Sint Maarten is a constituent country as part of the Kingdom of the Netherlands. The country consists of the southernmost one-third of the island of St. Martin. The other two-thirds of the island belong to the French. Sint Maarten has a population of roughly 37,000 people, and its capital is known as Philipsburg.
The entire island was originally colonized by the French and Dutch, but was taken over by the Spanish in 1633. The French and Dutch then re-colonized on the island, and in 1994, the two nations signed a treaty for shared border controls. Sint Maarten, as the Dutch part of the island, has not yet established working provisions of the treaty.
The majority of the economy of Sint Maarten stems from tourism, and many cruises dock in the harbor of Philipsburg. The split of the island into a French quarter and a Dutch quarter has made it particularly inviting for tourists, giving the island a heavier tourism boom than neighboring islands.