1.
France Antarctique
–
France Antarctique was a French colony south of the Equator, in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, which existed between 1555 and 1567, and had control over the coast from Rio de Janeiro to Cabo Frio. The colony quickly became a haven for the Huguenots, and was destroyed by the Portuguese in 1567. Europeans first arrived in Brazil in April 1500, when a fleet commanded by Pedro Álvares Cabral on behalf of the Portuguese crown arrived in present-day Porto Seguro, except for Salvador and São Vicente, however, the territory still remained largely unexplored half a century later. His travels were succeeded by that of Binot Paulmier de Gonneville in 1504 onboard LEspoir, Gonneville affirmed that when he visited Brazil, French traders from Saint-Malo and Dieppe had already been trading there for several years. France continued to trade with Brazil, especially loading Brazilwood, for its use as a red dyes for textiles. In 1550, in the entry for Henry II of France, at Rouen, about fifty men depicted naked Indians. The fort was named in honor of Gaspard de Coligny, an admiral who supported the expedition, Villegaignon secured his position by making an alliance with the Tamoio and Tupinambá Indians of the region, who were fighting the Portuguese. Unchallenged by the Portuguese, who took little notice of his landing. He sent one of his ships, the Grande Roberge, to Honfleur, entrusted with letters to King Henry II, Gaspard de Coligny and according to some accounts, the Protestant leader John Calvin. They were joined by 14 Calvinists from Geneva, led by Philippe de Corguilleray, including theologians Pierre Richier, the relief fleet was composed of, The Petite Roberge, with 80 soldiers and sailors was led by Vice Admiral Sieur De Bois le Comte. The Grande Roberge, with about 120 on board, captained by Sieur de Sainte-Marie dit lEspine, the Rosée, with about 90 people, led by Captain Rosée. Doctrinal disputes arose between Villegagnon and the Calvinists, especially in relation to the Eucharist, and in October 1557 the Calvinists were banished from Coligny island as a result. In 1560 Mem de Sá, the new Governor-General of Brazil, Admiral Villegaignon had returned to France in 1558, disgusted with the religious tension that existed between French Protestants and Catholics, who had come also with the second group. Estácio de Sá founded the city of Rio de Janeiro on March 1,1565, colignys and Villegaignons dream had lasted a mere 12 years. Largely in response to the two attempts of France to conquer territory in Brazil, between 1612 and 1615, the Portuguese crown decided to expand its efforts in Brazil. In the 17th century, France again briefly established a colony in Brazil with the establishment of France Equinoxiale, investors in this venture doubled their money, and Duguay-Trouin earned a promotion to Lieutenant général de la Marine. André Thevet, Les singularités de la France antartique,1558, French in Brazil, Saint-Alexis, France Antarctique and Sao Luis de Maranhao
France Antarctique
–
Map of France Antarctique in the
Guanabara Bay, 1555.
France Antarctique
–
At the
royal entry of
Henry II in
Rouen, 1 October 1550, 30 naked men were employed to illustrate life in Brazil and a battle between the
Tupinambá allies of the French, and the
Tabajara Indians.
France Antarctique
–
Nicolas de Villegagnon.
France Antarctique
–
"Salutations larmoyantes" ("Tearful salutations"), in Histoire d'un voyage faict en la terre du Brésil (1578),
Jean de Léry, 1580 edition.
2.
La Marseillaise
–
La Marseillaise is the national anthem of France. The song was written in 1792 by Claude Joseph Rouget de Lisle in Strasbourg after the declaration of war by France against Austria, and was originally titled Chant de guerre pour lArmée du Rhin. The Marseillaise was a song, an anthem to freedom, a patriotic call to mobilize all the citizens. The French National Convention adopted it as the Republics anthem in 1795 and it acquired its nickname after being sung in Paris by volunteers from Marseille marching to the capital. The song is the first example of the European march anthemic style, the anthems evocative melody and lyrics have led to its widespread use as a song of revolution and its incorporation into many pieces of classical and popular music. As the French Revolution continued, the monarchies of Europe became concerned that revolutionary fervor would spread to their countries, the War of the First Coalition was an effort to stop the revolution, or at least contain it to France. Initially, the French army did not distinguish itself, and Coalition armies invaded France and that evening, Rouget de Lisle wrote Chant de guerre pour lArmée du Rhin, and dedicated the song to Marshal Nicolas Luckner, a Bavarian in French service from Cham. A plaque on the building on Place Broglie where De Dietrichs house once stood commemorates the event. The melody soon became the call to the French Revolution and was adopted as La Marseillaise after the melody was first sung on the streets by volunteers from Marseille by the end of May. A newly graduated medical doctor, Mireur later became a general under Napoléon Bonaparte, the songs lyric reflects the invasion of France by foreign armies that were under way when it was written. Strasbourg itself was attacked just a few days later, the invading forces were repulsed from France following their defeat in the Battle of Valmy. As the vast majority of Alsatians did not speak French, a German version was published in October 1792 in Colmar, the Convention accepted it as the French national anthem in a decree passed on 14 July 1795, making it Frances first anthem. It later lost this status under Napoleon I, and the song was banned outright by Louis XVIII and Charles X, only being re-instated briefly after the July Revolution of 1830. During Napoleon Is reign, Veillons au Salut de lEmpire was the anthem of the regime. Eight years later, in 1879, it was restored as Frances national anthem, several musical antecedents have been cited for the melody, Mozarts Allegro maestoso of Piano Concerto No. Only the first verse and the first chorus are sung today in France, there are some slight historical variations in the lyrics of the song, the following is the version listed at the official website of the French Presidency. Verses sung in the version of the anthem are in bold. The United States Library of Congress holds the following English translation and these verses were omitted from the national anthem
La Marseillaise
–
La Marseillaise personified on the
Arc de Triomphe.
La Marseillaise
–
Rouget de Lisle, composer of the Marseillaise, sings it for the first time at the home of Dietrich, Mayor of Strasbourg (
Musée historique de Strasbourg, published 1849, artist
Isidore Pils)
La Marseillaise
–
Général Mireur, 1770–1798, anonymous, terra cotta, Faculty of Medicine, Montpellier, France.
3.
French language
–
French is a Romance language of the Indo-European family. It descended from the Vulgar Latin of the Roman Empire, as did all Romance languages, French has evolved from Gallo-Romance, the spoken Latin in Gaul, and more specifically in Northern Gaul. Its closest relatives are the other langues doïl—languages historically spoken in northern France and in southern Belgium, French was also influenced by native Celtic languages of Northern Roman Gaul like Gallia Belgica and by the Frankish language of the post-Roman Frankish invaders. Today, owing to Frances past overseas expansion, there are numerous French-based creole languages, a French-speaking person or nation may be referred to as Francophone in both English and French. French is a language in 29 countries, most of which are members of la francophonie. As of 2015, 40% of the population is in Europe, 35% in sub-Saharan Africa, 15% in North Africa and the Middle East, 8% in the Americas. French is the fourth-most widely spoken mother tongue in the European Union, 1/5 of Europeans who do not have French as a mother tongue speak French as a second language. As a result of French and Belgian colonialism from the 17th and 18th century onward, French was introduced to new territories in the Americas, Africa, most second-language speakers reside in Francophone Africa, in particular Gabon, Algeria, Mauritius, Senegal and Ivory Coast. In 2015, French was estimated to have 77 to 110 million native speakers, approximately 274 million people are able to speak the language. The Organisation internationale de la Francophonie estimates 700 million by 2050, in 2011, Bloomberg Businessweek ranked French the third most useful language for business, after English and Standard Mandarin Chinese. Under the Constitution of France, French has been the language of the Republic since 1992. France mandates the use of French in official government publications, public education except in specific cases, French is one of the four official languages of Switzerland and is spoken in the western part of Switzerland called Romandie, of which Geneva is the largest city. French is the language of about 23% of the Swiss population. French is also a language of Luxembourg, Monaco, and Aosta Valley, while French dialects remain spoken by minorities on the Channel Islands. A plurality of the worlds French-speaking population lives in Africa and this number does not include the people living in non-Francophone African countries who have learned French as a foreign language. Due to the rise of French in Africa, the total French-speaking population worldwide is expected to reach 700 million people in 2050, French is the fastest growing language on the continent. French is mostly a language in Africa, but it has become a first language in some urban areas, such as the region of Abidjan, Ivory Coast and in Libreville. There is not a single African French, but multiple forms that diverged through contact with various indigenous African languages, sub-Saharan Africa is the region where the French language is most likely to expand, because of the expansion of education and rapid population growth
French language
–
The
"arrêt" signs (French for "stop") are used in
Canada while the international stop, which is also a valid French word, is used in France as well as other French-speaking countries and regions.
French language
–
Regions where French is the main language
French language
–
Town sign in
Standard Arabic and French at the entrance of
Rechmaya in
Lebanon.
French language
–
An obsolete 100
Lebanese pound note with the French language inscriptions "Banque du Liban" and "Cent livres".
4.
President of France
–
The President of the French Republic, is the executive head of state of the French Fifth Republic. The powers, functions and duties of prior presidential offices, and their relation with the prime minister, the current President of France is François Hollande, who took office on 15 May 2012. Hollande has announced that he stand down in the upcoming 2017 French presidential election. President Chirac was first elected in 1995 and again in 2002, at that time, there was no limit on the number of terms, so Chirac could have run again, but chose not to. He was succeeded by Nicolas Sarkozy on 16 May 2007, following a further change, the Constitutional law on the Modernisation of the Institutions of the Fifth Republic,2008, a president cannot serve more than two consecutive terms. François Mitterrand and Jacques Chirac are the only Presidents to date who have served a two terms. In order to be admitted as a candidate, potential candidates must receive signed nominations from more than 500 elected officials. These officials must be from at least 30 départements or overseas collectivities, furthermore, each official may nominate only one candidate. There are exactly 45,543 elected officials, including 33,872 mayors, spending and financing of campaigns and political parties are highly regulated. There is a cap on spending, at approximately 20 million euros, if the candidate receives less than 5% of the vote, the government funds €8,000,000 to the party. Advertising on TV is forbidden but official time is given to candidates on public TV, an independent agency regulates election and party financing. After the president is elected, he or she goes through an investiture ceremony called a passation des pouvoirs. The French Fifth Republic is a semi-presidential system, unlike many other European presidents, the French President is quite powerful. The president holds the nations most senior office, and outranks all other politicians, the presidents greatest power is his/her ability to choose the prime minister. When the majority of the Assembly has opposite political views to that of the president, when the majority of the Assembly sides with them, the President can take a more active role and may, in effect, direct government policy. The prime minister is then the choice of the President. This device has been used in recent years by François Mitterrand, Jacques Chirac, since 2002, the mandate of the president and the Assembly are both 5 years and the two elections are close to each other. Therefore, the likelihood of a cohabitation is lower, among the powers of the government, The president promulgates laws
President of France
–
Presidential emblem
President of France
President of France
–
Incumbent
François Hollande since 15 May 2012
5.
Emmanuel Macron
–
Emmanuel Macron is a French politician, senior civil servant, and former investment banker. Born in Amiens, he studied Philosophy at Paris Nanterre University and he went on to become an Inspector of Finances in the Inspectorate General of Finances before becoming an investment banker at Rothschild & Cie Banque. He resigned in August 2016 in order to launch a bid in the 2017 presidential election, in November 2016, Macron declared that he would run in the election under the banner of En Marche. A centrist movement he founded in April 2016, born in Amiens, Emmanuel Jean-Michel Frédéric Macron is the son of Jean-Michel Macron, Professor of Neurology at the University of Picardy, and Françoise Macron-Noguès, a physician. He was educated mostly at the Jésuites de la Providence lycée in Amiens before his parents sent him to finish his last year of school at the high school Lycée Henri-IV in Paris. He studied Philosophy at the University of Paris-Ouest Nanterre La Défense and he obtained a Masters degree in Public Affairs at Sciences Po, before training for a senior civil service career at the École nationale dadministration, graduating in 2004. Macron worked as an Inspector of Finances in the French Ministry of Economy between 2004 and 2008, in 2007, he served as deputy rapporteur for the Commission to improve French growth headed by Jacques Attali. While an investment banker, Macron closed a deal between Nestlé and Pfizer, which in part allowed him to amass a small fortune reportedly in the region of €2,800,000. Macron was a member of the Socialist Party from 2006 to 2009, in 2015, he stated that he was no longer a member of the PS and was now an Independent. From 2012 to 2014, he served as deputy secretary-general of the Élysée and he was appointed Minister of Economy, Industry and Digital Data in the second Valls Cabinet on 26 August 2014, replacing Arnaud Montebourg. As Minister of the Economy, Macron was at the forefront of pushing through business-friendly reforms, in February 2015, he pledged that the government would force through reforms despite opposition from the parliament. On 30 August 2016, Macron resigned from the government ahead of the 2017 presidential election and this came shortly after he founded his own progressive political movement, En Marche. An independent political party, for which he was reprimanded by President Hollande, Macron founded En Marche. in Amiens, the city of his birth. On 16 November 2016, Macron formally declared his candidacy for the French presidency after months of speculation, in his announcement speech, Macron called for a democratic revolution and promised to unblock France. He eventually laid out his 150-page formal program on 2 March, publishing it online, as well as numerous others – many of them from the Socialist Party, but also a significant number of centrist and centre-right politicians. Macron has been described by observers as a social liberal. Macron has notably advocated in favor of the market and reducing the public-finances deficit. He first publicly used the term liberal to describe himself in a 2015 interview with Le Monde and he added that he is neither right nor left and that he advocates a collective solidarity
Emmanuel Macron
–
Emmanuel Macron in 2015
6.
French overseas territory
–
Overseas France consists of all the French-administered territories outside of the European continent. Their citizens have French nationality and vote for the president of France and they have the right to vote in elections to the European Parliament. From a legal and administrative standpoint, overseas regions are different from overseas collectivities. Overseas regions have exactly the same status as mainland Frances regions, in the French overseas regions, laws cannot be adapted whereas the overseas collectivities are empowered to make their own laws, except in certain areas. The overseas collectivities are governed by elected assemblies and by the French Parliament. Overseas France has an economic zone of 9,821,231 km². Guadeloupe French Guiana Martinique Réunion Mayotte 1976–2003, sui generis overseas territory, 2001–2003, with the designation departmental community, 2003–2011, in the 2009 Mahoran status referendum, Mahorans voted to become an overseas department in 2011, which occurred on March 31,2011. The category of overseas collectivity was created by Frances constitutional reform of March 28,2003, each overseas collectivity has its own statutory laws. French Polynesia In 2004 it was given the designation of overseas country, despite being given the political status of overseas collectivity, Saint Pierre et Miquelon is called collectivité territoriale de Saint-Pierre-et-Miquelon, literally territorial collectivity. It is still referred to as a territoire. Saint Martin, In 2003, the populations of St. Martin, on February 7,2007, the French Parliament passed a bill granting COM status to both jurisdictions. The new status took effect on February 22,2007 when the law was published in the Journal Officiel and they remain part of the European Union, as stated in the Treaty of Lisbon. It is currently the only overseas territory, according to law 2007-224 of February 21,2007, the Scattered Islands in the Indian Ocean constitute the 5th district of TAAF. New Caledonia was classified as an overseas territory beginning in 1946, a New Caledonian citizenship was established, and a gradual transfer of power from the French state to New Caledonia itself was begun, to last from 15 to 20 years. Clipperton Island is a 9 km2 coral atoll located 1,280 km south-west of Acapulco, Mexico and it is held as state private property under the direct authority of the French government, and is administered by Frances Overseas Minister. With 2,691,000 inhabitants in 2013, Overseas France account for 4. 1% of the population of the French Republic and they enjoy a corresponding representation in the two chambers of the French Parliament. In the 13th Legislature, Overseas France is represented by 27 députés in the French National Assembly,2004, Official website Overseas France at DMOZ
French overseas territory
–
Gustavia in
Saint Barthélemy
French overseas territory
–
Flag
French overseas territory
–
A street in
Saint-Pierre, capital of
Saint Pierre and Miquelon
French overseas territory
–
Route des Tamarins motorway near
Saint-Paul,
Réunion
7.
