History of Saint-Martin : Discover

Discover Saint Martin : History

History

Saint Martin’s history is just one step in the progressive populating of the islands between Miami and Venezuela. The region of Grand Case displays the most ancient traces of a tribe referred to as “Meso Indians”, who were ignorant in terms of agriculture and pottery, and arrived to the region around 2000 B.C. (in the Palaeolithic period). These initial settlers were eventually assimilated by a new peoples of a more advanced social structure, the Saladoids (also called “Arawaks”), wandering to the area from the delta of the Orinoco Flow, already mastering the fine arts of agriculture (Neolithic period), navigation (pirogues) and fishing. Since their society was divided into a multitude of smaller groupings, their arrival and wanderings took place in several waves. Arawaks were the first to lay eyes on Christopher Columbus (11 November, 1493), as the infamous and legendary Caribbeans (Caribs, Callinagos) had not had the time to move all the way up into the region of Saint Martin by that time. The island’s population met the same fate as most aboriginal peoples of the Greater Antilles: their culture disappeared completely in the period between 1492 and 1502 due to unknown illnesses, battles, punishment expeditions, deportation and slavery.

Owing to the island’s rather small size and unattractive profile, its first colonial exploiters were mere pirates (filibusters, privateers, buccaneers), who were the era’s reaction against Spanish and Portuguese monopoly, though became a more and more important phenomenon with the times. It was not until the end of the 16th century and the beginning of the 17th that new orders such as England, France and Holland arrived to the region, bringing along their century-old tensions, conflict conjuncture and battle. A first French-Dutch co-habitation was founded on the 23 March, 1648 (Mont des Accords), housing not more than a handful of settlers. The part of the island facing Anguilla was occupied by the French, and the Dutch took hold of the area of the Fort and its surroundings. Both engaged in cultivating the land, and exporting basic products such as tobacco, cotton, indigo and manioc. The exploitation of sugarcane was to follow in the years to come.

This treaty laid the foundations of future cooperation, and was the first step to ensure the maintenance of permanent peace and free circulation of merchandise without any customs due, this latter necessary for the optimal development of the island’s economy. Fort Saint Louis was constructed around this time (1776), perched on a volcano overlooking the town of Marigot. The Treaty of Vienna was signed in 1815, securing the domination of France and Holland on Saint Martin, and thus putting an end to further colonial misunderstandings. Slavery was abolished in 1848 on the island’s French part and in 1863 in the Dutch areas. Commercial exchange began a slow decline in the years to follow, sugar production ceased in 1875, cotton manufacture in 1923 and salt exploitation in the 1950s. As a result of this economic slump, a significant number of locals were forced to leave their homes and emigrate towards upcoming industrial centres: refinery on Curacao and Aruba, plantations on Saint Domingue and the United States, which consequently contributed to the island’s friendly relations with the American continent.

During the Second World War, the island’s French part recognised the Vichy government, and thus underwent the blocade of the Allied Forces. The war promoted Saint Martin’s Americanisation, as the island’s sole supplier at the time was the United States, which resulted in vast movements of smuggling and an ideal atmosphere of illicit enrichment for contrabandists. Economic stagnation was to persist until well into the 1950s.

A period of economic re-development was eventually brought about by the island’s Dutch sector, which proceeded to transform Saint Martin into one of the most sought-after tourist spots of the West Indies. Two hurricanes, Luis and Marilyn devastated the island in September 1995, ravaging the port of Marigot and sinking practically all boats in the harbour. The Dutch part suffered a similar fate, wooden cabins inhabited by Haitians were swept away and casualties were many, though difficult to total due to large numbers of illegal immigration. The tragedy left its mark on the island’s tourist sector, but thanks to local inclination and state subventions, Saint Martin regained its former splendour in less than four years, leaving only a couple of shipwrecks as memory of those fateful times. 2002 was another difficult year, as North American tourists came to the region in significantly smaller numbers as an aftermath of the September 11 terrorist attacks. The global fear of taking an airplane reached the majority of the island’s clientele, to a point that even Europeans preferred to stay at home or on their continent.

French West Indian electors were consulted on the 7th December, 2003 to state their views on the future of their institutions. Martinique and Guadeloupe were proposed to set up a unique territorial community, and Saint Martin and Saint Barth were offered the status of Overseas Community (COM), according to the decentralisation laws of the 28th March, 2003. This change in status, originally claimed by French West Indian communities in Paris, would have moved the islands towards a greater autonomy of, for example, adapting Metropolitan laws according to specific criteria, to be set within the framework of the above mentioned reforms. To a general surprise, though, the population of Martinique and Guadeloupe voted ‘no’ to this proposal (Martinique 50,48% and Guadeloupe 76,17%). On this point, though, Saint Martin and Saint Barth had wholly different desires to fulfil. As a matter of fact, these islands had openly complained of their differences with Guadeloupe for a long time, yet remained hereto dependent on the island. The institutional reform was thus welcomed with open arms, Saint Barth’s “yes” was overpowering and Saint Martin’s also without doubt. These two islands have therefore confirmed the process of their transformation into Overseas Communities (COM), taking advantage of the new framework and at the same time permitted to keep their previously acquired fiscal advantages. A new era had begun for these two islands which never cease to surprise all those concerned by their extreme willingness to change.

Chronology

1625 : Arrival of first French colonists.
1648 : Treaty between French and Dutch signed on the “Mont des Accords”, partitioning the island into two countries.
1703 : Attachment to Guadeloupe
1648-1816 : The island was ruled by seven different occupations of French, Dutch and English.
1850 : The island received the status of free port.
1963 : Construction of Juliana airport (Dutch part) by the American army.
1964 : Attachment to the Department of Guadeloupe
1995 : The island was devastated by Hurricanes Luis and Marilyn.
1999 : The island was ravaged by Hurricane Lenny.

Mini glossary

Saladoid

Term used with reference to the site of Saladero (Venezuela) to relate to a culture originating from the Orinoco Flow, dating from the beginning of the 2nd millennium B.C.

Arawaks

A large group of individuals from the same linguistic family, of Saladoid culture. They began their spread in the Caribbean region in the 6th c. B.C.

Caribs

So-named by European chroniclers, Caribs constituted a culture which arrived to the region following the Saladoids (Arawaks) from the beginning of the first millennium A.D. Also referred to by Europeans as Kalinas or Callinagos, they were described as being “of a warlike and anthropophagous nature”, though no scientific evidence ever proved this latter fact, and it appears to have been an invention of colonial imagination.