Saint Martin is another possible union of two European overseas territories into a new country of its own. Saint martin or Saint Marten is a small island in the Caribbean divided today between the Netherlands and France, remnants of each of their colonial empires, and the division itself goes back to 1648. Today a movement exists to unite the island into one single sovereign country. They even have a proposed flag already. The 1648 treaty of Concordia allowed freedom of movement between both parts of the island. This promoted a common sentiment among the island’s inhabitants, similar to what we see in the republic of Ireland and Northern Ireland. However, some see formal unification as unnecessary. It’s also interesting to note that a lot of people that support reunification don’t necessarily want independence; they just want the unification of the two areas, which doesn’t make much sense. The question remains: would just France or the Netherlands have control over it completely, or would both continue to co-rule the territory?
“Saint Martin map” By Hogweard - Saint-Martin Island map-en.svg (CC BY-SA 3.0) via Commons Wikimedia
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