The “Arawaks” are the native inhabitants of the island. A peaceful and friendly people, they lived undisturbed until the “Karibs”, another ethnic group settle on the island. The Karibs, a tribe of cannibals, killed a major part of the arawaks, except the women that they turned into slaves. Thus the name of Walichi (the island of women) or Swaliga (the island of salt) given to Saint Martin Island.
The story goes that the sailor Christopher Columbus discovered the island on November 11th, 1493, on Saint Martin’s day (but he never set foot on it). Thus the name given to the island.
From the 17th century onwards, 4 nations start looking covetously at the island: Holland was interested by the large amounts of salt of the island, France wants to grow tobacco there, Spain and Great Britain see Saint Martin as a strategic place to acquire. Gradually, Spain and Great Britain, busy with other conquests, leave the island to the advantage of the French and the Dutch.
The first Spanish sailors, through their conquests, plundered the native American civilisations. Their booty was transported to Europe through the Caribbean Islands.
Seeing this happening, pirates and buccaneers then started to organise themselves to loot those ships. Saint Martin, in those days (1617), was almost an empty island (only a few French and Dutch were exploiting the ressources of the island). The pirates naturally found it a perfect place of refuge. Great pirates like Degraaf, Sir Henry Morgan or François L’Olonnais stayed on the island.
On March 23rd 1648, the Concordia Treaty marking the border between the French and the Dutch parts, is signed. During the 18th and 19th centuries, the island lives under a colonial system based on sugar cane production and slavery. Slavery was abolished in 1848 in the French side and in 1863 in the Dutch side.
Today, Saint Martin is a free port (since 1939). Its famous nightlife, its sandy beaches, and its turquoise-blue lagoons attract every year a large number of visitors. They are from Saint Martin itself or from France, Holland, the USA, Quebec or Haiti; More than a hundred nationalities are represented on this tiny piece of land. Saint Martin is also called: The Friendly Island.
