1.
French language
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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
2.
La Marseillaise
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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
3.
Papeete
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Papeete is the capital of French Polynesia, an overseas country of France in the Pacific Ocean. The commune of Papeete is located on the island of Tahiti, in the subdivision of the Windward Islands. The French High Commissioner also resides in Papeete, the Windward Islands are themselves part of the Society Islands. The name Papeete means water from a basket, the urban area of Papeete had a total population of 133,627 inhabitants at the August 2012 census,25,769 of whom lived in the commune of Papeete proper. In 1983, The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints built the Papeete Tahiti Temple here because of the number of members in the region. On 5 September 1995 the government of Jacques Chirac conducted the first of the last series of nuclear test detonations off the shores of Moruroa. A resulting riot in Papeete lasted for two days and damaged the airport, injured 40 people, and scared away tourism for some time. There are very busy streets in the center, and sometimes traffic can be a problem since the streets are very small. There is a freeway that starts close to the town starting with Pomare Boulevard. By air, the people would use the Faaa International Airport, from there they could either take Air Tahiti to go to another island of the territory or take a plane like Air Tahiti Nui to go international. By sea, they would either take Moorea ferries to go to Moorea or the Bora Bora cruiseline to go to Bora Bora. The urban area of Papeete has a population of 133,627 inhabitants at the August 2012 census,25,769 of whom lived in the commune of Papeete proper. 96. 5% reported that they could read and write it. Only 1. 2% of the population age was 15 years. At the same census,79. 7% of the population in the area of Papeete whose age was 15 years. 16. 5% reported that Tahitian was the language they spoke the most at home,1. 7% reported another Polynesian language,1. 6% reported a Chinese dialect, and 0. 5% reported another language. Traveling tourists arrive and depart Papeete via cruise ship at Papeete Harbor or domestic airline at Faaa International Airport, Papeete features a tropical monsoon climate with a wet season and dry season. However, precipitation is observed even during the dry season
4.
Faaa
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Faaa is a commune in the suburbs of Papeete in French Polynesia, an overseas country of France in the Pacific Ocean. Faaa is located on the island of Tahiti, in the subdivision of the Windward Islands. Faaa has a population of 29,851, making it the largest commune in Tahiti, Faaa has many mountains inland that can reach 1,500 m. Mount Marau is a volcano in the inland limits and can be seen from nearby Moorea. The area of Faaa is 9 m above sea level on average. Captain James Cook landed on Faaa when he came to Tahiti on his expedition, the commune is the political stronghold of independence leader Oscar Temaru who has served three times as president. In 1988 Faaa succeeded Papeete as the most populated commune in the area of Papeete. The Papeete Urban Area has a population of about 130,000, Faaa is the political stronghold of independence leader Oscar Temaru, who served three times as president of French Polynesia in 2004, 2005–2006,2007 and 2011-2013. Faaa International Airport is an airport located in the north of Faaa commune. The airport is the international airport in French Polynesia. Travellers from other islands must come to this airport for international flights, some of the international flights from the airport go to Los Angeles, California, Tokyo, Japan, and Auckland, New Zealand. The airport is easy to access from downtown Faaa, Airport shuttles and Tahiti buses come to the parking lot. There are coconut trees and a Tiki in the parking lot, flowers from local farms are sent to the airport to be given to arriving passengers. Tahitis West Coast freeway runs through the commune from Papeete to Teahupoo, there are many other roads in Faaa. The Tahiti transportation bus runs around the Papeete area, there is little road traffic in Faaa. There are bridges over the canals and small rivers that flow through Faaa. Many of the residents of Faaa have Ford or Toyota trucks, vehicles are available in the town center of Papeete. There are few car dealers in Faaa, residents who have cars for sale often park on the street with a for-sale sign showing the price and a contact number
5.
