How Can France Border the Netherlands? 🇫🇷🇳🇱 Saint Martin 🤯

The Netherlands and France share a land border thousands of kilometers from mainland Europe, on the Caribbean island of Saint Martin 🇳🇱🇫🇷 The north belongs to France and the south to the Kingdom of the Netherlands. But there’s a curious legend behind this split. In 1493, Christopher Columbus returned to Europe with news of the lands he’d discovered. Over the next century and a half, Europeans fought over the Caribbean. Spain took control of Saint Martin, but later left. The Dutch and French returned and chose to split the island instead of fighting another war. According to legend, a Frenchman and a Dutchman walked around it in opposite directions to set the border. The Frenchman drank wine and walked faster than the Dutchman, who drank gin, leaving France with the larger part 🍷 The island was divided by the Treaty of Concordia, but it didn’t specify the exact border. Arguments over parts of the border continued for centuries until a new agreement in 2023 finally ended the dispute. #saintmartin #france #netherlands #caribbean #caribbeanislands #island #borders #weirdborders #learn #maps #learning #history #geography