Column

By Terrance Rey

There are several parallels from Sint Maarten’s past with what is now happening around the establishment of COHO, the Caribbean Agency for Reforms and Development. The Netherlands has lent millions in liquidity support to Sint Maarten during the pandemic. But that is a development that cannot be sustained for long. Within Europe, the Netherlands must also provide the necessary liquidity support to partner countries within the European Union. However, that is billions of euros. Of course, the Netherlands could not leave the islands within the Kingdom to their fate during the pandemic. But in the past, it had been very different for a while. I am talking about the period when the Netherlands, as the Republic of the United Netherlands, had to recover from the devastating French rule. The United West India Company (WIC II), which colonized and economically exploited the islands for decades, ceased operations in 1791. In the 160 years under the rule of the WIC, only the most necessary structures were built on Sint Maarten. The wooden jetties from the Great Salt Pond to Great Bay (only in the beginning), Fort Amsterdam (on the site of the Spanish fort), St. Peter’s Battery and the layout of Philipsburg are the only pieces of physical evidence known from that period.

The original function of the ‘brick building’ in Backstreet is unknown, but it was built in 1785 by Commandeur J.S. Gibbes. It may have been a warehouse for the WIC. There was also a Dutch Reformed Church (the official religion in the Republic) in Cul de Sac, which was to be rebuilt in Philipsburg in 1738 on the site of the Oranjeschool. The plantation owners and their slaves created the pans in the Great