Euro
–
Outside of Europe, a number of overseas territories of EU members also use the euro as their currency. Additionally,210 million people worldwide as of 2013 use currencies pegged to the euro, the euro is the second largest reserve currency as well as the second most traded currency in the world after the United States dollar. The name euro was adopted on 16 December 1995 in Madrid. The euro was introduced to world markets as an accounting currency on 1 January 1999. While the euro dropped subsequently to US$0.8252 within two years, it has traded above the U. S. dollar since the end of 2002, peaking at US$1.6038 on 18 July 2008. In July 2012, the euro fell below US$1.21 for the first time in two years, following concerns raised over Greek debt and Spains troubled banking sector, as of 26 March 2017, the euro–dollar exchange rate stands at ~ US$1.07. The euro is managed and administered by the Frankfurt-based European Central Bank, as an independent central bank, the ECB has sole authority to set monetary policy. The Eurosystem participates in the printing, minting and distribution of notes and coins in all states. The 1992 Maastricht Treaty obliges most EU member states to adopt the euro upon meeting certain monetary and budgetary convergence criteria, all nations that have joined the EU since 1993 have pledged to adopt the euro in due course. Since 5 January 2002, the central banks and the ECB have issued euro banknotes on a joint basis. Euro banknotes do not show which central bank issued them, Eurosystem NCBs are required to accept euro banknotes put into circulation by other Eurosystem members and these banknotes are not repatriated. The ECB issues 8% of the value of banknotes issued by the Eurosystem. In practice, the ECBs banknotes are put into circulation by the NCBs and these liabilities carry interest at the main refinancing rate of the ECB. The euro is divided into 100 cents, in Community legislative acts the plural forms of euro and cent are spelled without the s, notwithstanding normal English usage. Otherwise, normal English plurals are used, with many local variations such as centime in France. All circulating coins have a side showing the denomination or value. Due to the plurality in the European Union, the Latin alphabet version of euro is used. For the denominations except the 1-, 2- and 5-cent coins, beginning in 2007 or 2008 the old map is being replaced by a map of Europe also showing countries outside the Union like Norway
Euro
–
The
central bank has
its seat in
Frankfurt (Germany) and is in charge of the monetary policy of the
euro area.
Euro
–
Euro banknotes as of 2015
Euro
–
Euro coins and banknotes of various denominations.
8.
ISO 4217
–
The ISO4217 code list is used in banking and business globally. ISO4217 codes are used on tickets and international train tickets to remove any ambiguity about the price. The first two letters of the code are the two letters of the ISO 3166-1 alpha-2 country codes and the third is usually the initial of the currency itself, so Japans currency code is JPY—JP for Japan and Y for yen. This eliminates the problem caused by the dollar, franc, peso and pound being used in dozens of different countries. Also, if a currency is revalued, the currency codes last letter is changed to distinguish it from the old currency. Other changes can be seen, however, the Russian ruble, for example, changed from RUR to RUB and these currency units are denominated as one troy ounce of the specified metal as opposed to USD1 or EUR1. The code XTS is reserved for use in testing, the code XXX is used to denote a transaction involving no currency. There are also codes specifying certain monetary instruments used in international finance, the codes for most supranational currencies, such as the East Caribbean dollar, the CFP franc, the CFA franc BEAC and the CFA franc BCEAO. The predecessor to the euro, the European Currency Unit, had the code XEU, the use of an initial letter X for these purposes is facilitated by the ISO3166 rule that no official country code beginning with X will ever be assigned. Because of this rule ISO4217 can use X codes without risk of clashing with a country code. ISO3166 country codes beginning with X are used for private custom use, consequently, ISO4217 can use X codes for non-country-specific currencies without risk of clashing with future country codes. The inclusion of EU in the ISO 3166-1 reserved codes list, the ISO4217 standard includes a crude mechanism for expressing the relationship between a major currency unit and its corresponding minor currency unit. This mechanism is called the exponent and assumes a base of 10. For example, USD is equal to 100 of its currency unit the cent. So the USD has exponent 2, the code JPY is given the exponent 0, because its minor unit, the sen, although nominally valued at 1/100 of a yen, is of such negligible value that it is no longer used. Usually, as with the USD, the currency unit has a value that is 1/100 of the major unit, but in some cases 1/1000 is used. Mauritania does not use a decimal division of units, setting 1 ouguiya equal to 5 khoums, some currencies do not have any minor currency unit at all and these are given an exponent of 0, as with currencies whose minor units are unused due to negligible value. There is also a code number assigned to each currency
ISO 4217
–
An
airline ticket showing the price in the ISO 4217 code "
EUR " (bottom left) and not the
currency sign €
ISO 4217
–
A list of exchange rates for various base currencies given by a
money changer in Thailand, with the Thailand Baht as the counter (or quote) currency.
9.
Coordinated Universal Time
–
Coordinated Universal Time, abbreviated to UTC, is the primary time standard by which the world regulates clocks and time. It is within about 1 second of mean time at 0° longitude. It is one of closely related successors to Greenwich Mean Time. For most purposes, UTC is considered interchangeable with GMT, the first Coordinated Universal Time was informally adopted on 1 January 1960. This change also adopted leap seconds to simplify future adjustments, a number of proposals have been made to replace UTC with a new system that would eliminate leap seconds, but no consensus has yet been reached. Leap seconds are inserted as necessary to keep UTC within 0.9 seconds of universal time, see the Current number of leap seconds section for the number of leap seconds inserted to date. The official abbreviation for Coordinated Universal Time is UTC and this abbreviation arose from a desire by the International Telecommunication Union and the International Astronomical Union to use the same abbreviation in all languages. English speakers originally proposed CUT, while French speakers proposed TUC, the compromise that emerged was UTC, which conforms to the pattern for the abbreviations of the variants of Universal Time. Time zones around the world are expressed using positive or negative offsets from UTC, the westernmost time zone uses UTC−12, being twelve hours behind UTC, the easternmost time zone, theoretically, uses UTC+12, being twelve hours ahead of UTC. In 1995, the nation of Kiribati moved those of its atolls in the Line Islands from UTC-10 to UTC+14 so that the country would all be on the same day. UTC is used in internet and World Wide Web standards. The Network Time Protocol, designed to synchronise the clocks of computers over the internet, computer servers, online services and other entities that rely on having a universally accepted time use UTC as it is more specific than GMT. If only limited precision is needed, clients can obtain the current UTC from a number of official internet UTC servers, for sub-microsecond precision, clients can obtain the time from satellite signals. UTC is also the standard used in aviation, e. g. for flight plans. Weather forecasts and maps all use UTC to avoid confusion about time zones, the International Space Station also uses UTC as a time standard. Amateur radio operators often schedule their radio contacts in UTC, because transmissions on some frequencies can be picked up by many time zones, UTC is also used in digital tachographs used on large goods vehicles under EU and AETR rules. UTC divides time into days, hours, minutes and seconds, days are conventionally identified using the Gregorian calendar, but Julian day numbers can also be used. Each day contains 24 hours and each hour contains 60 minutes, the number of seconds in a minute is usually 60, but with an occasional leap second, it may be 61 or 59 instead
Coordinated Universal Time
–
Key concepts
Coordinated Universal Time
–
World map of current time zones
10.
Territorial claims in Antarctica
–
Seven states maintain a territorial claim on eight territories in Antarctica. These countries have tended to site their scientific observation and study facilities in Antarctica within the claimed territory, according to Argentina and Chile, the Spanish Empire had claims on Antarctica. The capitulación granted to the conquistador Pedro Sánchez de la Hoz explicitly included the south of the Straits of Magellan. This grant established, according to Argentina and Chile, that an animus occupandi existed on the part of Spain in Antarctica. Spains sovereignty claim over parts of Antarctica was, according to Chile and Argentina, internationally recognized with the Inter caetera bull of 1493, Argentina and Chile treat these treaties as legal international treaties mediated by the Catholic Church that was at that time a recognized arbiter in such matters. The United Kingdom reasserted sovereignty over the Falkland Islands in the far South Atlantic in 1833, all these territories were administered as Falkland Islands Dependencies from Stanley by the Governor of the Falkland Islands. The motivation for this lay in the need to regulate. Commercial operators would hunt whales in areas outside the boundaries of the Falkland Islands and its dependencies. In 1917, the wording of the claim was modified, so as to include all the territory in the sector stretching to the South Pole. It was the ambition of Leopold Amery, then Under-Secretary of State for the Colonies, in a memorandum to the governor-generals for Australia and New Zealand, he wrote that with the exception of Chile and Argentina and some barren islands belonging to France. It is desirable that the whole of the Antarctic should ultimately be included in the British Empire, the Order in Council then went on to appoint the Governor-General and Commander-in Chief of New Zealand as the Governor of the territory. In 1930, the United Kingdom claimed Enderby Land, in 1933, a British imperial order transferred territory south of 60° S and between meridians 160° E and 45° E to Australia as the Australian Antarctic Territory. Following the passing of the Statute of Westminster in 1931, the government of the United Kingdom relinquished all control over the government of New Zealand and this however had no bearing on the obligations of the Governors-General of both countries in their capacity as Governors of the Antarctic territories. Meanwhile, alarmed by these unilateral declarations, the French government laid claim to a strip of the continent in 1924. The basis for their claim to Adélie Land lay on the discovery of the coastline in 1840 by the French explorer Jules Dumont dUrville, the British eventually decided to recognize this claim and the border between Adélie Land and Australian Antarctic Territory was fixed definitively in 1938. The whale-ship owner Lars Christensen financed several expeditions to the Antarctic with the view to land for Norway. The first expedition, led by Nils Larsen and Ola Olstad, landed on Peter I Island in 1929, on 6 March 1931, a Norwegian royal proclamation declared the island under Norwegian sovereignty and on 23 March 1933 the island was declared a dependency. The 1929 expedition led by Hjalmar Riiser-Larsen and Finn Lützow-Holm named the land mass near the island as Queen Maud Land
Territorial claims in Antarctica
–
As
Under-Secretary of State for the Colonies,
Leopold Amery aimed to assert British sovereignty over the entire continent of Antarctica.
Territorial claims in Antarctica
–
Research stations and territorial claims in Antarctica (2002).
Territorial claims in Antarctica
–
Discovery by
Jules Dumont d'Urville of
Adélie Land in 1840. This served as a basis for the French claim to this region in 1924.
Territorial claims in Antarctica
–
Norwegian expedition landing on the
Peter I Island island in 1929.
11.
Antarctica
–
It contains the geographic South Pole and is situated in the Antarctic region of the Southern Hemisphere, almost entirely south of the Antarctic Circle, and is surrounded by the Southern Ocean. At 14,000,000 square kilometres, it is the fifth-largest continent, for comparison, Antarctica is nearly twice the size of Australia. About 98% of Antarctica is covered by ice that averages 1.9 km in thickness, Antarctica, on average, is the coldest, driest, and windiest continent, and has the highest average elevation of all the continents. Antarctica is a desert, with precipitation of only 200 mm along the coast. The temperature in Antarctica has reached −89.2 °C, though the average for the quarter is −63 °C. Anywhere from 1,000 to 5,000 people reside throughout the year at the research stations scattered across the continent. Organisms native to Antarctica include many types of algae, bacteria, fungi, plants, protista, vegetation, where it occurs, is tundra. The continent, however, remained neglected for the rest of the 19th century because of its hostile environment, lack of easily accessible resources. In 1895, the first confirmed landing was conducted by a team of Norwegians, Antarctica is a de facto condominium, governed by parties to the Antarctic Treaty System that have consulting status. Twelve countries signed the Antarctic Treaty in 1959, and thirty-eight have signed it since then, the treaty prohibits military activities and mineral mining, prohibits nuclear explosions and nuclear waste disposal, supports scientific research, and protects the continents ecozone. Ongoing experiments are conducted by more than 4,000 scientists from many nations, the name Antarctica is the romanised version of the Greek compound word ἀνταρκτική, feminine of ἀνταρκτικός, meaning opposite to the Arctic, opposite to the north. Aristotle wrote in his book Meteorology about an Antarctic region in c.350 B. C, marinus of Tyre reportedly used the name in his unpreserved world map from the 2nd century A. D. Before acquiring its present geographical connotations, the term was used for locations that could be defined as opposite to the north. For example, the short-lived French colony established in Brazil in the 16th century was called France Antarctique, the first formal use of the name Antarctica as a continental name in the 1890s is attributed to the Scottish cartographer John George Bartholomew. Antarctica has no population and there is no evidence that it was seen by humans until the 19th century. Explorer Matthew Flinders, in particular, has credited with popularising the transfer of the name Terra Australis to Australia. Cook came within about 120 km of the Antarctic coast before retreating in the face of ice in January 1773. The first confirmed sighting of Antarctica can be narrowed down to the crews of ships captained by three individuals, according to various organisations, ships captained by three men sighted Antarctica or its ice shelf in 1820, von Bellingshausen, Edward Bransfield, and Nathaniel Palmer
Antarctica
–
Adelie penguins in Antarctica
Antarctica
–
Antarctica
Antarctica
–
Painting of
James Weddell 's second expedition in 1823, depicting the brig Jane and the cutter Beaufroy.
Antarctica
–
Nimrod Expedition South Pole Party (left to right):
Wild,
Shackleton,
Marshall and
Adams
12.
