History · Saint-Martin

Saint-Martin: Half an Island

The French northern half of the smallest landmass shared by two nations — a salt-and-sugar colony divided with the Dutch since 1648, governed for centuries from Guadeloupe, made its own French collectivity in 2007, and flattened by Hurricane Irma in 2017

By Worldlore Editorial · 19 September 2026

Boxes and sacks of fruit and vegetables laid out for sale on a quayside under a small tree, with shoppers, an old saloon car and yachts anchored in the bay behind
Fruit and vegetables on sale at the harbour in Marigot, capital of the French side of the island, in a slide by the Dutch photographer Jaap de Jonge. (J.D. (Jaap) de Jonge, Nationaal Museum van Wereldculturen / Wikimedia Commons · CC BY-SA 3.0)

The divided island

Saint-Martin, in the northern Lesser Antilles, is 87 square kilometres of hills, lagoons and beaches shared by two countries: the northern 60 per cent is the French collectivity of Saint-Martin, the southern 40 per cent the Dutch territory of Sint Maarten. There is no border control between them, only a monument and a change of language and currency. The French side has about 32,000 people. The partition, made in 1648 and never seriously redrawn, makes this the smallest land area in the world divided between two nations — and this article covers the French north.

A short history

  1. pre-1600s

    Kalinago Soualiga

    The "Land of Salt" is used for its salt ponds.

  2. 1631–1648

    Spanish, then abandoned

    Spain fortifies the island, then withdraws.

  3. 1648

    The Treaty of Concordia

    France and the Netherlands agree to share the island.

  4. 17th–18th c.

    Salt and sugar

    Salt ponds and plantations worked by enslaved Africans.

  5. 1848

    Abolition on the French side

    Slavery ends in the French colonies.

  6. 1946

    Part of Guadeloupe

    The French side becomes a commune of the department.

  7. 1980s–2000s

    The tourism boom

    Duty-free status drives rapid, largely unplanned development.

  8. 2003

    Referendum

    Residents vote to separate from Guadeloupe.

  9. 2007

    Collectivity

    Saint-Martin becomes a distinct French overseas collectivity.

  10. 2017

    Hurricane Irma

    A Category 5 storm devastates the island.

Sharing an island

The Kalinago called the island Soualiga, "Land of Salt", for the ponds that would shape its economy. Columbus sighted it in 1493 on Saint Martin's day. Spain built a fort in 1633 to deny it to rivals but abandoned the position in 1648; French and Dutch settlers already present then agreed, by the Treaty of Concordia signed on 23 March 1648, to divide the island between them and coexist. Tradition tells of a walking contest to fix the line; in practice the border shifted with the fortunes of war a number of times before settling roughly where it is now. The French side developed salt-raking and, in the drier parts, cotton, tobacco and sugar, all worked by enslaved Africans who soon formed the great majority of the population.

The low stone ruins of Fort Louis on a hilltop overlooking Marigot's bay and marina
Fort Louis, above Marigot, built by the French in 1789 to protect the harbour and its warehouses of sugar, coffee and salt from British and Dutch raids. (Christine Warner Hawks / Wikimedia Commons)

Slavery, freedom, and neglect

Sugar on Saint-Martin was never as productive as on the large islands — the terrain and rainfall did not allow it — and the economy leaned heavily on salt and on provisioning ships. France abolished slavery in its colonies in 1848; on the Dutch side, emancipation came only in 1863, and in the intervening years enslaved people crossed the invisible border to claim their freedom. For the next century the French side was a quiet, poor dependency, administered as part of Guadeloupe far to the south, its people relying on fishing, salt, small farming, and migration to find work.

A roadside monument reading 'One Caribbean Island, Two Countries' marking the open border between French and Dutch Saint Martin
The border monument between French Saint-Martin and Dutch Sint Maarten. There are no checkpoints; the 1648 line survives only as a change of flag, language and currency. (Thank You (23 Millions+) views / Wikimedia Commons)

Boom, and self-government

From the 1970s and especially the 1980s, Saint-Martin transformed. Its duty-free status, the airport on the Dutch side, and French tax incentives for building in the overseas territories drove an explosive tourism and construction boom — hotels, marinas and villas — that multiplied the population several times over with arrivals from mainland France, Haiti, the Dominican Republic and across the Caribbean, and outran the island's roads, water and planning. Feeling ill-served by distant Guadeloupe, residents voted in a 2003 referendum to separate, and on 15 July 2007 Saint-Martin became its own French overseas collectivity, with an elected territorial council holding powers over taxation, tourism, planning and roads.

Irma, and after

On 6 September 2017 Hurricane Irma, one of the strongest Atlantic hurricanes on record, passed directly over the island with sustained winds above 280 km/h. It destroyed or damaged the great majority of buildings on both sides, killed 11 people on the French side, and knocked out power, water and communications for weeks. Reconstruction has been slow and contentious, entangled with disputes over building standards, insurance, and the French state's role, and the island remains economically fragile and highly exposed to the next storm.

What Saint-Martin carries

Saint-Martin has been half of a shared island for nearly four centuries, an arrangement born of a 1648 compromise that simply never broke down. Its French half spent most of that time as an afterthought governed from Guadeloupe, was remade in a single generation by duty-free tourism, and won its own institutions only in 2007. Hurricane Irma exposed how much of that recent growth was built lightly and fast — and how much of the island's future depends on rebuilding it better.

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