With an area of 34 square miles, the Caribbean island of St. Maarten / St. Martin has the unique distinction of being the smallest inhabited island that is split between two countries. The northern portion is Saint-Martin, an overseas collectivity of France, while the southern portion is Sint Maarten, a constituent country of the Kingdom of the Netherlands. The border that runs through the middle of the island is open and has been since 1648, when the European powers signed the Treaty of Concordia, which split the island roughly in half (the French side…