Ethnic group
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An ethnic group or ethnicity is a category of people who identify with each other based on similarities, such as common ancestral, language, social, cultural or national experiences. Unlike other social groups, ethnicity is often an inherited status based on the society in which one lives, in some cases, it can be adopted if a person moves into another society. Ethnic groups, derived from the historical founder population, often continue to speak related languages. By way of language shift, acculturation, adoption and religious conversion, it is possible for individuals or groups to leave one ethnic group. Ethnicity is often used synonymously with terms such as nation or people. In English, it can also have the connotation of something exotic, generally related to cultures of more recent immigrants, the largest ethnic groups in modern times comprise hundreds of millions of individuals, while the smallest are limited to a few dozen individuals. Conversely, formerly separate ethnicities can merge to form a pan-ethnicity, whether through division or amalgamation, the formation of a separate ethnic identity is referred to as ethnogenesis. The term ethnic is derived from the Greek word ἔθνος ethnos, the inherited English language term for this concept is folk, used alongside the latinate people since the late Middle English period. In Early Modern English and until the mid-19th century, ethnic was used to mean heathen or pagan, as the Septuagint used ta ethne to translate the Hebrew goyim the nations, non-Hebrews, non-Jews. The Greek term in antiquity could refer to any large group, a host of men. In the 19th century, the term came to be used in the sense of peculiar to a race, people or nation, the abstract ethnicity had been used for paganism in the 18th century, but now came to express the meaning of an ethnic character. The term ethnic group was first recorded in 1935 and entered the Oxford English Dictionary in 1972, depending on the context that is used, the term nationality may either be used synonymously with ethnicity, or synonymously with citizenship. The process that results in the emergence of an ethnicity is called ethnogenesis, the Greeks at this time did not describe foreign nations but had also developed a concept of their own ethnicity, which they grouped under the name of Hellenes. Herodotus gave an account of what defined Greek ethnic identity in his day, enumerating shared descent. Whether ethnicity qualifies as a universal is to some extent dependent on the exact definition used. Many social scientists, such as anthropologists Fredrik Barth and Eric Wolf and they regard ethnicity as a product of specific kinds of inter-group interactions, rather than an essential quality inherent to human groups. According to Thomas Hylland Eriksen, the study of ethnicity was dominated by two distinct debates until recently, one is between primordialism and instrumentalism. In the primordialist view, the participant perceives ethnic ties collectively, as a given, even coercive
6.
Polynesians
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The Polynesian people consist of various ethnic Austronesian groups that speak Polynesian languages, a branch of the Oceanic languages, and inhabit Polynesia. The native Polynesian people of New Zealand and Hawaii are minorities in their homelands, Polynesians, including Samoans, Tongans, Niueans, Cook Islands Māori, Tahitian Māohi, Hawaiian Māoli, Marquesans and New Zealand Māori, are a subset of the Austronesian peoples. They share the same origins as the peoples of maritime Southeast Asia, Madagascar. This is supported by genetic, linguistic, and archaeological evidence, the origins of the Polynesian people are addressed in the theories regarding migration into the Pacific that began about 3000 years ago. These are outlined well by Kayser et al, however, Soares et al. have argued for an older pre-Holocene Sundaland origin within Island Southeast Asia based on mitochondrial DNA. Paternal Y chromosome analysis by Kayser et al. also showed that Polynesians have significant Melanesian genetic admixture. However, a study by Kayser et al. discovered that only 21% of the Polynesian autosomal gene pool is of Melanesian origin. Another study by Friedlaender et al. also confirmed that Polynesians are closer genetically to Micronesians, Taiwanese Aborigines, the study concluded that Polynesians moved through Melanesia fairly rapidly, allowing only limited admixture between Austronesians and Melanesians. Thus the high frequencies of mtDNA B4a1a1 in the Polynesians are the result of drift, the Polynesian population experienced a population bottleneck and genetic drift. DNA analysis of modern Polynesians indicates that there has been intermarriage that results in a mixed Asian-Papuan ancestry of the Polynesians. The preliminary analysis of skulls found at the Teouma and Talasiu Lapita sites is that the skulls lacks Australian or Papuan affinities, there is an estimated 2 million ethnic Polynesians and their descendants worldwide, majority of which live in Polynesia, United States, Australia and New Zealand
7.