Great Southern Ocean
–
As such, it is regarded as the fourth-largest of the five principal oceanic divisions, smaller than the Pacific, Atlantic, and Indian Oceans but larger than the Arctic Ocean. This ocean zone is cold, northward flowing waters from the Antarctic mix with warmer subantarctic waters. By way of his voyages in the 1770s, Captain James Cook proved that waters encompassed the southern latitudes of the globe. Since then, geographers have disagreed on the Southern Oceans northern boundary or even existence, considering the part of the Pacific, Atlantic. Others regard the seasonally-fluctuating Antarctic Convergence as the natural boundary, Borders and names for oceans and seas were internationally agreed when the International Hydrographic Bureau, the precusor to the IHO, convened the First International Conference on 24 July 1919. The IHO then published these in its Limits of Oceans and Seas, Australian authorities regard the Southern Ocean as lying immediately south of Australia. Map publishers using the term Southern Ocean on their maps include Hema Maps, Southern Ocean is an obsolete name for the Pacific Ocean or South Pacific, coined by Vasco Núñez de Balboa, the first European to discover it, who approached it from the north. The South Seas is an archaic synonym. A1745 British Act of Parliament established a prize for discovering a Northwest Passage to the Western and Southern Ocean of America, authors using Southern Ocean to name the waters encircling the unknown southern polar regions used varying limits. James Cooks account of his second voyage implies New Caledonia borders it, peacocks 1795 Geographical Dictionary said it lay to the southward of America and Africa, John Payne in 1796 used 40 degrees as the northern limit, the 1827 Edinburgh Gazetteer used 50 degrees. The United Kingdoms South Australia Act 1834 described the waters forming the southern limit of the new colony of South Australia as the Southern Ocean. The Colony of Victorias Legislative Council Act of 1881 delimited part of the division of Bairnsdale as along the New South Wales boundary to the Southern ocean. The limit then followed the west coast of Tasmania southwards to the South East Cape and then went eastwards to Broughton Island, New Zealand, the northern limits of the Southern Ocean were moved southwards in the IHOs 1937 second edition of the Limits of Oceans and Seas. From this edition, much of the northern limit ceased to abut land masses. As is discussed in detail below, prior to the 2002 edition the limits of oceans explicitly excluded the seas lying within each of them. The Great Australian Bight was unnamed in the 1928 edition, and it therefore encompassed former Southern Ocean waters but was technically not inside any of the three adjacent oceans by 1937. To perform direct comparisons of current and former limits of oceans it is necessary to consider, or at least be aware of, the limits of the Atlantic, Pacific and Indian Oceans have therefore been extended South to the Antarctic Continent. The IHO readdressed the question of the Southern Ocean in a survey in 2000, of its 68 member nations,28 responded, and all responding members except Argentina agreed to redefine the ocean, reflecting the importance placed by oceanographers on ocean currents
Great Southern Ocean
–
1928 First Edition of Limits of Oceans and Seas with original IHO delineation of Southern Ocean abutting land-masses.
Great Southern Ocean
–
Earth's oceans
Great Southern Ocean
–
1937 Second Edition of Limits of Oceans and Seas showing IHO's pre-1953 delineation of Southern Ocean moved southwards.
Great Southern Ocean
–
1564 Typus Orbis Terrarum, a map by
Abraham Ortelius showed the imagined link between the proposed continent of Antarctica and
South America.
13.
South Pole
–
The South Pole, also known as the Geographic South Pole or Terrestrial South Pole, is one of the two points where the Earths axis of rotation intersects its surface. It is the southernmost point on the surface of the Earth, situated on the continent of Antarctica, it is the site of the United States Amundsen–Scott South Pole Station, which was established in 1956 and has been permanently staffed since that year. The Geographic South Pole should not be confused with the South Magnetic Pole, the South Pole is at the center of the Southern Hemisphere. For most purposes, the Geographic South Pole is defined as the point of the two points where the Earths axis of rotation intersects its surface. However, the Earths axis of rotation is actually subject to very small wobbles, the geographic coordinates of the South Pole are usually given simply as 90°S, since its longitude is geometrically undefined and irrelevant. When a longitude is desired, it may be given as 0°, at the South Pole, all directions face north. For this reason, directions at the Pole are given relative to grid north, along tight latitude circles, clockwise is east, and counterclockwise is west, opposite to the North Pole. The Geographic South Pole is located on the continent of Antarctica. It sits atop a featureless, barren, windswept and icy plateau at an altitude of 2,835 metres above sea level, and is located about 1,300 km from the nearest open sea at Bay of Whales. The ice is estimated to be about 2,700 metres thick at the Pole, the polar ice sheet is moving at a rate of roughly 10 metres per year in a direction between 37° and 40° west of grid north, down towards the Weddell Sea. Therefore, the position of the station and other artificial features relative to the geographic pole gradually shift over time. The Geographic South Pole is marked by a stake in the ice alongside a small sign, these are repositioned each year in a ceremony on New Years Day to compensate for the movement of the ice. The sign records the respective dates that Roald Amundsen and Robert F. Scott reached the Pole, followed by a quotation from each man. A new marker stake is designed and fabricated each year by staff at the site, the Ceremonial South Pole is an area set aside for photo opportunities at the South Pole Station. It is located around 180 metres from the Geographic South Pole, Amundsens Tent, The tent was erected by the Norwegian expedition led by Roald Amundsen on its arrival on 14 December 1911. It is currently buried beneath the snow and ice in the vicinity of the Pole and it has been designated a Historic Site or Monument, following a proposal by Norway to the Antarctic Treaty Consultative Meeting. In 1820, several expeditions claimed to have been the first to have sighted Antarctica, with the very first being the Russian expedition led by Faddey Bellingshausen and Mikhail Lazarev. The first landing was probably just over a year later when American Captain John Davis, the basic geography of the Antarctic coastline was not understood until the mid-to-late 19th century
South Pole
–
The Geographic South Pole. (The flag used on the flagpole is interchangeable.)
South Pole
–
1. South Geographic Pole 2.
South Magnetic Pole (2007) 3.
South Geomagnetic Pole (2005) 4.
South Pole of Inaccessibility
South Pole
–
The Ceremonial South Pole in 1998. (Background structures shown have since been replaced or altered.)
South Pole
–
Argentine soldiers saluting the flag after erecting the pole in 1965
14.
France
–
France, officially the French Republic, is a country with territory in western Europe and several overseas regions and territories. The European, or metropolitan, area of France extends from the Mediterranean Sea to the English Channel and the North Sea, Overseas France include French Guiana on the South American continent and several island territories in the Atlantic, Pacific and Indian oceans. France spans 643,801 square kilometres and had a population of almost 67 million people as of January 2017. It is a unitary republic with the capital in Paris. Other major urban centres include Marseille, Lyon, Lille, Nice, Toulouse, during the Iron Age, what is now metropolitan France was inhabited by the Gauls, a Celtic people. The area was annexed in 51 BC by Rome, which held Gaul until 486, France emerged as a major European power in the Late Middle Ages, with its victory in the Hundred Years War strengthening state-building and political centralisation. During the Renaissance, French culture flourished and a colonial empire was established. The 16th century was dominated by civil wars between Catholics and Protestants. France became Europes dominant cultural, political, and military power under Louis XIV, in the 19th century Napoleon took power and established the First French Empire, whose subsequent Napoleonic Wars shaped the course of continental Europe. Following the collapse of the Empire, France endured a succession of governments culminating with the establishment of the French Third Republic in 1870. Following liberation in 1944, a Fourth Republic was established and later dissolved in the course of the Algerian War, the Fifth Republic, led by Charles de Gaulle, was formed in 1958 and remains to this day. Algeria and nearly all the colonies became independent in the 1960s with minimal controversy and typically retained close economic. France has long been a centre of art, science. It hosts Europes fourth-largest number of cultural UNESCO World Heritage Sites and receives around 83 million foreign tourists annually, France is a developed country with the worlds sixth-largest economy by nominal GDP and ninth-largest by purchasing power parity. In terms of household wealth, it ranks fourth in the world. France performs well in international rankings of education, health care, life expectancy, France remains a great power in the world, being one of the five permanent members of the United Nations Security Council with the power to veto and an official nuclear-weapon state. It is a member state of the European Union and the Eurozone. It is also a member of the Group of 7, North Atlantic Treaty Organization, Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development, the World Trade Organization, originally applied to the whole Frankish Empire, the name France comes from the Latin Francia, or country of the Franks
France
–
One of the
Lascaux paintings: a horse –
Dordogne, approximately 18,000 BC
France
–
Flag
France
–
The
Maison Carrée was a temple of the
Gallo-Roman city of Nemausus (present-day
Nîmes) and is one of the best preserved vestiges of the
Roman Empire.
France
–
With
Clovis ' conversion to Catholicism in 498, the
Frankish monarchy,
elective and
secular until then, became
hereditary and of
divine right.
15.
French Southern and Antarctic Lands
–
The French Southern and Antarctic Lands is an overseas territory of France. It consists of, Kerguelen Islands, a group of islands in the southern Indian Ocean, southeast of Africa. The territory is called the French Southern Lands or French Southern Territories. The latter excludes Adélie Land, where French sovereignty is not widely recognized, the lands are not connected to France Antarctique, a former French colony in Brazil. The territory has no permanent civilian population and those resident consist of visiting military personnel, officials, scientific researchers and support staff. The French Southern and Antarctic Lands have formed a territoire doutre-mer of France since 1955, the territory is divided into five districts, a According to new law 2007-224 of February 21,2007, the Scattered Islands constitute the TAAFs fifth district. The TAAF website does not mention their population, the data are not included in the totals. b The Îles Éparses principal station is on Tromelin. The headquarters of the district chief lies beyond the TAAF, in Saint Pierre on Réunion Island. c The Territorys principal station is Martin-de-Viviès on Île Amsterdam, the capital and headquarters of the Territorial administrator lies beyond the TAAF, in Saint Pierre on Réunion Island. Each district is headed by a chief, who has powers similar to those of a French mayor. Because there is no permanent population, there is no elected assembly, Adélie Land and the islands, totaling 7,781 km2, have no indigenous inhabitants, though in 1997 there were about 100 researchers whose numbers varied from winter to summer. Île Amsterdam and Île Saint-Paul are extinct volcanoes and have been delineated as the Amsterdam, the highest point in the territory is Mont Ross on Île Kerguelen at 1,850 m. There are very few airstrips on the islands, only existing on islands with weather stations, the islands in the Indian Ocean are supplied by the special ship Marion Dufresne sailing out of Le Port in Réunion Island. Terre Adélie is supplied by Astrolabe sailing out of Hobart in Tasmania and this register, however, is to vanish, replaced by the International French Register. The territory contains the land mass that is antipodal to the Contiguous United States. Île Amsterdam and Île Saint-Paul lie antipodal to two areas in south-eastern Colorado, near the cities of Lamar and Cheyenne Wells, respectively. The territorys natural resources are limited to fish and crustaceans, economic activity is limited to servicing meteorological and geophysical research stations and French and other fishing fleets. The main fish resources are Patagonian toothfish and spiny lobster, both are poached by foreign fleets, because of this, the French Navy and occasionally other services patrol the zone and arrest poaching vessels. Such arrests can result in heavy fines and/or the seizure of the ship, France used to sell licenses to foreign fisheries to fish the Patagonian toothfish, because of overfishing, it is now restricted to a small number of fisheries from Réunion Island
French Southern and Antarctic Lands
–
Kerguelen cabbages on Mayes Island,
Kerguelen.
French Southern and Antarctic Lands
–
Flag
French Southern and Antarctic Lands
–
Kerguelen Islands - The Volcan du Diable.
16.
Sector of a circle
–
A circular sector or circle sector, is the portion of a disk enclosed by two radii and an arc, where the smaller area is known as the minor sector and the larger being the major sector. In the diagram, θ is the angle in radians, r the radius of the circle. A sector with the angle of 180° is called a half-disk and is bounded by a diameter. The angle formed by connecting the endpoints of the arc to any point on the circumference that is not in the sector is equal to half the central angle, the total area of a circle is πr2. Circular segment – the part of the sector which remains after removing the triangle formed by the center of the circle, conic section Gerard, L. J. V. The Elements of Geometry, in Eight Books, or, First Step in Applied Logic, London, Longmans Green, Reader & Dyer,1874
Sector of a circle
–
A circular sector is shaded in green
17.
Australian Antarctic Territory
–
The Australian Antarctic Territory is a part of Antarctica. It was claimed by the United Kingdom and placed under the authority of the Commonwealth of Australia in 1933 and it is the largest territory of Antarctica claimed by any nation. In 1961, the Antarctic Treaty came into force, as a result, only four other states recognise Australias claim to sovereignty in Antarctica. AAT consists of all the islands and territory south of 60°S and between 45°E and 160°E, except for Adélie Land, which divides the territory into Western AAT and it is bounded by Queen Maud Land in the West and by Ross Dependency in the East. The area is estimated at 5,896,500 km2, the territory is inhabited by the staff of research stations. The Australian Antarctic Division administers the area primarily by maintaining three year-round stations, which support research projects. Australia claims an Exclusive Economic Zone from the Australian Antarctic Territory, however, the Australian proclamation of an Antarctic EEZ is contested. The effect of Article IV of the 1959 Antarctic Treaty would seem to be that an EEZ cannot be claimed in relation to territory to which that Treaty applies, whaling in Australian Antarctic territorial waters is controversial and has received international attention. Anti-whaling protest groups, in particular Sea Shepherd Conservation Society, have been active within the Australian Antarctic territorial waters. Sea Shepherd small boat crews have had encounters with Japanese ships that claim to be on research expeditions while opponents argue this is only a cover for banned commercial whaling. The Australian Whale Sanctuary, in Australian Antarctic territory, is not recognised by the government of Japan, anti-whaling legislation passed by the Australian Government applies to Australian territorial waters. Active and closed stations in the territory, from West to East, The United Kingdom first claimed Victoria Land on 9 January 1841, in 1933, a British imperial order transferred most of the territory south of 60° S and between meridians 160° E and 45° E to Australia. C2004C00416 / Australian Antarctic Territory Acceptance Act 1933 The borders with Adélie Land were fixed definitively in 1938, in 1947, Britain transferred Heard Island and McDonald Islands to the territory. On 13 February 1954, Mawson Station was established as the first Australian station on the continent proper, Australias claim to sovereignty over the Australian Antarctic Territory is recognised by the United Kingdom, New Zealand, France and Norway. Neither Japan nor Spain recognise this claim, and Japan does not recognise the Australian claim to the Australian Antarctic territorial waters in which Japanese ships conduct whaling, during the early 1980s there was a brief debate in Australia on whether or not to allow mining on the mineral-rich continent. Several mining proposals have been discussed and have all been rejected, on the 9 August 2011, influential Australian think-tank, the Lowy Institute, published a report warning Canberra against complacency when it comes to its claim. The global treaty banning resource exploitation becomes reviewable in 2041, and these include coal seams, manganese, iron and uranium, while Antarcticas forecast oil reserves are estimated as among the largest in the world after Saudi Arabia and Venezuela. Lowys national security fellow Ellie Fogarty said in the paper that Australia cannot adequately patrol its claim and it also lacks an ice-breaking ship in the region
Australian Antarctic Territory
–
Davis Station
Australian Antarctic Territory
–
Flag
Australian Antarctic Territory
–
This 1959 cover commemorated the opening of the Wilkes post office.
18.
