Sint Maarten — books & literature

The story of Sint Maarten

Sint Maarten occupies the southern, Dutch half of Saint Martin, the smallest landmass in the world divided peacefully between two sovereign nations. Amerindian peoples, most likely Arawak migrants from South America, settled the island by roughly 800-300 BCE. Europeans arrived when Christopher Columbus sighted the island on 11 November 1493, the feast day of Saint Martin of Tours, and named it accordingly. Spain occupied it from 1633 but abandoned the outpost in 1648 once the Eighty Years' War ended, letting Dutch and French settlers move back in. On 23 March 1648 the two sides signed the Treaty of Concordia atop Mount Concordia, splitting the island; the border shifted roughly sixteen times over the next two centuries before settling into today's line. Slavery was abolished on the Dutch side on 1 July 1863. Sint Maarten joined the Netherlands Antilles in 1954, and after a 2000 referendum it became a self-governing constituent country of the Kingdom of the Netherlands on 10 October 2010. Tourism, duty-free trade, and its famous open border with the French side now define daily life on this small, culturally layered Caribbean nation.

Timeline — key moments

1. circa 800-300 BCE

   Arawak peoples settle the island, part of a human presence dating back roughly 4,000 years.

2. 1493

   Christopher Columbus sights the island and names it after Saint Martin of Tours.

3. 1631

   Dutch settlers establish a salt-trading post on the island.

4. 1633

   Spain seizes the island from the Dutch.

5. 1648

   Spain abandons the island; the Treaty of Concordia (23 March) divides it between France and the Netherlands.

6. 1863

   Slavery is abolished on the Dutch side of the island (1 July).

7. 1954

   Sint Maarten becomes part of the Netherlands Antilles within the Kingdom of the Netherlands.

8. 1995

   Hurricane Luis causes severe damage across the island.

9. 2010

   Netherlands Antilles dissolves; Sint Maarten becomes an autonomous constituent country of the Kingdom on 10 October.

10. 2017

    Hurricane Irma, one of the strongest Atlantic hurricanes on record, devastates the island.

Top 10 things to know about Sint Maarten

1. Sint Maarten shares the smallest landmass in the world divided between two sovereign nations, alongside French Saint-Martin.
2. The Dutch-French border has no wall or fence , it is one of the few open, unguarded international borders anywhere.
3. The Treaty of Concordia (1648) is one of the oldest continuously observed border agreements in the world.
4. Princess Juliana International Airport is world-famous for jets landing at low altitude just above Maho Beach.
5. English, not Dutch, is the everyday language of most native-born Sint Maarteners, even though Dutch is official.
6. Sint Maarten became a constituent country of the Kingdom of the Netherlands on 10 October 2010.
7. Hurricane Irma (2017) was one of the most powerful Atlantic hurricanes ever recorded and struck the island directly.
8. The capital, Philipsburg, is named after an early Dutch commander, John Philips.
9. Tourism, cruise-ship visits, and duty-free shopping form the backbone of the economy.
10. The island has held two separate carnivals , the Dutch side in April-May, the French side in February.

Famous people from Sint Maarten

Say it in Sint Maarten's language

Did you know?

• ★At Maho Beach, aircraft land so low over the sand that spotting the planes is a famous tourist activity.
• ★Sint Maarten and neighbouring Saint-Martin are the smallest landmass on Earth shared by two different countries.
• ★The Netherlands Antillean guilder, used for decades, was formally replaced by the Caribbean guilder starting in 2025.

Sint Maarten culture

• The Dutch side's Carnival runs April into May, ending in a Grand Parade, separate from the French side's February carnival.
• Local music blends calypso, soca, and string-band traditions carried by groups like Tanny and the Boys.
• Guavaberry liqueur, a spiced local specialty, is a signature holiday drink on the island.
• Cuisine mixes Caribbean, Dutch, and French influences, from johnnycakes to French-Caribbean seafood.

Why read Sint Maarten's books

Sint Maarten's storytelling grew out of an island split between two flags , its poets and folk narrators, from Lasana M. Sekou to Ruby Bute, write from a small nation with an outsized cultural crossroads. These shelves carry that voice forward.