I read somewhere that « our » Saint-Martin was born, not in 1648 (signing of the treaty of Concordia), but in 1763…here is how.
(Wikipedia)
The Treaty of Paris, also known as the Treaty of 1763, was signed on 10 February 1763 by the kingdoms of Great Britain, France and Spain, with Portugal in agreement, after Great Britain’s victory over France and Spain during the Seven Years’ War
During the war, Great Britain had conquered the French colonies of Canada, Guadeloupe, Saint Lucia, Dominica, Grenada, Saint Vincent and the Grenadines, and Tobago, the French « factories » (trading posts) in India, the slave-trading station at Gorée, the Sénégal River and its settlements, and the Spanish colonies of Manila (in the Philippines) and Havana (in Cuba). France had captured Minorca and British trading posts in Sumatra, while Spain had captured the border fortress of Almeida in Portugal, and Colonia del Sacramento in South America.
In the treaty, most of these territories were restored to their original owners, but not all: Britain made considerable gains.[3] France and Spain restored all their conquests to Britain and Portugal. Britain restored Manila and Havana to Spain, and Guadeloupe, Martinique, Saint Lucia, Gorée, and the Indian factories to France.[4] In return, France recognized the sovereignty of Britain over Canada, Dominica, Grenada, Saint Vincent and the Grenadines, and Tobago.[5] France also ceded the eastern half of French Louisiana to Britain; that is, the area from the Mississippi River to the Appalachian Mountains.[6]
Spain ceded Florida to Britain.[4] France had already secretly given Louisiana to Spain in the Treaty of Fontainebleau (1762). In addition, while France regained its factories in India, France recognized British clients as the rulers of key Indian native states, and pledged not to send troops to Bengal. Britain agreed to demolish its fortifications in British Honduras (now Belize), but retained a logwood-cutting colony there. Britain confirmed the right of its new subjects to practise Catholicism.[7]
France lost all of its territory in mainland North America, but had retained fishing rights off Newfoundland and the two small islands of Saint Pierre and Miquelon, where its fishermen could dry their catch. In turn France gained the return of its sugar colony, Guadeloupe, which it considered more valuable than Canada.[8] Voltaire had notoriously dismissed Canada as « Quelques arpents de neige », « A few acres of snow »
(Other sources)
That same year (1763) Auguste Descoudrelles, who would later become the « commandant » on Saint-Martin visited the Island and envisionned the potentials, if only there were more human ressources to produce sugar, just like in Guadeloupe or hispaniola. As soon as he could, he invited « planters » to come with their «enslaved workforce ». Those who came with their « black slaves » were mostly english settlers. That was the begining of Saint-Martin english.