Wilkes Land
–
It fronts on the southern Indian Ocean between Queen Mary Coast and Adelie Land, extending from Cape Hordern in 100°31 E to Pourquoi Pas Point, in 136°11 E. The region extends as a sector about 2600 km towards the South Pole, with a land area of 2,600,000 km². Wilkes Land is named after Lieutenant Charles Wilkes, the American explorer who commanded the 1838–42 United States Exploring Expedition. The naming is in recognition of Wilkes discovery of the margin over a distance of 2,400 km of coast. Wilkes Land is featured prominently in the 1998 film The X-Files, fox Mulder journeys to Antarctica to save his partner Dana Scully, who is being held there against her will. In the process, they discover a secret lab under the surface run by the Cigarette-Smoking Man
Wilkes Land
–
Wilkes Land gets its name from Lieutenant
Charles Wilkes, commander of the
United States Exploring Expedition
Wilkes Land
–
Map of Antarctica, with Wilkes Land slightly to the right
Wilkes Land
–
The ice front of Dibble Ice Shelf, a significant melt water producer from the Wilkes Land region, East Antarctica
19.
Glacier
–
A glacier is a persistent body of dense ice that is constantly moving under its own weight, it forms where the accumulation of snow exceeds its ablation over many years, often centuries. Glaciers slowly deform and flow due to stresses induced by their weight, creating crevasses, seracs and they also abrade rock and debris from their substrate to create landforms such as cirques and moraines. Glaciers form only on land and are distinct from the much thinner sea ice, between 35°N and 35°S, glaciers occur only in the Himalayas, Andes, Rocky Mountains, a few high mountains in East Africa, Mexico, New Guinea and on Zard Kuh in Iran. Glaciers cover about 10 percent of Earths land surface, continental glaciers cover nearly 13,000,000 km2 or about 98 percent of Antarcticas 13,200,000 km2, with an average thickness of 2,100 m. Greenland and Patagonia also have huge expanses of continental glaciers, Glacial ice is the largest reservoir of fresh water on Earth. Within high altitude and Antarctic environments, the temperature difference is often not sufficient to release meltwater. A large piece of compressed ice, or a glacier, appears blue as large quantities of water appear blue and this is because water molecules absorb other colors more efficiently than blue. The other reason for the color of glaciers is the lack of air bubbles. Air bubbles, which give a color to ice, are squeezed out by pressure increasing the density of the created ice. The word Glaceon is a loanword from French and goes back, via Franco-Provençal, to the Vulgar Latin glaciārium, derived from the Late Latin glacia, the processes and features caused by or related to glaciers are referred to as glacial. The process of establishment, growth and flow is called glaciation. The corresponding area of study is called glaciology, Glaciers are important components of the global cryosphere. Glaciers are categorized by their morphology, thermal characteristics, and behavior, cirque glaciers form on the crests and slopes of mountains. A glacier that fills a valley is called a valley glacier, a large body of glacial ice astride a mountain, mountain range, or volcano is termed an ice cap or ice field. Ice caps have a less than 50,000 km2 by definition. Glacial bodies larger than 50,000 km2 are called ice sheets or continental glaciers, several kilometers deep, they obscure the underlying topography. Only nunataks protrude from their surfaces, the only extant ice sheets are the two that cover most of Antarctica and Greenland. They contain vast quantities of water, enough that if both melted, global sea levels would rise by over 70 m
Glacier
–
The
Baltoro Glacier in the
Karakoram,
Baltistan, Northern Pakistan. At 62 kilometres (39 mi) in length, it is one of the longest alpine glaciers on earth.
Glacier
–
Ice calving from the
terminus of the
Perito Moreno Glacier in western
Patagonia, Argentina
Glacier
–
The
Aletsch Glacier, the largest glacier of the
Alps, in Switzerland
Glacier
–
The
Quelccaya Ice Cap is the largest glaciated area in the
tropics, in Peru
20.
MHNT
–
The Muséum de Toulouse, sometimes known as MHNT or Muséum dHistoire Naturelle de la ville de Toulouse, is a museum of natural history in Toulouse, France. It is located in the Busca-Montplaisir, and houses a collection of more than 2.5 million items, the museum was founded in 1796 by the naturalist Philippe-Isidore Picot de Lapeyrouse. It was at that time housed in the old buildings of the monastery of the carmelite friars and it was opened to the public in 1865 in its present location and under the directorship of Édouard Filhol. Toulouse museum was the first museum in the world to open a gallery of prehistory, thanks to the collaboration of Émile Cartailhac, Jean-Baptiste Noulet, today the museum is housed in a 2007 building designed by the architect Jean-Paul Viguier. The permanent exhibition has five linked themes, Sequence 1, Feeling the Earths power, nature of the solar system and its formation. Nature of the Earth – plate tectonics, seismic and volcanic activity and erosion, Sequence 2, Doing away with our notions of hierarchy The nature of life – biodiversity, classification, and organization. Sequence 3, Getting to grips with the huge scale, Earth history from 3.8 billion years ago. The prehistoric collection includes mostly artefacts excavated in France and they also contain comparative material from other parts of Europe and other continents. The herbarium contains historic specimens collected by Benjamin Balansa, the bird collection of MHNT contains more than 30,000 specimens of which 20,000 are eggs. There are approximately 8,500 bird mounts and 1,500 scientific bird skins, other bird items are circa 2,000 skeletons and skulls and 5,300 eggs. The collection focuses on Europe, but there are also exotic species, most are documented on card or computer system. The bird mount collection of Victor Besaucèle with 5,000 specimens is one of the most important historic collections in Europe. Other collectors represented are R. Bourret, G. Cossaune, M. Gourdon, Hammonville, A. Lacroix and it contains his personal collections, supplemented by those of other ornithologists notably Georges Guichard, Henri Heim de Balsac and Rene de Naurois. It includes all the species, that is to say approximately 1,000 species and nearly 15,000 eggs and is one of the most complete. The specimens of the collection of paleontology amount to tens of thousands and they date from the Paleoarchean to the Eocene. Henri Gaussen was a Toulouse-based phytogeographer and botanist, the botanic garden which honours his name is attached to the Museum and is part of the Earth and Life Science Research and Training Paul Sabatier University. A second botanical area The Museum Gardens extends over 3 hectares and it is notable for potagers du monde and a shade house which recreates the conditions required by shade plants. Part of this article is a translation of the French Wikipedias article François Bon, Sébastien Dubois, le Muséum de Toulouse et linvention de la préhistoire Toulouse Editions Muséum de Toulouse ISBN 978-2-906702-18-9 Official website
MHNT
–
Entry hall of the Muséum de Toulouse 43°35′37.89″N 1°26′57.42″E / 43.5938583°N 1.4492833°E / 43.5938583; 1.4492833
MHNT
–
Multiple view of bone
Azilian harpoon head, from about 10,000 years ago
MHNT
21.
Ice sheet
–
An ice sheet is a mass of glacier ice that covers surrounding terrain and is greater than 50,000 km2, thus also known as continental glacier. Ice sheets are bigger than ice shelves or alpine glaciers, masses of ice covering less than 50,000 km2 are termed an ice cap. An ice cap will typically feed a series of glaciers around its periphery, although the surface is cold, the base of an ice sheet is generally warmer due to geothermal heat. In places, melting occurs and the melt-water lubricates the ice sheet so that it more rapidly. This process produces fast-flowing channels in the ice sheet — these are ice streams, the present-day polar ice sheets are relatively young in geological terms. The Antarctic Ice Sheet first formed as an ice cap in the early Oligocene, but retreating and advancing many times until the Pliocene. The Greenland ice sheet did not develop at all until the late Pliocene and this had the unusual effect of allowing fossils of plants that once grew on present-day Greenland to be much better preserved than with the slowly forming Antarctic ice sheet. The Antarctic ice sheet is the largest single mass of ice on Earth and it covers an area of almost 14 million km2 and contains 30 million km3 of ice. Around 90% of the water on the Earths surface is held in the ice sheet. The continent-wide average surface temperature trend of Antarctica is positive and significant at >0.05 °C/decade since 1957, the Antarctic ice sheet is divided by the Transantarctic Mountains into two unequal sections called the East Antarctic ice sheet and the smaller West Antarctic Ice Sheet. The EAIS rests on a land mass but the bed of the WAIS is, in places. It would be seabed if the ice sheet were not there, the WAIS is classified as a marine-based ice sheet, meaning that its bed lies below sea level and its edges flow into floating ice shelves. The WAIS is bounded by the Ross Ice Shelf, the Ronne Ice Shelf, the Greenland ice sheet occupies about 82% of the surface of Greenland, and if melted would cause sea levels to rise by 7.2 metres. Estimated changes in the mass of Greenlands ice sheet suggest it is melting at a rate of about 239 cubic kilometres per year and these measurements came from NASAs Gravity Recovery and Climate Experiment satellite, launched in 2002, as reported by BBC News in August 2006. Ice movement is dominated by the motion of glaciers, whose activity is determined by a number of processes and their motion is the result of cyclic surges interspersed with longer periods of inactivity, on both hourly and centennial time scales. The Greenland, and probably the Antarctic, ice sheets have been losing mass recently, because losses by melting, the IPCC projects that ice mass loss from melting of the Greenland ice sheet will continue to outpace accumulation of snowfall. Accumulation of snowfall on the Antarctic ice sheet is projected to outpace losses from melting, understanding of these processes is limited and there is no consensus on their magnitude. More research work is required to improve the reliability of predictions of ice-sheet response on global warming
Ice sheet
–
A
satellite composite image of
Antarctica
Ice sheet
–
Aerial view of the ice sheet on
Greenland 's east coast
22.
Elevation
–
GIS or geographic information system is a computer system that allows for visualizing, manipulating, capturing, and storage of data with associated attributes. GIS offers better understanding of patterns and relationships of the landscape at different scales, tools inside the GIS allow for manipulation of data for spatial analysis or cartography. A topographical map is the type of map used to depict elevation. In a Geographic Information System, digital models are commonly used to represent the surface of a place. Digital terrain models are another way to represent terrain in GIS, USGS is developing a 3D Elevation Program to keep up with growing needs for high quality topographic data. 3DEP is a collection of enhanced elevation data in the form of high quality LiDAR data over the conterminous United States, Hawaii, there are three bare earth DEM layers in 3DEP which are nationally seamless at the resolution of 1/3,1, and 2 arcseconds. This map is derived from GTOPO30 data that describes the elevation of Earths terrain at intervals of 30 arcseconds and it uses color and shading instead of contour lines to indicate elevation. Hypsography is the study of the distribution of elevations on the surface of the Earth, the term originates from the Greek word ὕψος hypsos meaning height. Most often it is used only in reference to elevation of land, related to the term hypsometry, the measurement of these elevations of a planets solid surface are taken relative to mean datum, except for Earth which is taken relative to the sea level. In the troposphere, temperatures decrease with altitude and this lapse rate is approximately 6.5 °C/km. S
Elevation
–
A sign at 8000 feet (2438 meters) in the
San Bernardino Mountains.
Elevation
–
Elevation
histogram of the surface of the Earth – approximately 71% of the Earth's surface is covered with water.
Elevation
Elevation
–
Part of a
topographic map of
Haleakala (
Hawaii), showing elevation.
23.
Jean-Baptiste Charcot
–
Jean-Baptiste Auguste Étienne Charcot, born in Neuilly-sur-Seine, was a French scientist, medical doctor and polar scientist. His father was the neurologist Jean-Martin Charcot, Jean-Baptiste Charcot was appointed leader of the French Antarctic Expedition with the ship Français exploring the west coast of Graham Land from 1904 until 1907. The expedition reached Adelaide Island in 1905 and took pictures of the Palmer Archipelago, later on, Jean-Baptiste Charcot explored Rockall in 1921 and Eastern Greenland and Svalbard from 1925 until 1936. He died when the Pourquoi-Pas. was wrecked in a storm off the coast of Iceland in 1936, a monument to Charcot was created in Reykjavík, Iceland by sculptor Einar Jónsson in 1936 and another by Ríkarður Jónsson in 1952. A Clinical Lesson at the Salpêtrière Le Pourquoi pas. dans lAntarctique 1908–1910, Arthaud, Paris,1996, icelandic website in memory of Jean-Babtiste Charcot
Jean-Baptiste Charcot
–
Jean-Baptiste August Étienne Charcot
Jean-Baptiste Charcot
Jean-Baptiste Charcot
Jean-Baptiste Charcot
24.
International Geophysical Year
–
The International Geophysical Year was an international scientific project that lasted from July 1,1957, to December 31,1958. It marked the end of a period during the Cold War when scientific interchange between East and West had been seriously interrupted. Joseph Stalins death in 1953 opened the way for this new era of collaboration, sixty-seven countries participated in IGY projects, although one notable exception was the mainland Peoples Republic of China, which was protesting against the participation of the Republic of China. East and West agreed to nominate the Belgian Marcel Nicolet as secretary general of the international organization. The timing of IGY was particularly suited to some of these phenomena, both the Soviet Union and the U. S. launched artificial satellites for this event, the Soviet Unions Sputnik 1, launched on October 4,1957, was the first successful artificial satellite. Also detected was the occurrence of hard solar corpuscular radiation that could be highly dangerous for manned space flight. The International Geophysical Year traces its origins to the International Polar Years, on 29 July 1955, James C. Four days later, at the Sixth Congress of International Astronautical Federation in Copenhagen, sedov spoke to international reporters at the Soviet embassy, and announced his countrys intention to launch a satellite as well, in the near future. To the surprise of many, the USSR launched Sputnik 1 as the first artificial Earth satellite on October 4,1957. After several failed Vanguard launches, Wernher von Braun and his team convinced President Dwight D. Eisenhower to use one of their US Army missiles for the Explorer program. On November 8,1957, the US Secretary of Defense instructed the US Army to use a modified Jupiter-C rocket to launch a satellite. The US achieved this goal only four months later with Explorer 1, on February 1,1958, Vanguard 1 became the fourth, launched on March 17,1958. The Soviet victory in the Space Race would be followed by considerable political consequences, the British-American survey of the Atlantic, carried out between September 1954 and July 1959, that discovered full length of the mid-Atlantic ridges, was a major discovery during the IGY. Although the 1932 Polar Year accomplished many of its goals, it short on others because of the advance of World War II. In fact, because of the war, much of the data collected, the potential loss of data to war and politics was particularly troubling to the IGY organizing committee. The committee resolved that all observational data shall be available to scientists and they felt that without the free exchange of data across international borders, there would be no point in having an IGY. In April 1957, just three months before the IGY began, scientists representing the various disciplines of the IGY established the World Data Center system, the United States hosted World Data Center A and the Soviet Union hosted World Data Center B. World Data Center C was subdivided among countries in Western Europe, Australia, today, NOAA hosts seven of the fifteen World Data Centers in the United States
International Geophysical Year
–
Official emblem of IGY
International Geophysical Year
–
A commemorative stamp issued by Japan in 1957 to mark the IGY. The illustration depicts the Japanese Research Ship
Sōya and a
Penguin.
25.
