Amerindian remains dating from as early as 2000 BC have been found near the village of Grand Case on the French side of the island, though little is known about the island's first visitors. Columbus sailed past on November 11, 1493, naming the island after St Martin of Tours whose holy day it was. Few navigators took much interest for the next century.

During the 1620s French and Dutch colonists began to settle, forerunners of the division of the island later in the century, with the Dutch building the first fort at Philipsburg in 1631. The Spanish , however, were keen on the island for strategic reasons and claimed it, subsequently fighting off a lengthy siege by Dutch troops led by Peter Stuyvesant , later to become governor of the Dutch colony of New Amsterdam (today's New York City).

By 1648, the Spanish had lost interest in the island, and the French and Dutch governments agreed to divide it in two, populating it with settlers from home. The land was given over to the production of sugar, cotton, tobacco and salt, with slaves imported from Africa to work on the plantations. However, the soil was poor and the island never prospered, largely sinking into obscurity as the centuries passed.

Despite frequent disagreements between the French and the Dutch, including border skirmishes and wholesale invasions and deportations, the boundaries remain pretty much the same today as were agreed on in 1648. The Dutch side, known as Sint Maarten , is part of the Netherlands Antilles; the French side part of a department of France, with representation in the French parliament. As throughout the region, tourism drives the modern economy, bringing floods of visitors and attendant social difficulties, particularly rising crime and problems with immigration from other islands and from South America.