A period of 450 years still puzzles archaeologists, but ancestors of
the Arawak Indians inhabited the inner parts of the island from 550 BC to
AD 600. They also preferred the inner island food to fish and seafood of
the coast. However, their descendants, the Arawaks, were different. The
Arawaks inhabited the island from AD 750 to AD 1550 and lived along the
beaches of the island. They enjoyed the fish from the sea and flourished
along the shores of the Caribbean, especially in the Lowlands area west
of Simpson Bay Lagoon.
The Carib Indians invaded the Caribbean islands about 1200, but contrary
to popular belief, these people died from disease and never made it to St.
Maarten/St. Martin. The Caribs were enemies of the Arawaks in the Caribbean,
as was reported in history written by Spanish, French and Dutch settlers
of the island. However, much of the history written by these settlers wasn't
very accurate and they wrote from their perspective of the world.
The Arawaks were very innovative people and had various fiefdoms throughout
the Caribbean islands. Archaeologists now argue that the Arawaks of St.
Maarten/St. Martin had their own independent society and weren't connected
with any of these fiefdoms.
Christopher Columbus spotted the island on his way to Hispanola on Nov.
11, 1493. Carib Indians had attacked settlers in the southern Caribbean
islands and Columbus was concerned for the safety of his people at Fort
Navidad in the present-day Dominican Republic. Thus, he sped toward the
settlement and passed by St. Maarten/St. Martin without exploring it. He
named it after the Bishop of Tours and patron saint of France, St. Martin
(AD 316-397).
When the first French and Dutch settlers landed on the island in 1627,
they never wrote that there were any Indians. The Spanish chased the European
settlers in 1638 and the conquerors took over Dutch-constructed Fort Amsterdam
in Great Bay. Within 10 years, the soldiers abandoned the island and the
Dutch and French landed from nearby St. Eustatius and St. Kitts respectively.
After small skirmishes, the two European powers decided to divide the island
rather then fight over who would control it.
Popular folklore says that the division of the island was decided between
a Dutchman and a Frenchman. Starting at Oyster Pond, the two "competitors"
stood back-to-back and then walked around the coastline of the island to
decide the political boundaries. The Frenchman proceeded north with a flask
of wine, while the Dutchman went south with a flask of Dutch gin. The Frenchman
covered more ground and won 21 square miles for France while the Dutchman
had a bit too much and gathered just 16 for the Netherlands.
In 1648 the Dutch and French signed a treaty for the movement of goods
and services. Nevertheless, European wars caused the island to change hands
many times. It was invaded by the English from nearby Anguilla and even
the Dutch and the French battled for total control of the island as many
as 16 times!
From the 1750s, the economy started to develop with sugar plantations.
There were 35 to 37 of these on each side of the island. Labor was needed,
so slaves were introduced from Africa. In 1848 slavery was abolished in
the Caribbean islands. Without the labor, the sugar industry sputtered to
a stop with the close of the last plantation on the island in 1915. Thus,
the economy of the island from the early 20th century to the mid-1950s was
very poor. The freed slaves managed by raising cattle and fishing.
Many local people went to Aruba, Curacao and Venezuela to work in the
oil refineries and to Guadeloupe and Martinique to work in sugar plantations.
Others went to Puerto Rico, Haiti, the Dominican Republic and the Virgin
Islands for work. This explains why many locals today have parents that
were working in other areas of the Caribbean in the first half of the 20th
century.
The construction of Princess Juliana International Airport in 1943 as
an allied air base did more for the future of St. Maarten/St. Martin than
any other event. In 1950 the Little Bay resort was constructed near Philipsburg,
which started an impressive amount of development on the Dutch side of the
island over the next 35 years. The French side experienced much slower development
until 1985 when the French law of defiscalization gave tax incentives for
French citizens and businesses to invest in the islands of the French West
Indies, thus making investment more profitable. The population on the French
side jumped from 8,000 in 1980 to 30,000 in 2000.
Estimates are only 19 percent of the island's population is native. Tourism
has encouraged those who left the island decades ago to return, while others
from as many as 80 different countries have also come. Today, most of the
people that now call St. Maarten/St. Martin home speak English, French,
Spanish and Dutch among regional dialects.
Information courtesy of Christophe Henocq, director of the St. Martin
museum, "On the Trail of the Arawaks"
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