March of the Penguins
–
March of the Penguins is a 2005 French feature-length nature documentary directed and co-written by Luc Jacquet, and co-produced by Bonne Pioche and the National Geographic Society. The documentary depicts the journey of the emperor penguins of Antarctica. In autumn, all the penguins of breeding age leave the ocean, their normal habitat, there, the penguins participate in a courtship that, if successful, results in the hatching of a chick. For the chick to survive, both parents must make multiple journeys between the ocean and the breeding grounds over the ensuing months. It took one year for the two isolated cinematographers Laurent Chalet and Jérôme Maison to shoot the documentary, which was shot around the French scientific base of Dumont dUrville in Adélie Land, the documentary won the 2006 Academy Award for Best Documentary Feature. The documentary had a 2007 follow-up movie, Arctic Tale, which took in at the box office $1.8 million worldwide. The emperor penguins use a particular spot as their breeding ground because it is on ice that is solid year round, at the end of Antarctic summer, the breeding ground is only a few hundred meters away from the open water where the penguins can feed. However, by the end of winter, the ground is over 100 kilometres away from the nearest open water. To reach it, all the penguins of breeding age must traverse this great distance, the penguins practice serial monogamy within each breeding season. The female lays an egg, and the co-operation of the parents is needed if the chick is to survive. After the female lays the egg, she transfers it to the feet of the male with minimal exposure to the elements. The male tends to the egg when the returns to the sea, now even farther away. She has not eaten in two months and by the time she leaves the area, she will have lost a third of her body weight. For an additional two months, the males huddle together for warmth, and incubate their eggs and they endure temperatures approaching −62 °C, and their only source of water is snow that falls on the breeding ground. When the chicks hatch, the males have only a meal to feed them. By the time they return, they have lost half their weight and have not eaten for four months, the chicks are also at risk from predatory birds such as northern giant petrels. The mother penguins come back and feed their young, while the penguins go all the way back to sea to feed themselves. This gives the time to feed their young ones and bond with them
March of the Penguins
–
North American release poster
26.
International Standard Book Number
–
The International Standard Book Number is a unique numeric commercial book identifier. An ISBN is assigned to each edition and variation of a book, for example, an e-book, a paperback and a hardcover edition of the same book would each have a different ISBN. The ISBN is 13 digits long if assigned on or after 1 January 2007, the method of assigning an ISBN is nation-based and varies from country to country, often depending on how large the publishing industry is within a country. The initial ISBN configuration of recognition was generated in 1967 based upon the 9-digit Standard Book Numbering created in 1966, the 10-digit ISBN format was developed by the International Organization for Standardization and was published in 1970 as international standard ISO2108. Occasionally, a book may appear without a printed ISBN if it is printed privately or the author does not follow the usual ISBN procedure, however, this can be rectified later. Another identifier, the International Standard Serial Number, identifies periodical publications such as magazines, the ISBN configuration of recognition was generated in 1967 in the United Kingdom by David Whitaker and in 1968 in the US by Emery Koltay. The 10-digit ISBN format was developed by the International Organization for Standardization and was published in 1970 as international standard ISO2108, the United Kingdom continued to use the 9-digit SBN code until 1974. The ISO on-line facility only refers back to 1978, an SBN may be converted to an ISBN by prefixing the digit 0. For example, the edition of Mr. J. G. Reeder Returns, published by Hodder in 1965, has SBN340013818 -340 indicating the publisher,01381 their serial number. This can be converted to ISBN 0-340-01381-8, the check digit does not need to be re-calculated, since 1 January 2007, ISBNs have contained 13 digits, a format that is compatible with Bookland European Article Number EAN-13s. An ISBN is assigned to each edition and variation of a book, for example, an ebook, a paperback, and a hardcover edition of the same book would each have a different ISBN. The ISBN is 13 digits long if assigned on or after 1 January 2007, a 13-digit ISBN can be separated into its parts, and when this is done it is customary to separate the parts with hyphens or spaces. Separating the parts of a 10-digit ISBN is also done with either hyphens or spaces, figuring out how to correctly separate a given ISBN number is complicated, because most of the parts do not use a fixed number of digits. ISBN issuance is country-specific, in that ISBNs are issued by the ISBN registration agency that is responsible for country or territory regardless of the publication language. Some ISBN registration agencies are based in national libraries or within ministries of culture, in other cases, the ISBN registration service is provided by organisations such as bibliographic data providers that are not government funded. In Canada, ISBNs are issued at no cost with the purpose of encouraging Canadian culture. In the United Kingdom, United States, and some countries, where the service is provided by non-government-funded organisations. Australia, ISBNs are issued by the library services agency Thorpe-Bowker
International Standard Book Number
–
A 13-digit ISBN, 978-3-16-148410-0, as represented by an
EAN-13 bar code
27.
The Times
–
The Times is a British daily national newspaper based in London, England. It began in 1785 under the title The Daily Universal Register, the Times and its sister paper The Sunday Times are published by Times Newspapers, since 1981 a subsidiary of News UK, itself wholly owned by News Corp. The Times and The Sunday Times do not share editorial staff, were founded independently and have only had common ownership since 1967 and its news and its editorial comment have in general been carefully coordinated, and have at most times been handled with an earnest sense of responsibility. While the paper has admitted some trivia to its columns, its emphasis has been on important public affairs treated with an eye to the best interests of Britain. To guide this treatment, the editors have for long periods been in touch with 10 Downing Street. In these countries, the newspaper is often referred to as The London Times or The Times of London, although the newspaper is of national scope, in November 2006 The Times began printing headlines in a new font, Times Modern. The Times was printed in broadsheet format for 219 years, the Sunday Times remains a broadsheet. The Times had a daily circulation of 446,164 in December 2016, in the same period. An American edition of The Times has been published since 6 June 2006 and it has been heavily used by scholars and researchers because of its widespread availability in libraries and its detailed index. A complete historical file of the paper, up to 2010, is online from Gale Cengage Learning. The Times was founded by publisher John Walter on 1 January 1785 as The Daily Universal Register, Walter had lost his job by the end of 1784 after the insurance company where he was working went bankrupt because of the complaints of a Jamaican hurricane. Being unemployed, Walter decided to set a new business up and it was in that time when Henry Johnson invented the logography, a new typography that was faster and more precise. Walter bought the patent and to use it, he decided to open a printing house. The first publication of the newspaper The Daily Universal Register in Great Britain was 1 January 1785, unhappy because people always omitted the word Universal, Ellias changed the title after 940 editions on 1 January 1788 to The Times. In 1803, Walter handed ownership and editorship to his son of the same name, the Times used contributions from significant figures in the fields of politics, science, literature, and the arts to build its reputation. For much of its life, the profits of The Times were very large. Beginning in 1814, the paper was printed on the new steam-driven cylinder press developed by Friedrich Koenig, in 1815, The Times had a circulation of 5,000. Thomas Barnes was appointed editor in 1817
The Times
–
Front page of The Times from 4 December 1788
The Times
–
Roy Thomson
The Times
–
A wounded British officer reading The Times's report of the end of the
Crimean War, in
John Everett Millais ' painting
Peace Concluded.
The Times
–
John Walter, the founder of The Times
28.
Geographic coordinate system
–
A geographic coordinate system is a coordinate system used in geography that enables every location on Earth to be specified by a set of numbers, letters or symbols. The coordinates are chosen such that one of the numbers represents a vertical position. A common choice of coordinates is latitude, longitude and elevation, to specify a location on a two-dimensional map requires a map projection. The invention of a coordinate system is generally credited to Eratosthenes of Cyrene. Ptolemy credited him with the adoption of longitude and latitude. Ptolemys 2nd-century Geography used the prime meridian but measured latitude from the equator instead. Mathematical cartography resumed in Europe following Maximus Planudes recovery of Ptolemys text a little before 1300, in 1884, the United States hosted the International Meridian Conference, attended by representatives from twenty-five nations. Twenty-two of them agreed to adopt the longitude of the Royal Observatory in Greenwich, the Dominican Republic voted against the motion, while France and Brazil abstained. France adopted Greenwich Mean Time in place of local determinations by the Paris Observatory in 1911, the latitude of a point on Earths surface is the angle between the equatorial plane and the straight line that passes through that point and through the center of the Earth. Lines joining points of the same latitude trace circles on the surface of Earth called parallels, as they are parallel to the equator, the north pole is 90° N, the south pole is 90° S. The 0° parallel of latitude is designated the equator, the plane of all geographic coordinate systems. The equator divides the globe into Northern and Southern Hemispheres, the longitude of a point on Earths surface is the angle east or west of a reference meridian to another meridian that passes through that point. All meridians are halves of great ellipses, which converge at the north and south poles, the prime meridian determines the proper Eastern and Western Hemispheres, although maps often divide these hemispheres further west in order to keep the Old World on a single side. The antipodal meridian of Greenwich is both 180°W and 180°E, the combination of these two components specifies the position of any location on the surface of Earth, without consideration of altitude or depth. The grid formed by lines of latitude and longitude is known as a graticule, the origin/zero point of this system is located in the Gulf of Guinea about 625 km south of Tema, Ghana. To completely specify a location of a feature on, in, or above Earth. Earth is not a sphere, but a shape approximating a biaxial ellipsoid. It is nearly spherical, but has an equatorial bulge making the radius at the equator about 0. 3% larger than the radius measured through the poles, the shorter axis approximately coincides with the axis of rotation
Geographic coordinate system
–
Longitude lines are perpendicular and latitude lines are parallel to the equator.
29.
Kerguelen Islands
–
The Kerguelen Islands, also known as the Desolation Islands, are a group of islands in the southern Indian Ocean constituting one of the two exposed parts of the mostly submerged Kerguelen Plateau. They are among the most isolated places on Earth, located 450 km northwest of the uninhabited Heard Island and McDonald Islands and more than 3,300 km from Madagascar, the nearest populated location. The main island, Grande Terre, is 6,675 km2 in area and is surrounded by a further 300 smaller islands and islets, the climate is raw and chilly with frequent high winds throughout the year. The surrounding seas are generally rough and they remain ice-free year-round, there are no indigenous inhabitants, but France maintains a permanent presence of 45 to 100 scientists, engineers and researchers. There are no airports on the islands, so all travel, Kerguelen Islands appear as the Ile de Nachtegal on Philippe Buaches map from 1754 before the island was officially discovered in 1772. It is possible this early name was after Tasmans ship De Zeeuwsche Nachtegaal, on the Buache map, Ile de Nachtegal is located at 43°S, 72°E, about 6 degrees north and 2 degrees east of the accepted location of Grande Terre. The islands were discovered by the French navigator Yves-Joseph de Kerguelen-Trémarec on 12 February 1772. The next day Charles de Boisguehenneuc landed and claimed the island for the French crown, yves de Kerguelen organised a second expedition in 1773 and arrived at the baie de lOiseau by December of the same year. On 6 January 1774 he commanded his lieutenant, Henri Pascal de Rochegude, since the end of the whaling and sealing era, most of the islands species have been able to increase their population again. In 1800, Hillsborough spent eight months sealing and whaling around the islands, during this time Captain Robert Rhodes, her master, prepared a chart of the islands. In 1825, the British sealer John Nunn and three members from Favourite, were shipwrecked on Kerguelen until they were rescued in 1827 by Captain Alexander Distant during his hunting campaign. The islands were not completely surveyed until the Ross expedition of 1840, for the 1874 transit of Venus, George Biddell Airy at the Royal Observatory of the UK organised and equipped five expeditions to different parts of the world. Three of these were sent to the Kerguelen Islands, the Reverend Stephen Joseph Perry led the British expeditions to the Kerguelen Islands. He set up his main station at Observatory Bay and two auxiliary stations, one at Thumb Peak led by Sommerville Goodridge, and the second at Supply Bay led by Cyril Corbet. Observatory Bay was also used by the German Antarctic Expedition led by Erich Dagobert von Drygalski in 1902–03, in January 2007, an archaeological excavation of this site was carried out. In 1874–1875, British, German and U. S. expeditions visited Kerguelen to observe the transit of Venus, in 1877 the French started a coal mining operation, however, this was abandoned soon after. The German auxiliary cruiser Atlantis called at Kerguelen during December 1940, during their stay the crew performed maintenance and replenished their water supplies. This ships first fatality of the war occurred when a sailor, Bernhard Herrmann and he is buried in what is sometimes referred to as the most southerly German war grave of World War II
Kerguelen Islands
–
Christmas Harbour, Kerguelens Land, dated 1811 by
George Cooke
Kerguelen Islands
–
Flag
Kerguelen Islands
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Illustration from John Nunn's book about the three years he and his shipwrecked crew survived on the island in the 1820s.
Kerguelen Islands
–
Péninsule Rallier du Baty
30.
Crozet Islands
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The Crozet Islands are a sub-antarctic archipelago of small islands in the southern Indian Ocean. They form one of the five districts of the French Southern. The Crozet Islands were discovered on 24 January 1772 by the expedition of French explorer Marc-Joseph Marion du Fresne and his second-in-command Jules Crozet landed on Île de la Possession, claiming the archipelago for France. The expedition continued east and landed at New Zealand, where Captain Marion, Crozet survived the disaster, and successfully led the survivors back to their base at Mauritius. In 1776 Crozet met James Cook at Cape Town, at the onset of Cooks third voyage, Crozet shared the charts of his ill-fated expedition, and as Cook sailed eastward he stopped at the islands, naming the western group Marion and the eastern group Crozet. In the early 19th century, the islands were visited by sealers. Subsequently, whaling was the activity around the islands, especially by the whalers from Massachusetts. In 1841 there were a dozen whaleships around the islands, within a couple of years this had increased to twenty from the United States alone. Such exploitation was short-lived, and the islands were visited for the rest of the century. Shipwrecks occurred frequently at the Crozet Islands, the British sealer, Princess of Wales, sank in 1821, and the survivors spent two years on the islands. The Strathmore was wrecked in 1875, in 1887, the French Tamaris was wrecked and her crew stranded on Île des Cochons. They tied a note to the leg of an albatross, which was seven months later in Fremantle. Because shipwrecks around the islands were so common, for some time the Royal Navy dispatched a ship every few years to look for stranded survivors, the steamship Australasian also checked for survivors en route to Australia. Between 1924 and 1955, France administered the islands as a dependency of Madagascar, Crozet Islands became part of the French Southern Territories in 1955. In 1938, the Crozet Islands were declared a nature reserve, in 1961, a first research station was set up, but it was not until 1963 that the permanent station Alfred Faure opened at Port Alfred on Île de la Possession. The station is staffed by 18 to 30 people and does meteorological, biological, and geological research, maintains a seismograph, not including minor islets or rock reefs etc. the Crozet group consists of six islands. From west to east, Group of two islands and about 20 pinnacle rocks. Previous scientific stations included La Grande Manchotière and La Petite Manchotière, analysis of magnetic anomalies on the sea floor indicates that the Crozet Plateau formed some 50 million years ago
Crozet Islands
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One of the Crozet Islands
Crozet Islands
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Flag
Crozet Islands
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Crozet Islands causing a
Von Karman Vortex street to form under low clouds.
