SINT MAARTEN (NA)

a. Geografic situation:

The six Dutch islands of the Caribbean are:
- A B C
- S S S

On the one hand we have the A-B-C-islands: Aruba - Bonaire - Curaçao.
Those are situated near the coast of Venezuela (20 to 50 miles),
Distances among each other between 30 and 45 miles.

- the ABC islands present approx. 92% of the total area.
- 90% of the total inhabitants live on A-B-C.

The other three islands are called S-S-S-islands, and can be found 600 miles (!) northeast of A-B-C !
Sint Maarten - Saba - St. Eustatius; located 'up there' near Puerto Rico.

From a statistic point of view, their influence seems small: just 8% of the total area and just 10% of all Dutch West Indian inhabitants. Saba has just 1.400 inhabitants, while St. Eustatius just has 2.100. (but Curaçao for comparison 165.000!) Often the islands Curaçao and Aruba are associated with the Dutch West Indies rather only.


b. political situation:

Contrary to the geographic situation, the islands B + C on the one side and the three S-S-S islands on the other side form the State 'Netherlands Antilles. (" Nederlandse Antillen")
This an autonomous country within the Dutch Kingdom.

But wait a minute, what about Aruba? (the A of A-B-C)
Aruba received a separate status in 1986 the so called Status Aparte" en thus is not a part of the Netherlands Antilles anymore, but has a direct link with the Netherlands.

The Kingdom of the Netherlands (Koninkrijk der Nederlanden) consequently is made up (since 1986) out of the following three parts:
- the Netherlands ("Holland") with capital city Amsterdam
- the Netherlands Antilles with capital city Willemstad [803 km² / 207.500 inh.]
- and Aruba with capital city Oranjestad [193 km² / 70.000 inh.]

St. Martin (F)

St. Martin belongs administratively to Guadeloupe and is a Sub-Prefecture of the Dépt. de la Guadeloupe.

The French Antilles (French West Indies) are:
- Martinique (with capital Fort-de-France) and
- Guadeloupe (with capital Pointe-à-Pitre)
The islands Marie Galante, La Désirade, les Saintes, Saint Barthélemy and Saint Martin are part of Guadeloupe as well. However St. Barths and St-Martin are not really close to Guadeloupe, but are situated 140 miles north.

The Dépt. Guadeloupe has 417.000 inhabitants, quite a lot for Caribbean standards.

On St. Martin everything is crowded:
1960 the French side had 4.500 inhabitants, in 1980 it was 8000, in 1988 there were 24.000 and in 1997 it was more than 30.000. Like the Dutch side, an enormous grow.

Among the 34.000 inhabitants approx. 7500 persons from Haiti, 3000 persons from the Dom. Republic and 3000 European French people from France. (= la Métropole).

www.thedailyherald.com - newspaper on St Maarten, N.A.
www.sxmnews.com/ - News online
www.sintmaarten.net/ - Internet Service Provider
www.stmaarten-info.com/ - Infos on St Maarten
www.sxm.com - Best of St. Maarten

www.destination-st-martin.com - tourist + travel info
www.st-martin.org - tourist + travel info
www.discoversaintmartin.com - tourist + travel info