Question: When did the French come to the region where Philipsburg is located?

Philipsburg is the main town and capital of the country of Sint Maarten. It functions as the commercial center of Saint Martin island, whereof Sint Maarten encompasses the southern half. The town is situated on a narrow stretch of land between Great Bay and the Great Salt Pond. , it has 1,327 inhabitants. <SEP> the relationship between paoli's government and the british was never clearly defined, however, resulting in numerous questions of authority; in particular, tensions arose from the conflict between sir gilbert's loyalty to the british monarchy, and paoli's republican leanings and desire to defend corsican autonomy. there was also a pronounced division between corte, the traditional capital and an inland stronghold, and bastia on the coast, where sir gilbert moved the capital in early 1795, and which was the centre for french and corsican royalists. with spain coming in on the side of the french, the british realised their position in the mediterranean was precarious and withdrew their forces from the island by october. the crown invited paoli to resign and return to exile in britain with a pension, which, having no alternative, he was forced to do, joining the british in their retreat from the island. on 19 october 1796, the french reconquered bastia and corsica became a french département. <SEP> The airport is located on the Dutch side of the island, in the country of Sint Maarten. In 2015, the airport handled 1,829,543 passengers and around 60,000 aircraft movements. The airport serves as a hub for Windward Islands Airways and is the major gateway for the smaller Leeward Islands, including Anguilla, Saba, St. Barthélemy and St. Eustatius. Princess Juliana International Airport is the main airport on the Caribbean island of Saint Martin/Sint Maarten. It is named after Queen Juliana, who landed here while still only heir presumptive in 1944, the year after the airport opened. The airport has very low-altitude flyover landing approaches, owing to one end of its runway being extremely close to the shore and Maho Beach. There is also an airport on the French side of the island, in the French Collectivity of Saint Martin, called Aéroport de Grand Case or L'Espérance Airport. <SEP> south philipsburg is a census-designated place (cdp), formerly a borough, located in centre county, pennsylvania, united states. it is part of the state college, pennsylvania metropolitan statistical area. the population was 410 at the 2010 census. as of january 1, 2007, the borough government was dissolved and the area reverted to rush township. <SEP> Pierre Belain d'Esnambuc was a French trader and adventurer in the Caribbean, who established the first permanent French colony, Saint - Pierre, on the island of Martinique in 1635. In 1626 he returned to France, where he won the support of Cardinal Richelieu to establish French colonies in the region. Belain sailed to the Caribbean in 1625, hoping to establish a French settlement on the island of St. Christopher (St. Kitts). Richelieu became a shareholder in the Compagnie de Saint - Christophe, created to accomplish this with d'Esnambuc at its head. The company was not particularly successful and Richelieu had it reorganized as the Compagnie des Îles de l'Amérique. In 1635 d'Esnambuc sailed to Martinique with one hundred French settlers to clear land for sugarcane plantations.