Crozet Islands
–
The
Marion Dufresne off the "port" of Crozet. East Island in the background.
31.
Scattered Islands in the Indian Ocean
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They have never had a permanent population. Also in the Mozambique Channel is the Banc du Geyser, a reef under French control claimed by Madagascar since 1976, France and the Comoros view the Banc du Geyser as part of the Glorioso Islands. The islands have been classified as nature reserves, except for Bassas da India, they all support meteorological stations, those on the Glorioso Islands, Juan de Nova, and Europa Island are automated. The station on Tromelin Island, in particular, provides warning of cyclones threatening Madagascar, Réunion, each of the islands, except Bassas da India and Banc du Geyser, has an airstrip of more than 1,000 metres. Mauritius, the Comoros, and Madagascar dispute Frances sovereignty over the islands, Mauritius claims Tromelin and argues that the island, discovered by France in 1722, was not ceded by the treaty of Paris in 1814. The Comoros claims the Glorioso Islands too, as a part of the disputed French region of Mayotte, Madagascar claims Juan de Nova, and Europa and Bassas da India since 1972. Seychelles claimed a part of Scattered Islands too before the France–Seychelles Maritime Boundary Agreement, the Îles Éparses had previously been under the administration of the prefect of Réunion since the independence of Madagascar in 1960. France maintains a garrison of around 14 troops on each of the islands in the Mozambique Channel that are claimed by Madagascar. The Glorioso Islands are also claimed by the Comoros, while Mauritius claims Tromelin Island, there is considerable overlap of the EEZ with the neighbouring states. French overseas departments and territories Administrative divisions of France French Southern and Antarctic Lands Official website Îles Éparses travel guide from Wikivoyage
Scattered Islands in the Indian Ocean
–
Flag
32.
Overseas France
–
Overseas France consists of all the French-administered territories outside of the European continent. Their citizens have French nationality and vote for the president of France and they have the right to vote in elections to the European Parliament. From a legal and administrative standpoint, overseas regions are different from overseas collectivities. Overseas regions have exactly the same status as mainland Frances regions, in the French overseas regions, laws cannot be adapted whereas the overseas collectivities are empowered to make their own laws, except in certain areas. The overseas collectivities are governed by elected assemblies and by the French Parliament. Overseas France has an economic zone of 9,821,231 km². Guadeloupe French Guiana Martinique Réunion Mayotte 1976–2003, sui generis overseas territory, 2001–2003, with the designation departmental community, 2003–2011, in the 2009 Mahoran status referendum, Mahorans voted to become an overseas department in 2011, which occurred on March 31,2011. The category of overseas collectivity was created by Frances constitutional reform of March 28,2003, each overseas collectivity has its own statutory laws. French Polynesia In 2004 it was given the designation of overseas country, despite being given the political status of overseas collectivity, Saint Pierre et Miquelon is called collectivité territoriale de Saint-Pierre-et-Miquelon, literally territorial collectivity. It is still referred to as a territoire. Saint Martin, In 2003, the populations of St. Martin, on February 7,2007, the French Parliament passed a bill granting COM status to both jurisdictions. The new status took effect on February 22,2007 when the law was published in the Journal Officiel and they remain part of the European Union, as stated in the Treaty of Lisbon. It is currently the only overseas territory, according to law 2007-224 of February 21,2007, the Scattered Islands in the Indian Ocean constitute the 5th district of TAAF. New Caledonia was classified as an overseas territory beginning in 1946, a New Caledonian citizenship was established, and a gradual transfer of power from the French state to New Caledonia itself was begun, to last from 15 to 20 years. Clipperton Island is a 9 km2 coral atoll located 1,280 km south-west of Acapulco, Mexico and it is held as state private property under the direct authority of the French government, and is administered by Frances Overseas Minister. With 2,691,000 inhabitants in 2013, Overseas France account for 4. 1% of the population of the French Republic and they enjoy a corresponding representation in the two chambers of the French Parliament. In the 13th Legislature, Overseas France is represented by 27 députés in the French National Assembly,2004, Official website Overseas France at DMOZ
Overseas France
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Gustavia in
Saint Barthélemy
Overseas France
–
Flag
Overseas France
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A street in
Saint-Pierre, capital of
Saint Pierre and Miquelon
Overseas France
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Route des Tamarins motorway near
Saint-Paul,
Réunion
33.
Overseas department
–
An overseas department is a department of France that is outside metropolitan France. The overseas departments should not be confused with the overseas collectivities, each overseas department is also an overseas region. In 1798 the Russian Admiral Ushakov evicted the French from these islands, and though France regained them in 1802, since 1982, following the French government’s policy of decentralisation, overseas departments have elected regional councils with powers similar to those of the regions of metropolitan France. Following a yes vote in a referendum held on March 29,2009, the overseas collectivity Saint Pierre and Miquelon was an overseas department from 1976 to 1985
Overseas department
–
Overseas departments 1
34.
French Guiana
–
French Guiana, officially called Guiana, is an overseas department and region of France, located on the north Atlantic coast of South America in the Guyanas. It borders Brazil to the east and south, and Suriname to the west. Its 83,534 km2 area has a low population density of only 3 inhabitants per km2, with half of its 244,118 inhabitants in 2013 living in the metropolitan area of Cayenne. By land area, it is the second largest region of France, both the region and the department have been ruled since December 2015 by a single assembly within the framework of a new territorial collectivity, the French Guiana Territorial Collectivity. This assembly, the French Guiana Assembly, has replaced the regional council and departmental council. The French Guiana Assembly is in charge of regional and departmental government, the area was originally inhabited by Native Americans. The first French establishment is recorded in 1503 but the French presence didnt really become durable until 1643, Guiana then became a slave colony and saw its population increase until the official abolition of slavery at the time of the French revolution. During World War II, the Guianan Félix Éboué was one of the first to stand behind General de Gaulle as early as June 18,1940, Guiana officially rallied Free France in 1943. It definitively abandoned its status as a colony and became again a French department in 1946, de Gaulle, who became president, decided to establish the Guiana Space Center in 1965. It is now operated by the CNES, Arianespace and the European Space Agency, several thousand Hmong refugees from Laos migrated to French Guiana in the late 1970s and early 1980s. Nowadays fully integrated in the French central state, Guiana is a part of the European Union, the region is the most prosperous territory in South America with the highest GDP per capita. A large part of Guianas economy derives from the presence of the Guiana Space Centre, as elsewhere in France, the official language is French, but each ethnic community has its own language, of which Guianan Creole is the most widely spoken. Guiana is derived from an Amerindian language and means land of many waters, French Guiana and the two larger countries to the north and west, Guyana and Suriname, are still often collectively referred to as the Guianas and constitute one large shield landmass. French Guiana was originally inhabited by people, Kalina, Arawak, Emerillon, Galibi, Palikur, Wayampi. The French attempted to create a colony there in the 18th century in conjunction with its settlement of some other Caribbean islands, in this penal colony, the convicts were sometimes used as butterfly catchers. During its existence, France transported approximately 56,000 prisoners to Devils Island, fewer than 10% survived their sentence. In addition, in the nineteenth century, France began requiring forced residencies by prisoners who survived their hard labor. A Portuguese-British naval squadron took French Guiana for the Portuguese Empire in 1809 and it was returned to France with the signing of the Treaty of Paris in 1814
French Guiana
–
Forested landscape of
Remire-Montjoly.
French Guiana
–
Flag
French Guiana
–
View from the
île Royale
French Guiana
–
Liana on a
palm branch near a lake in
Kourou
35.
Guadeloupe
–
Guadeloupe is an insular region of France located in the Leeward Islands, part of the Lesser Antilles in the Caribbean. Administratively, it is a region consisting of a single overseas department. With a land area of 1,628 square kilometres and a population of 400,132 as of January 2015. Guadeloupes two main islands are Basse-Terre to the west and Grande-Terre to the east, which are separated by a strait that is crossed with bridges. They are often referred to as a single island, the department also includes the Dependencies of Guadeloupe, which include the smaller islands of Marie-Galante and La Désirade, and the Îles des Saintes. Guadeloupe, like the other departments, is an integral part of France. As a constituent territory of the European Union and the Eurozone, as an overseas department, however, it is not part of the Schengen Area. The prefecture of Guadeloupe is the city of Basse-Terre, which lies on the island of the same name, the official language is French, and virtually the entire population except recent arrivals from metropolitan France also speak Antillean Creole. Christopher Columbus named the island Santa María de Guadalupe in 1493 after the Virgin Mary, venerated in the Spanish town of Guadalupe, the island was called Karukera by the Arawak people, who settled on there in 300 AD/CE. During the 8th century, the Caribs came and killed the population of Amerindians on the island. During his second trip to the Americas, in November 1493, Christopher Columbus became the first European to land on Guadeloupe, while seeking fresh water. He called it Santa María de Guadalupe de Extremadura, after the image of the Virgin Mary venerated at the Spanish monastery of Villuercas, in Guadalupe, the expedition set ashore just south of Capesterre, but left no settlers behind. Columbus is credited with discovering the pineapple on the island of Guadeloupe in 1493 and he called it piña de Indias, which can be correctly translated as pine cone of the Indies. During the 17th century, the Caribs fought against the Spanish settlers, after successful settlement on the island of St. Due to Martiniques inhospitable nature, the duo resolved to settle in Guadeloupe in 1635, took possession of the island and it was annexed to the kingdom of France in 1674. Over the next century, the British seized the island several times, the economy benefited from the lucrative sugar trade, which commenced during the closing decades of the 17th century. Guadeloupe produced more sugar than all the British islands combined, worth about £6 million a year, the British captured Guadeloupe in 1759. The British government decided that Canada was strategically important and kept Canada while returning Guadeloupe to France in the Treaty of Paris that ended the Seven Years War
Guadeloupe
–
The
Battle of the Saintes fought near Guadeloupe between France and Britain, 1782.
Guadeloupe
–
Flag
Guadeloupe
–
A bust of French abolitionist
Victor Schoelcher.
Guadeloupe
–
A satellite photo of Guadeloupe.
36.
Martinique
–
Like Guadeloupe, it is an overseas region of France, consisting of a single overseas department. One of the Windward Islands, it is north of Saint Lucia, southeast of Puerto Rico, northwest of Barbados. As with the overseas departments, Martinique is one of the eighteen regions of France. As part of France, Martinique is part of the European Union, the official language is French, and virtually the entire population also speak Antillean Creole. Martinique owes its name to Christopher Columbus, who sighted the island in 1493, the island was then called Jouanacaëra-Matinino, which came from a mythical island described by the Tainos of Hispaniola. According to historian Sydney Daney, the island was called Jouanacaëra by the Caribs, when Columbus returned to the island in 1502, he rechristened the island as Martinica. The name then evolved into Madinina, Madiana, and Matinite, finally, through the influence of the neighboring island of Dominica, it came to be known as Martinique. The island was occupied first by Arawaks, then by Caribs, the Carib people had migrated from the mainland to the islands about 1201 CE, according to carbon dating of artifacts. They were largely displaced, exterminated and assimilated by the Taino, Martinique was charted by Columbus in 1493, but Spain had little interest in the territory. On 15 September 1635, Pierre Belain dEsnambuc, French governor of the island of St. Kitts, dEsnambuc claimed Martinique for the French King Louis XIII and the French Compagnie des Îles de lAmérique, and established the first European settlement at Fort Saint-Pierre. DEsnambuc died in 1636, leaving the company and Martinique in the hands of his nephew, in 1637, his nephew Jacques Dyel du Parquet became governor of the island. In 1636, the indigenous Caribs rose against the settlers to drive them off the island in the first of many skirmishes. The French successfully repelled the natives and forced them to retreat to the part of the island. When the Carib revolted against French rule in 1658, the Governor Charles Houël du Petit Pré retaliated with war against them, many were killed, those who survived were taken captive and expelled from the island. Some Carib had fled to Dominica or St. Vincent, where the French agreed to them at peace. They were quite industrious and became quite prosperous, from September 1686 to early 1688, the French crown used Martinique as a threat and a dumping ground for mainland Huguenots who refused to reconvert to Catholicism. Over 1,000 Huguenots were transported to Martinique during this period, usually under miserable and those that survived the trip were distributed to the island planters as Engagés under the system of serf peonage that prevailed in the French Antilles at the time. Many of them were encouraged by their Catholic brethren who looked forward to the departure of the heretics, by 1688, nearly all of Martiniques French Protestant population had escaped to the British American colonies or Protestant countries back home
Martinique
–
Saint-Pierre. Before the total destruction of Saint-Pierre in 1902 by a volcanic eruption, it was the most important city of Martinique culturally and economically, being known as "the Paris of the Caribbean".
Martinique
–
Flag
Martinique
–
The
attack on the French ships at Martinique in 1667
Martinique
–
The
Battle of Martinique between British and French fleets in 1779
37.
Mayotte
–
Mayotte is an insular department and region of France officially named Département de Mayotte. It consists of an island, Grande-Terre, a smaller island, Petite-Terre. The archipelago is located in the northern Mozambique Channel in the Indian Ocean off the coast of Southeast Africa, the department status of Mayotte is recent and the region remains the poorest in France. Mayotte is nevertheless much more prosperous than the countries of the Mozambique Channel. Mayottes area is 374 square kilometres and, with its 212,645 people, is densely populated at 569 per km². The biggest city and prefecture is Mamoudzou on Grande-Terre, however, the Dzaoudzi–Pamandzi International Airport is located on the neighbouring island of Petite-Terre. The territory is part of the Comoro Islands. The territory is known as Maore, the native name of its main island. The language of the majority is Shimaore, a Bantu language variety closely related to the varieties in the neighbouring Comoros islands, the second most widely spoken native language is Kibushi, a Malagasy language variety most closely related to the Sakalava dialect of Malagasy with influences from Shimaore. The vast majority of the population is Muslim, the island was populated from neighbouring East Africa with later arrival of Arabs, who brought the Islamic religion. A sultanate was established in 1500, the people of Mayotte voted to remain politically a part of France in the 1974 referendum. The term Mayotte may refer to all of the islands, of which the largest is known as Maore and includes Maores surrounding islands, most notably Pamanzi. The main island, Grande-Terre, geologically the oldest of the Comoro Islands, is 39 kilometres long and 22 kilometres wide, because of the volcanic rock, the soil is relatively rich in some areas. A coral reef encircling much of the island ensures protection for ships, Dzaoudzi was the capital of Mayotte until 1977. It is situated on Petite-Terre, which at 10 square kilometres is the largest of several islets adjacent to Maore, in 1500, the Maore or Mawuti sultanate was established on the island. In 1503, Mayotte was observed by Portuguese explorers, but not colonized, in 1832, Mayotte was conquered by Andriantsoly, former king of Iboina on Madagascar, in 1833, it was conquered by the neighbouring sultanate of Mwali. On 19 November 1835, Mayotte was again conquered by the Ndzuwani Sultanate, however, in 1836 it regained its independence under a last local Sultan. Mayotte was purchased by France in 1841 and 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
Mayotte
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Beach scenery in Mayotte.
