the massive arrival of immigrants looking for jobs, in the 1960’s. English and French are consider the conqueror’s languages, while the “national language” is a kind of Creole. In St-Martin, almost everybody speak French, while in St. Maarten Dutch is the official language, therefore is used in schools, though most of the population speaks English, including signals and advertising. From the beginning, English was used in commercial trade.

History of St-Martin
Archaeological excavations have discovered more than half a dozen of Amerindian settlements around the beaches of Terres Basses, at the southeast coast of the Simpson Bay lagoon. This fact reveals that St. Martin was a hunting territory for the Caribbeans that call the island as Sualougia, “a place where salt is obtained”, and Oualichi “a place to find women”. When Columbus passed next to some place south of the island, without landing, after the hurricanes of 1493, there were still some Indians in this place.

But salt was the main reason that took the Dutch to conquer the island in 1631. At that time, the Netherlands was in war with Spain, who had the monopoly of salt in Europe, because salt had vital importance to preserve foods. The Spaniards took power in the islands, but the Dutch tried to recover it. In one of those battles, young Peter Stuyvesant, then governor of Curacao, lost one of his legs, due to a cannon shot fired by the Spaniards from Cay Bay. It was 1644, and three years later, Stuyvesant, was named governor of the Dutch colony of Manhattan. The Spaniards abandoned St-Martin four years later; the Dutch took the opportunity, this time alongside the French, to settle down on the island again. Both countries traced a border dividing the island in two parts. Notwithstanding numerous armed raids from both parts, and the successive intents from the Dutch, in the XVIII century, to buy the French their part, this border has survived.

At the climax of colonialism, salt and sugar were the two most important exportation products. After abolition of slavery, sugar cane plantations declined until they completely vanished from the island. Salt exportation continued to nations such as the US. and the Netherlands, where it was used in the herring industry, until 1949, when the salt trade come to an end.