Circa 1500 the Maore or Mawuti (corrupted to Mayotte in French) sultanate was established on the island. In 1503 it was noted by Portuguese explorers, but not colonized. In 1832 it was conquered by Andriantsoly, former king of Iboina on Madagascar; in 1833 conquered by the neighbouring sultanate of Mwali (Mohéli island in French); on 19 November 1835 again conquered by Ndzuwani sultanate (Anjouan sultanate in French; a governor was installed with the unusual islamic style of Qadi, sort of a 'Resident Magistrate' in British terms), but in 1836 regained its independence under a last local Sultan. Mayotte was ceded to France along with the other Comoros in 1843. It was the only island in the archipelago that voted in referendums in 1974 and 1976 to retain its link with France and forgo independence (with 63.8% and 99.4% of votes respectively). The Comoros continue to claim the island, and a draft 1976 United Nations Security Council resolution supported by 14 of the 15 members of the Council would have recognized Comoros sovereignty over Mayotte, but France vetoed the resolution. The situation of Mayotte proved to be unwieldy for France: while the local population very largely did not want to be independent from France and join Comoros, some international criticism from both post-colonial and leftist regimes was heard about the ongoing ties of Mayotte to France. Furthermore, the peculiar local administration of Mayotte, largely ruled by customary Muslim law, would be difficult to integrate into the legal structures of France, not to mention the costs of bringing the standards of living to levels close to those of metropolitan France. Because of these reasons, the laws passed by the national parliament must state specifically that they apply to Mayotte for them to be applicable on Mayotte. The status of Mayotte was changed in 2001 towards one very close to the status of the départements of mainland France, with the particular designation of collectivité départementale, although the island is still claimed by the Comoros. This change was approved by 73% at a referendum on Mayotte. After the constitutional reform of 2003 it became a collectivité d'outre-mer while keeping to be entitled collectivité départementale de Mayotte. The battleship Bouvet is on the 1 1/2 Euro. In 1915 she hit a mine and sunk in within 2 minutes, with a loss of 660 men. The arms of Mayotte is on the obverse of the coin. The edge of the coin is lettered as .999 pure silver.

Arab sailors used to call this island Dina Morgabin ("Western Island").. The Portuguese were the first Europeans to visit the island, finding it uninhabited in 1513, and naming it Santa Apollonia. The island was then occupied by the French and administered from Port-Louis, Mauritius. Although the French flag was hoisted by François Cauche in 1638, Santa Apollonia was officially claimed by Jacques Pronis of France in 1642, when he deported a dozen French mutineers to the island from Madagascar. The convicts were returned to France several years later, and in 1649, the King of France Louis XIII named the island Île Bourbon after his royal house. "Réunion" was the name given to the island in 1793 by a decree of the Convention with the fall of the House of Bourbon in France, and the name commemorates the union of revolutionaries from Marseille with the National Guard in Paris, which took place on August 10, 1792. In 1801, the island was renamed "Île Bonaparte," after Napoleon Bonaparte. The island was taken by the British navy led by Commodore Josias Rowley in 1810, who used the old name of "Bourbon." When it was restored to France by the Congress of Vienna in 1815, the island retained the name of "Bourbon" until 1848, when the fall of the restored Bourbons during the revolutions during that year meant that the island became "Réunion" once again.

From the 17th to the 19th centuries, French immigration supplemented by influxes of Africans, Chinese, Malays, and Tamil (Malabar) Indians gave the island its ethnic mix. The opening of the Suez Canal in 1869 cost the island its importance as a stopover on the East Indies trade route.

Between 15 and 16 March 1952, Cilaos at the center of Réunion received 1,869.9 mm (73.6 in) of rainfall. This is the greatest 24-hour precipitation total ever recorded on Earth. In 2005 and 2006 Réunion was hit by a crippling epidemic of chikungunya, a disease spread by mosquitoes. According to the BBC News, 255,000 people on Réunion had contracted the disease as of 26 April, 2006. The disease also spread to Madagascar and to mainland France through airline travel. The disease led to more than 200 deaths on Réunion. The French government, under Prime Minister Dominique de Villepin sent an emergency aid package worth 36 million euro ($42.8 U.S. dollars) and deployed approximately 500 French troops to eradicate mosquitoes. Chikungunya means "that which bends" in the Makonde language of the Tanzania/ Mozambique border region where it was first identified. It can cause dehydration, extreme pain and high fevers and can be fatal in some cases. There is no known cure for the illness. Almost the entire economy is devoted to the production of sugar and sugar by-products such as rum and molasses. Most of the sugar production on the island is controlled by about a dozen large plantations. The silver 1 1/2 Euros features France's new Aircraft Carrier, the Charles De Gaulle. The arms of Reunion is on the obverse of the coin. The edge of the coin is lettered as .999 pure silver.

When Columbus sailed these seas, St. Martin was populated, if populated at all, by Arawak or Carib Indians. The Arawaks were subjugated by the warlike Carib Indians from South America a short time before the arrival of the Spanish who followed in Columbus' wake. The English word cannibal is derived from an Arawak word which referred to the Caribs. The Arawaks were a relatively cultured, agricultural people who fashioned pottery and whose social organization was headed by hereditary chieftains who derived their power from personal deities called zemis. The Caribs, on the other hand, concentrated on warfare. They killed and, allegedly, ate the Arawak men, then married the Arawak women.

The Caribs' territory was not completely conquered until the mid-17th century when most of them perished in the struggle between the French, English, Dutch, Danes and Spanish for control of the West Indies. The Dutch first began to ply the island's ponds for salt in the 1620s. Despite the Dutch presence on the island, the Spaniards recaptured St. Martin in 1633 and one year later built a fort at Pointe Blanche to assert their claim. The Spaniards introduced the first slaves to the area in the 16th century but the main influx of slaves took place in the 18th century with the development of sugar plantations by the French. Slavery was abolished in the first half of the 19th century, whereupon the British imported Chinese and East Indians to take the place of slaves. Thus, St. Martin and the other islands are peopled by a mixture of Amerindian, African, Asian and European peoples. West Indian cultures such as in St. Martin are, consequently, exceedingly rich and varied, scarcely matched in other parts of the world. France and the Netherlands agreed to divide the island on March 23, 1648.

Sint Maarten is officially an "island territory" part of the Netherlands Antilles, which is part of the Kingdom of the Netherlands though not in the European Union. Its currency is the Antillean guilder (however, the United States dollar is widely accepted). A proposed restructuring of the Netherlands Antilles would see Sint Maarten become an independent component of the Kingdom of the Netherlands in its own right.

Saint-Martin is a French commune part of Guadeloupe, which is an overseas région and overseas département of France and is therefore in the European Union. The official currency in Saint-Martin is the euro (though the U.S. dollar is also widely accepted). In 2003 the population of the French part voted in favour of secession from Guadeloupe to form a separate overseas collectivity of France; this has yet to be implemented.

This island in the Caribbean is known for its beautiful beaches, fine hotels, casinos and restaurants. As might be expected, its major industry is tourism. The 38mm silver 1 1/2 Euro features the sailing ship Ville de Paris.  The Ville de Paris was the flagship of the French fleet that blocked the English fleet from the Yorktown Peninsula in Chesapeake Bay during the closing days of the American Revolution. Trapped on the peninsula by American troops and unable to get reinforcements or to retreat, British General Cornwallis was forced to surrender, thus assuring the independence of  the United States. The ship was later captured by the British in the Battle of the Saints. The Arms of St. Martin appears on the obverse of the coin. The edge of the coin is lettered as .999 pure silver. The above shown flag is unofficial flag of Saint Martin.