Mayotte
–
Flag
Mayotte
–
Sea near
Mamoudzou.
Mayotte
–
A view of
Sada including mosque.
38.
Overseas collectivity
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The French overseas collectivities, like the French regions, are first-order administrative divisions of France. The COMs include some former French overseas territories and other French overseas entities with a particular status, the COMs should not be confused with the overseas regions and overseas departments, which have no particular status. As integral parts of France, overseas collectivities are represented in the National Assembly, Senate and Economic, only one COM, Saint Martin, is part of the European Union and can vote to elect members of the European Parliament. The Pacific COMs use the CFP franc, a currency pegged to the euro, as of 31 March 2011, there were five COMs, French Polynesia became a COM in 2003. Its statutory law of 27 February 2004 gives it the designation of overseas country inside the Republic, French Polynesia has a great degree of autonomy, two symbolic manifestations of which are the title of the President of French Polynesia and its additional designation as a pays doutre-mer. Legislature, Assembly of French Polynesia since 2004, Saint Barthélemy, an island in the Lesser Antilles. It has a council and executive council since 2007. Saint Martin, the part of the island of Saint Martin in the Lesser Antilles. Saint Martin remains part of the European Union, both it and St. Barthelemy were separated from the overseas department of Guadeloupe in 2007 and made into their own collectivities. It has a council and executive council since 2007. Saint Pierre and Miquelon, a group of islands in the Atlantic Ocean off the coast of Newfoundland and it is the last remaining part of New France not ceded by France. Wallis and Futuna, three islands in the Pacific Ocean. Has a high administrator and territorial assembly, mayotte was a COM from 1976 until 31 March 2011, when it became an overseas department. New Caledonia was classified as an overseas territory beginning in 1946, a New Caledonian citizenship was established, and a gradual transfer of power from the French state to New Caledonia itself was begun, to last from fifteen to twenty years
Overseas collectivity
–
Overseas departments 1
39.
French Polynesia
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It is composed of 118 geographically dispersed islands and atolls stretching over an expanse of more than 2,000 kilometres in the South Pacific Ocean. Its total land area is 4,167 square kilometres, among its 118 islands and atolls,67 are inhabited. Tahiti, which is located within the Society Islands, is the most populous island and it has more than 68% of the population of the islands in 2012. Although not a part of its territory, Clipperton Island was administered from French Polynesia until 2007. Following the Great Polynesian Migration, European explorers visited the islands of French Polynesia on several occasions, traders and whaling ships also visited. In 1842, the French took over the islands and established a French protectorate they called Etablissements des français en Océanie, in 1946, the EFOs became an overseas territory under the constitution of the French Fourth Republic, and Polynesians were granted the right to vote through citizenship. In 1957, the EFOs were renamed French Polynesia, French Polynesia as we know it today was one of the last places on Earth to be settled by humans. Scientists believe the Great Polynesian Migration happened around 1500 BC as Austronesian people went on a journey using celestial navigation to find islands in the South Pacific Ocean, the first islands of French Polynesia to be settled were the Marquesas Islands in about 200 BC. The Polynesians later ventured southwest and discovered the Society Islands around AD300, European encounters began in 1521 when Portuguese explorer Ferdinand Magellan, sailing at the service of the Spanish Crown, sighted Puka-Puka in the Tuāmotu-Gambier Archipelago. Over a century later, British explorer Samuel Wallis visited Tahiti in 1767, French explorer Louis Antoine de Bougainville also visited Tahiti in 1768, while British explorer James Cook arrived in 1769. A short-lived Spanish settlement was created in 1774, and for a time some maps bore the name Isla de Amat after Viceroy Amat, in 1772, Dutchman Jakob Roggeveen came across Bora Bora in the Society Islands. Christian missions began with Spanish priests who stayed in Tahiti for a year, protestants from the London Missionary Society settled permanently in Polynesia in 1797. King Pōmare II of Tahiti was forced to flee to Moorea in 1803, he, French Catholic missionaries arrived on Tahiti in 1834, their expulsion in 1836 caused France to send a gunboat in 1838. In 1842, Tahiti and Tahuata were declared a French protectorate, the capital of Papeetē was founded in 1843. In 1880, France annexed Tahiti, changing the status from that of a protectorate to that of a colony, the island groups were not officially united until the establishment of the French protectorate in 1889. In the 1880s, France claimed the Tuamotu Archipelago, which belonged to the Pōmare Dynasty. Having declared a protectorate over Tahuata in 1842, the French regarded the entire Marquesas Islands as French, in 1885, France appointed a governor and established a general council, thus giving it the proper administration for a colony. The islands of Rimatara and Rūrutu unsuccessfully lobbied for British protection in 1888, postage stamps were first issued in the colony in 1892
French Polynesia
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A two-franc
World War II emergency-issue banknote (1943), printed in
Papeete, and depicting the outline of
Tahiti on the reverse.
French Polynesia
–
Flags of French Polynesia
French Polynesia
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The French frigate
Floréal in November 2002, stationed in
Bora Bora lagoon.
French Polynesia
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The
Assembly of French Polynesia.
40.
Collectivity of Saint Martin
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Saint Martin, officially the Collectivity of Saint Martin is an overseas collectivity of France in the Caribbean. The southern 40% of the island of Saint Martin constitute Sint Maarten, before 2007, the French part of Saint Martin formed a part of the French overseas région and département of Guadeloupe. Saint Martin is separated from the island of Anguilla by the Anguilla Channel, Saint Martin was for many years a French commune, forming part of Guadeloupe, which is an overseas région and département of France. In 2003 the population of the French part of the island voted in favour of secession from Guadeloupe in order to form an overseas collectivity of France. On 9 February 2007, the French Parliament passed a bill granting COM status to both the French part of Saint Martin and the neighbouring Saint Barthélemy. The new status took effect on 15 July 2007, once the local assemblies were elected, Saint Martin remains part of the European Union. On 25 July 2008 Fleming resigned after being sanctioned by the Conseil dÉtat for one year over problems with his 2007 election campaign, on 7 August, Frantz Gumbs was elected as President of the Territorial Council. However, his election was declared invalid on 10 April 2009, Gumbs was reelected on 5 May 2009. Before 2007, Saint Martin was coded as GP in ISO 3166-1, in October 2007, it received the ISO 3166-1 code MF, MAF, and 663. The coat of arms of the French overseas collectivity Saint-Martin features a ship, a palm and a sun, the commune that existed until 22 February 2007, used similar arms but with the legend Ville de Saint Martin. The French part of the island has an area of 53.2 square kilometres. A local English-based dialect is spoken in informal situations on both the French and Dutch sides of the island. At the January 2011 French census, the population in the French part of the island was 36,286, during the 1980s, the population more than tripled, at the time, the collectivity was administered as a part of Guadeloupe. The official currency of Saint Martin is the euro, though the US dollar is widely accepted. Tourism is the economic activity. INSEE estimated that the total GDP of Saint Martin amounted to 421 million euros in 1999, in that same year the GDP per capita of Saint Martin was 14,500 euros, which was 39% lower than the average GDP per capita of metropolitan France in 1999. In comparison, the GDP per capita on the Dutch side of the island, Martin Economy of Saint Martin History of St
Collectivity of Saint Martin
–
Flags flying in Marigot harbour, Saint-Martin.
Collectivity of Saint Martin
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Unofficial flag
41.
Saint Pierre and Miquelon
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It is the only remnant of the former colonial empire of New France that still remains under French control, with an area of 242 km2 and a population of 6,080 at the January 2011 census. The islands are situated at the entrance of Fortune Bay, which extends into the southwestern coast of Newfoundland and they are 3,819 kilometres from Brest, the nearest point in Metropolitan France, but only 25 kilometres from the Burin Peninsula of Newfoundland. Saint-Pierre is French for Saint Peter, the saint of fishermen. The present name of Miquelon was first noted in the form of Micquelle in the Basque sailor Martin de Hoyarçabals navigational pilot for Newfoundland and it has been claimed that the name Miquelon is a Basque form of Michael, Mikel and Mikels are usually named Mikelon in the Basque Country. Therefore, from Mikelon it may have written in the French way with a q instead of a k. It appears that this is a common form in that language. The adjoined islands name of Langlade is said to be an adaptation of lîle à lAnglais, the first European encounter with Saint-Pierre and Miquelon was in 1520, by the Portuguese João Álvares Fagundes. They were made a French possession in 1536 by Jacques Cartier on behalf of the King of France, in 1670, during Jean Talons tenure as Intendant of New France, a French officer annexed the islands when he found a dozen French fishermen camped there. The British Royal Navy soon began to harass the French, pillaging their camps and ships, by the early 1700s, the islands were again uninhabited, and were ceded to the British by the Treaty of Utrecht which ended the War of the Spanish Succession in 1713. Under the terms of the Treaty of Paris, which put an end to the Seven Years War, France ceded all its North American possessions, France also maintained fishing rights on the coasts of Newfoundland. With France being allied with the Americans during the American Revolutionary War, Britain invaded and razed the colony in 1778, in 1793, the British landed in Saint-Pierre and, the following year, expelled the French population, and tried to install British settlers. The British colony was in turn sacked by French troops in 1796, the Treaty of Amiens of 1802 returned the islands to France, but Britain reoccupied them when hostilities recommenced the next year. The Treaty of Paris gave them back to France, though Britain occupied them yet again during the Hundred Days War, France then reclaimed the then uninhabited islands in which all structures and buildings had been destroyed or fallen into disrepair. The islands were resettled in 1816, the settlers were mostly Basques, Bretons and Normans, who were joined by various other elements, particularly from the nearby island of Newfoundland. Only around the middle of the century did increased fishing bring a certain prosperity to the little colony, during the early 1910s, the colony suffered severely as a result of unprofitable fisheries, and large numbers of its people emigrated to Nova Scotia and Quebec. The draft imposed on all inhabitants of conscript age after the beginning of World War I crippled the fisheries, which could not be processed by the older people. About 400 men from the served in the French military during World War I. The increase in the adoption of steam trawlers in the fisheries also contributed to the reduction in employment opportunities, smuggling had always been an important economic activity in the islands, but it became especially prominent in the 1920s with the institution of prohibition in the United States
Saint Pierre and Miquelon
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Saint-Pierre aerial photo, 2013.
Saint-Pierre Airport is at lower right. Original photo has extensive annotations.
Saint Pierre and Miquelon
–
Unofficial flag
Saint Pierre and Miquelon
–
St Pierre, Le Quai La Roncière, 1887
Saint Pierre and Miquelon
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Saint-Pierre in 1921
42.
Wallis and Futuna
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Though both French and Polynesian, Wallis and Futuna is distinct from the entity known as French Polynesia. Its land area is 142.42 km2 with a population of about 12,000, Mata-Utu is the capital and biggest city. Since 2003, Wallis and Futuna has been a French overseas collectivity, between 1961 and 2003, it had the status of a French overseas territory, though its official name did not change when the status changed. Polynesians settled the islands that would later be called Wallis and Futuna around the year 1000 AD/CE, the original inhabitants built forts and other identifiable ruins on the islands, some of which are still partially intact. Pierre Chanel, canonized as a saint in 1954, is a patron of the island of Futuna. The Wallis Islands are named after the British explorer, Samuel Wallis, on 5 April 1842, the missionaries asked for the protection of France after the rebellion of a part of the local population. On 5 April 1887, the Queen of Uvea signed a treaty establishing a French protectorate. The kings of Sigave and Alo on the islands of Futuna, the islands were put under the authority of the French colony of New Caledonia. In 1917, the three kingdoms were annexed to France and turned into the Colony of Wallis and Futuna. During World War II the islands’ administration was pro-Vichy until a Free French corvette from New Caledonia deposed the regime on 26 May 1942, units of the US Marine Corps landed on Wallis on 29 May 1942. In 1959, the inhabitants of the islands voted to become a French overseas territory, effective in 1961, in 2005, the 50th King of Uvea, Tomasi Kulimoetoke II, faced being deposed after giving sanctuary to his grandson who was convicted of manslaughter. The King claimed his grandson should be judged by tribal law rather than by the French penal system, there were riots in the streets involving the Kings supporters, who were victorious over attempts to replace the King. Two years later, Tomasi Kulimoetoke died on 7 May 2007, the state was in a six-month period of mourning. During this period, mentioning a successor was forbidden, on 25 July 2008, Kapiliele Faupala was installed as King despite protests from some of the royal clans. As an overseas collectivity of France, it is governed under the French constitution of 28 September 1958, the head of state is President François Hollande of France as represented by the Administrator-Superior Michel Jeanjean. The President of the Territorial Assembly is Petelo Hanisi since 11 December 2013, the Council of the Territory consists of three kings and three members appointed by the high administrator on the advice of the Territorial Assembly. The legislative branch consists of the unicameral Territorial Assembly or Assemblée territoriale of 20 seats, Wallis and Futuna elects one senator to the French Senate and one deputy to the French National Assembly. Justice is generally administered under French law by a tribunal of first instance in Mata-Utu, the Court of Appeal is in Nouméa, New Caledonia
Wallis and Futuna
–
Ruins of the
Talietumu fort
Wallis and Futuna
–
Flag
Wallis and Futuna
–
Lake Lalolalo on ʻUvea
43.
New Caledonia
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New Caledonia is a special collectivity of France located in the southwest Pacific Ocean,1,210 km east of Australia and 16,136 km east of Metropolitan France. The Chesterfield Islands are in the Coral Sea, locals refer to Grande Terre as Le Caillou. New Caledonia has an area of 18,576 km2. Its population of 268,767 consists of a mix of Kanak people, people of European descent, Polynesian people, the capital of the territory is Nouméa. The earliest traces of human presence in New Caledonia date back to the Lapita period, the Lapita were highly skilled navigators and agriculturists with influence over a large area of the Pacific. British explorer Captain James Cook was the first European to sight New Caledonia, on 4 September 1774 and he named it New Caledonia, as the northeast of the island reminded him of Scotland. The west coast of Grande Terre was approached by Jean-François de Galaup, comte de Lapérouse in 1788, shortly before his disappearance, from then until 1840, only a few sporadic contacts with the archipelago were recorded. Contacts became more frequent after 1840, because of the interest in sandalwood from New Caledonia, the trade ceased at the start of the 20th century. The victims of this trade were called Kanakas, like all the Oceanian people, the first missionaries from the London Missionary Society and the Marist Brothers arrived in the 1840s. In 1849, the crew of the American ship Cutter was killed, cannibalism was widespread throughout New Caledonia. On 24 September 1853, under orders from Napoleon III, Admiral Febvrier Despointes took formal possession of New Caledonia, a few dozen free settlers settled on the west coast in the following years. New Caledonia became a colony, and from the 1860s until the end of the transportations in 1897, about 22,000 criminals. Among the convicts were many Communards arrested after the failed Paris Commune, including Henri de Rochefort, between 1873 and 1876,4,200 political prisoners were relegated in New Caledonia. Only 40 of them settled in the colony, the rest returned to France after being granted amnesty in 1879 and 1880. In 1864, nickel was discovered on the banks of the Diahot River and with the establishment of the Société Le Nickel in 1876, mining began in earnest. The French imported labourers to work in the mines, first from neighbouring islands, then from Japan, the Dutch East Indies, the French government also attempted to encourage European immigration, without much success. The indigenous population was excluded from the French economy, even as workers in the mines, and they were ultimately confined to reservations. This sparked a violent reaction in 1878 as High Chief Atal of La Foa managed to unite many of the central tribes, the Europeans brought new diseases such as smallpox and measles
New Caledonia
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Flags of New Caledonia
New Caledonia
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Chief "King Jacques" and his Queen
New Caledonia
–
Jean Lèques during a ceremony honoring U.S. service members who helped ensure the freedom of New Caledonia during World War II
44.
