Saint-Martin, << san mahr TAN >> (pop. 35,000), is an overseas possession of France at the eastern end of the Caribbean Sea. St.-Martin occupies the northern three-fifths of the island of Saint Martin. The southern two-fifths of the island, which is called Sint Maarten in Dutch, is an autonomous (self-governing) country within the Kingdom of the Netherlands. The island lies 186 miles (300 kilometers) southeast of Puerto Rico.
St.-Martin is an overseas collectivity (administrative unit) of France. It has a land area of about 21 square miles (54 square kilometers). An appointed official called a prefect represents the French president locally. St.-Martin’s people have one elected representative in the French Senate and one in the French National Assembly. Marigot is St.-Martin’s capital. An elected Territorial Council makes local laws. The council elects a president from among its members.
St.-Martin’s population includes blacks, whites, Creoles, East Indians, and people of mixed French and East Asian ancestry. French is the official language, but English, Dutch, and Spanish also are spoken. Some people speak dialects (local language variations) that combine some of these languages and words from several African languages. The tourism industry employs most of St.-Martin’s workers. St.-Martin has an annual average temperature of about 80 °F (27 °C).
Christopher Columbus, an Italian navigator in the service of Spain, may have sighted the island of St. Martin in 1493. Although Spain claimed the island, the Dutch were the first Europeans to settle there, in 1631. The Spanish reclaimed the island in 1633 but gave it up to the French and Dutch in 1648. The French section of the island, St.-Martin, eventually became part of Guadeloupe, another French possession. A popular vote in 2003 resulted in St.-Martin separating from Guadeloupe in 2007. In 2017, Hurricane Irma devastated the entire island of Saint Martin, killing eight people and causing $3 billion in property damage.
See also Caribbean Islands ; Guadeloupe ; Saint Martin .
