Sint Maarten occupies the southern part of the Caribbean island of Saint Martin, and its flag, adopted in 1985, borrows the Dutch colors and adds a coat of arms of its own.
Adopted in 1985, autonomous in 2010
The flag was adopted on June 13, 1985. At that point Sint Maarten was still part of the Netherlands Antilles and was pushing for more autonomy. That process ended in 2010, when the island took on a new constitutional status and became a constituent country within the Kingdom of the Netherlands, separate from the Netherlands Antilles.
The flag therefore predates the constitutional change it anticipated. Its Dutch colors acknowledge where the island's administration came from, while the arms say what makes it separate.
The bands, the triangle, and the arms
Two horizontal bands, red above blue, with a white triangle at the hoist that cuts between them and carries the coat of arms. The three colors are the Dutch ones. Red is for solidarity and courage, white for purity and faith, and blue for peace and the assurance of pardon.
The arms were adopted three years before the flag, in 1982. The shield carries three things worth picking out. The courthouse, at the center, is for justice and the rule of law. The border monument, to one side, marks the peaceful division between the Dutch and French halves of the island. The orange-yellow sage flower, to the other, is native to Sint Maarten. Above the shield a brown pelican, the national bird, flies in front of a rising sun, and a scroll below carries the motto Semper progrediens, always progressing.
Usage
The flag is used by government buildings and at state events, and it is flown at government offices and public institutions. Protocol requires it to be hoisted briskly, lowered ceremoniously, and kept off the ground.
It is a fixture on King's Day in April, on Constitution Day in October, on Sint Maarten Day on November 11, and at the annual Carnival. There is no independence day to fly it on, since Sint Maarten is a constituent country of the Kingdom rather than a sovereign state. Schools use it as a way into teaching island history and civics, and it appears at civic ceremonies of every kind.
Similar flags or influences
The red, white, and blue comes straight from the Dutch flag. Horizontal bands in those colors are common across the Caribbean, another consequence of the region's colonial history. The white triangle at the hoist bearing a badge is a separate borrowing, a layout the flag shares with Cuba, Puerto Rico, and several other flags in the region.
The French half of the island, Saint-Martin, has no flag of its own in law and flies the French tricolor, with a white flag bearing the collectivity's emblem in local use. The two designs have little in common visually, though the border monument on Sint Maarten's coat of arms is a reference to the arrangement between them.
References
Sint Maarten Government. "National Symbols." sintmaartengov.org
North American Vexillological Association. "Flags of the World: Caribbean." nava.org
Nederland Wereldwijd. "Netherlands Worldwide." nederlandwereldwijd.nl
Historical Archives of the Kingdom of the Netherlands. "Sint Maarten's Constitutional Changes." nationaalarchief.nl