Pacific Ocean
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The Pacific Ocean is the largest and deepest of the Earths oceanic divisions. It extends from the Arctic Ocean in the north to the Southern Ocean in the south and is bounded by Asia and Australia in the west, the Mariana Trench in the western North Pacific is the deepest point in the world, reaching a depth of 10,911 metres. Both the center of the Water Hemisphere and the Western Hemisphere are in the Pacific Ocean, the oceans current name was coined by Portuguese explorer Ferdinand Magellan during the Spanish circumnavigation of the world in 1521, as he encountered favourable winds on reaching the ocean. He called it Mar Pacífico, which in both Portuguese and Spanish means peaceful sea, important human migrations occurred in the Pacific in prehistoric times. Long-distance trade developed all along the coast from Mozambique to Japan, trade, and therefore knowledge, extended to the Indonesian islands but apparently not Australia. By at least 878 when there was a significant Islamic settlement in Canton much of trade was controlled by Arabs or Muslims. In 219 BC Xu Fu sailed out into the Pacific searching for the elixir of immortality, from 1404 to 1433 Zheng He led expeditions into the Indian Ocean. The east side of the ocean was discovered by Spanish explorer Vasco Núñez de Balboa in 1513 after his expedition crossed the Isthmus of Panama and he named it Mar del Sur because the ocean was to the south of the coast of the isthmus where he first observed the Pacific. Later, Portuguese explorer Ferdinand Magellan sailed the Pacific East to West on a Castilian expedition of world circumnavigation starting in 1519, Magellan called the ocean Pacífico because, after sailing through the stormy seas off Cape Horn, the expedition found calm waters. The ocean was often called the Sea of Magellan in his honor until the eighteenth century, sailing around and east of the Moluccas, between 1525 and 1527, Portuguese expeditions discovered the Caroline Islands, the Aru Islands, and Papua New Guinea. In 1542–43 the Portuguese also reached Japan, in 1564, five Spanish ships consisting of 379 explorers crossed the ocean from Mexico led by Miguel López de Legazpi and sailed to the Philippines and Mariana Islands. The Manila galleons operated for two and a half centuries linking Manila and Acapulco, in one of the longest trade routes in history, Spanish expeditions also discovered Tuvalu, the Marquesas, the Cook Islands, the Solomon Islands, and the Admiralty Islands in the South Pacific. In the 16th and 17th century Spain considered the Pacific Ocean a Mare clausum—a sea closed to other naval powers, as the only known entrance from the Atlantic the Strait of Magellan was at times patrolled by fleets sent to prevent entrance of non-Spanish ships. On the western end of the Pacific Ocean the Dutch threatened the Spanish Philippines, Spain also sent expeditions to the Pacific Northwest reaching Vancouver Island in southern Canada, and Alaska. The French explored and settled Polynesia, and the British made three voyages with James Cook to the South Pacific and Australia, Hawaii, and the North American Pacific Northwest, one of the earliest voyages of scientific exploration was organized by Spain in the Malaspina Expedition of 1789–1794. It sailed vast areas of the Pacific, from Cape Horn to Alaska, Guam and the Philippines, New Zealand, Australia, and the South Pacific. Growing imperialism during the 19th century resulted in the occupation of much of Oceania by other European powers, and later, Japan, in Oceania, France got a leading position as imperial power after making Tahiti and New Caledonia protectorates in 1842 and 1853 respectively. After navy visits to Easter Island in 1875 and 1887, Chilean navy officer Policarpo Toro managed to negotiate an incorporation of the island into Chile with native Rapanui in 1888, by occupying Easter Island, Chile joined the imperial nations
Pacific Ocean
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Maris Pacifici by
Ortelius (1589). One of the first printed maps to show the Pacific Ocean; see also
Waldseemüller map (1507).
Pacific Ocean
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The Pacific Ocean
Pacific Ocean
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USS
Lexington under air attack on 8 May 1942 during the
Battle of the Coral Sea
Pacific Ocean
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Map of the Pacific Ocean during European Exploration, circa 1702–1707.
45.
Clipperton Island
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Clipperton Island is an uninhabited 6 km2 coral atoll in the eastern Pacific Ocean off the coast of Central America. It is an overseas territory of France. The atoll is 1,080 km south-west of Mexico,2,424 km west of Nicaragua,2,545 km west of Costa Rica and 2,260 km north-west of the Galápagos Islands, Ecuador, at 10°18′N 109°13′W. It is an uninhabited overseas territory of France, under direct authority of the Minister of Overseas France. It is low-lying and largely barren, with scattered grasses. A small volcanic outcrop rising to 29 m on its south-east side is referred to as Clipperton Rock, Clipperton has had no permanent inhabitants since 1945. It is visited on occasion by fishermen, French Navy patrols, scientific researchers, film crews and it has been a popular site for transmissions by ham radio operators. Clipperton is about 945 km south-east of Socorro Island in the Revillagigedo Archipelago and its ring-shaped atoll completely encloses a stagnant freshwater lagoon, and is 12 km in circumference. The rim averages 150 m in width, reaching 400 m in the west and narrows to 45 m in the north-east, land elevations average 2 m, though Clipperton Rock, a barren 29 m volcanic outcrop in the south-east, is considerably higher and is the highest point. The surrounding reef is exposed at low tide, the lagoon is devoid of fish, and contains some deep basins with depths of 43 and 22 m, including a spot known as Trou-Sans-Fond, or the bottomless hole, with acidic water at its base. The water is described as being almost fresh at the surface, seaweed beds cover approximately 45 percent of the lagoons surface. While some sources have rated the water as non-potable, testimony from the crew of the tuna clipper M/V Monarch, stranded for 23 days in 1962 after their boat sank. Their report reveals that the water, while not tasting very good, was drinkable, though muddy. Several of the castaways drank it, with no apparent ill effects, survivors of an ill-fated Mexican military colony in 1917 indicated that they were dependent upon rain for their water supply, catching it in old boats they used for this purpose. Aside from the lagoon and water caught from rain, no other sources are known to exist. It has a oceanic climate, with average temperatures of 20–32 °C. The rainy season occurs from May to October, when it is subject to tropical storms, surrounding ocean waters are warm, pushed by equatorial and counter-equatorial currents. It has no natural resources
Clipperton Island
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Coconut palms on Clipperton. The lagoon is visible beyond the trees.
Clipperton Island
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Clipperton Island with lagoon, showing depths in metres.
Clipperton Island
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Mexican survivors from Clipperton Island, 1917
Clipperton Island
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A
brown booby
46.
Bassas da India
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Bassas da India is an uninhabited, roughly circular French atoll that is part of the French Southern and Antarctic Lands. Overall, the atoll is about 10 km in diameter, rising steeply from the seabed 3000 m below to encircle an area of 80 km2 and its exclusive economic zone,123,700 km2 in size, is contiguous with that of Europa Island. The atoll consists of ten barren rocky islets, with no vegetation and those on the north and east sides are 2.1 to 3 m high, while those on the west and south sides are 1.2 m high. The reef, whose coastline measures 35.2 km, is covered by the sea from three hours before high tide to three hours afterward. The region is subject to cyclones, making the atoll a long-time maritime hazard. Jaguar Seamount and Hall Tablemount lie, respectively, about 40 and 70 km further southwest, the Bassas da India was first recorded by Portuguese explorers in the early sixteenth century as the Baixo da Judia. The Judia was the Portuguese ship that discovered the feature by running aground on it in 1506, the name became Bassas da India due to transcription errors by cartographers. The Santiago broke up on the shoal in 1585 and it was rediscovered by the Europa in 1774, whence the name Europa Rocks. The Malay was lost 27 July 1842 on the Europa Rocks, in 1897, the shoal became a French possession, later being placed under the administration of a commissioner residing in Réunion in 1968. Madagascar became independent in 1960 and claims sovereignty over the shoal since 1972, mooring at Bassas da India requires a permit from the French Government. Fishing without such a permit may result in the boat being expelled or even confiscated, several illegal tourism charters departing from Mozambique or South Africa have been seized since 2013 by the French navy. Wikimedia Atlas of Bassas da India Oceandots, archived from the original on 23 December 2010. CS1 maint, BOT, original-url status unknown Sailing Directions, East Africa and the South Indian Ocean French Southern and Antarctic Lands
Bassas da India
–
ISS photograph.
Bassas da India
–
Flag
Bassas da India
–
ISS image of Bassas da India with varying degrees of sunglint.
47.
Europa Island
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Europa Island is a 28-square-kilometre low-lying tropical atoll in the Mozambique Channel, about a third of the way from southern Madagascar to southern Mozambique. The island had never been inhabited until 1820, when the French family Rosier moved to it, the island officially became a possession of France in 1897. The island, garrisoned by a detachment from Réunion, has a station and is visited by scientists. Though uninhabited, it is part of the Scattered Islands of the French Southern, Europa Island was the setting of a 1968 episode of The Undersea World of Jacques Cousteau, partly focusing on the breeding habits of the green sea turtle. Europa is 6 kilometres in diameter, with an altitude of 6 metres. It is surrounded by beaches and a fringing reef and encloses a mangrove lagoon of around 9 square kilometres. There are no ports or harbours but anchorage is possible offshore and its Exclusive Economic Zone, contiguous with that of Bassas da India, is 127,300 square kilometres. The airstrip is 1,500 metres metres long, the island is a nature reserve. Its vegetation consists of dry forest, scrub, euphorbia, the swamp. It is one of the worlds largest nesting sites for green sea turtles and it is also home to goats introduced by settlers in the late 18th century. The island has been identified as an Important Bird Area by BirdLife International because it supports a large and diverse population of breeding seabirds and it is the only known breeding site outside Aldabra and Madagascar for Malagasy pond herons. Seabirds include the second largest colony in the western Indian Ocean of great frigatebirds, Audubons shearwaters, dimorphic egrets, the island is also home to an endemic subspecies of white-tailed tropicbird. There are three species of landbirds present, one of which is a subspecies of the Malagasy white-eye. Additionally, the island is home to its own species of hissing cockroach. Climate is affected by the Agulhas Current with water temperatures usually above 30 °C, southeast trade winds during the winter and occasional cyclones. While the island has probably been sighted by navigators since at least the 16th century, it takes its name from the British ship Europa, ruins and graves on Europa island attest to several attempts at settlement from the 1860s to the 1920s. For example, the French Rosiers family moved to the island in 1860, but subsequently abandoned it
Europa Island
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Satellite photo of Europa Island (north faces upward).
Europa Island
–
Flag
Europa Island
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Aerial view of the island.
Europa Island
–
Beaches, north of the island
48.
Glorioso Islands
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The Glorieuses or Glorioso Islands are a group of French islands and rocks totalling 5 square kilometres, at 11°33′S 47°20′E, in the Indian Ocean, about 160 kilometres northwest of Madagascar. In 2012, France founded parc naturel marin des Glorieuses, a protected area, to preserve the endangered flora. The Glorieuses have an Exclusive Economic Zone of 48,350 square kilometres, there are anchorages offshore, and Grande Glorieuse has a 1, 300-metre long airstrip. The archipelago consists of two islands, Grande Glorieuse and Île du Lys, as well as eight rock islets, Wreck Rock, South Rock and Verte Rocks and they form part of a coral reef and lagoon. Grande Glorieuses is roughly circular and measures about 3 kilometres across and it is thickly vegetated, mainly by the remains of a coconut plantation and casuarina trees. Île du Lys, located at 11°30′59. 35″S 47°22′36. 02″E about 8 kilometres northeast of Grande Glorieuses, is about 600 metres long and consists of sand dunes and it was formerly quarried for phosphate. The climate is tropical and the terrain is low and flat, Île de Lys in particular is a nesting ground for migratory seabirds, and turtles lay eggs on the beaches. Perhaps earlier known to Arab navigators, the Glorieuses were named and settled in 1880 by a Frenchman, Hippolyte Caltaux, the archipelago became a French possession in 1892 when Captain Richard of the Primauget made a formal claim. In 1895, the Glorioso Island became a part of the colony of Mayotte, from 1914 to 1958 concessions to exploit the islands were given to Seychelles companies. The islands are nature reserves with a meteorological station garrisoned by French troops. The Comoros claims Mayotte and Glorioso Islands, the Seychelles claimed the islands too before the France–Seychelles Maritime Boundary Agreement. In 2012, France founded parc naturel marin des Glorieuses, a protected area, to preserve the endangered flora
Glorioso Islands
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Glorioso Islands
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Glorioso Islands
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Satellite image of the islands
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Juan de Nova Island
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Anchorage is possible off the northeast of the island which also has a 1,300 metres airstrip. Administratively, the island is one of the Scattered islands in the Indian Ocean, the island is garrisoned by French troops from Réunion and has a weather station. Juan de Nova, about 6 kilometres long and 1.6 kilometres at its widest, is a reserve surrounded by reefs which enclose an area of roughly 40 square kilometres. Forests, mainly of Casuarinaceae, cover about half the island, sea turtles nest on the beaches around the island. The island has been identified as an Important Bird Area by BirdLife International because it supports a large colony of sooty terns. It also has a smaller colony of greater crested terns. Of at least seven species of landbirds present, most are probably introduced, the island is named after Juan de Nova, a Galician admiral in the service of Portugal who came across the island in 1501. The island had never been inhabited when it became a possession of France in 1897, in 1921, France decided to transfer the administration of Juan de Nova from Paris to Tananarive in its colony of Madagascar and Dependencies. Before the independence of Madagascar, France transferred the administration to Saint-Pierre on Réunion Island, Madagascar became independent in 1960 and claims sovereignty over the island since 1972. Guano deposits were exploited from the start of the 20th century until 1970, the island was abandoned during World War II and was visited by German submariners. Installations, including a hangar, rail lines, houses and a jetty are in ruins, the island lies on the sea route between South Africa and the northern tip of Madagascar. It is affected by currents, and has become the site of numerous wrecks. Most visible are the remains of the SS Tottenham which ran onto the southern fringing reef in 1911
Juan de Nova Island
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2008 map.
Juan de Nova Island
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Juan de Nova Island
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Image of Juan de Nova Island taken from the
International Space Station.
