The following three posts are intended to show very briefly how we got to where we are today. They may not be very long but should be separate for clarity's sake.
As many people know the French and Dutch have occupied the island for centuries, the Dutch in the South the French in the North, as they do today, proving that even back then the Dutch were the smarter businessmen.
Back in those early days French Quarter or Quartier d'Orleans was the capital of the French side and Simpsonbay the capital of the Dutch side. The present capitals were founded in the 1700s.
In 1648 the Dutch and the French drew up the now famous (or infamous, according to your point of view) Treaty of Concordia and the island has been divided according to that treaty ever since.
Both countries profited mightily from this little island as long as sugar and salt werr worth their weight in gold and there was free slave labor to harvest them, and they were worth their weight in gold. The island was planted in sugar cane and cotton and a bit of tobacco. There were salt ponds on both sides, but the Great Salt Pond and the salt pond in Grand Case were the real producers.
Then came the abolition of slavery and people could no longer be treated as draft animals, even though they still workd very hard, continuing to harvest salt until the mid-twentieth century. But Abolition effectively put an end to the profit and and after the mid-nineteenth century St. Martin continued to sink into a well of material poverty, neglected and forgotten by both Holland and France, until the mid-twentieth century, when tourism began and sun, sand ans sea became the big attractions. The letter S does not seem to bode well for St. Martiners. Once again both France and Holland are back to remind us that as far as they are concerned this land is theirs.
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