Ethnic groups in Europe
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The ethnic groups in Europe are the focus of European ethnology, the field of anthropology related to the various ethnic groups that reside in the nations of Europe. The total number of minority populations in Europe is estimated at 105 million people. There is no precise or universally accepted definition of the ethnic group or nationality. There are eight peoples of Europe with more than 30 million members residing in Europe and these eight groups between themselves account for some 465 million or about 65% of European population, Russians, Germans, French, British, Italians, Spanish, Ukrainians, Poles. About 20–25 million residents are members of diasporas of non-European origin, the population of the European Union, with some five hundred million residents, accounts for two thirds of the European population. Of the total population of Europe of some 730 million, over 80% or some 600 million fall within three large branches of Indo-European languages, viz. Slavic, Italic and Germanic, the largest groups that do not fall within these three are the Greeks and the Albanians. Beside the Indo-European languages there are two major language families on the European continent, Turkic languages and Uralic languages. The Semitic languages that dominate the coast of northern Africa as well as the Near East are preserved in Malta, abkhaz–Adyghean, Basque, Kartvelian, and Nakho-Dagestani are linguistic isolates with no known relation to each other or to any other languages inside or outside of Europe. The Basques are assumed to descend from the populations of the Atlantic Bronze Age directly, the Indo-European groups of Europe are assumed to have developed in situ by admixture of early Indo-European groups arriving in Europe by the Bronze Age. The Finnic peoples are mostly assumed to be descended from populations that had migrated to their homelands by about 3,000 years ago. A group of Tyrrhenian languages appears to have included Etruscan, Rhaetian and perhaps also Eteocretan, a pre-Roman stage of Proto-Basque can only be reconstructed with great uncertainty. Regarding the European Bronze Age, the only secure reconstruction is that of Proto-Greek, a Proto-Italo-Celtic ancestor of both Italic and Celtic, and a Proto-Balto-Slavic language has been postulated with less confidence. Old European hydronymy has been taken as indicating an early Indo-European predecessor of the later centum languages, iron Age populations of Europe known from Greco-Roman historiography, notably Herodotus, Pliny, Ptolemy and Tacitus, Aegean, Greek tribes, Pelasgians/Tyrrhenians, and Anatolians. Armenian Highlands/Anatolia, Armenians Balkans, Illyrians, Dacians, and Thracians, Caucasus, Georgians Italian peninsula, Italic peoples, Etruscans, Adriatic Veneti, Ligurians and Greek colonies. Western/Central Europe, Celts, Rhaetians and Swabians, Vistula Veneti, Lugii, Iberian peninsula, Pre-Roman peoples of the Iberian Peninsula Basques and Phoenicians. Sardinia, ancient Sardinians, comprising the Corsi, Balares and Ilienses tribes, British Isles, Celtic tribes in Britain and Ireland and Picts/Priteni. Northern Europe, Finnic peoples, Germanic peoples, iranian influence, Achaemenid control of Thrace and the Bosporan Kingdom, Cimmerians, Scythians, Sarmatians, Alans, Ossetes. The Jewish diaspora reached Europe in the Roman Empire period, the Jewish community in Italy dating to around AD70, the Bulgars, a semi-nomadic people, originally from Central Asia, eventually absorbed by the Slavs
8.
East Asia
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East Asia is the eastern subregion of the Asian continent, which can be defined in either geographical or ethno-cultural terms. Geographically and geopolitically, it includes China, Taiwan, Mongolia, Korea and Japan, it covers about 12,000,000 km2, or about 28% of the Asian continent, the East Asian people comprise more than 1.5 billion people. About 38% of the population of Asia and 22%, or over one fifth, the overall population density of the region is 133 inhabitants per square kilometre, about three times the world average of 45/km2. Historically, societies in East Asia have been part of the Chinese cultural sphere, major religions include Buddhism, Confucianism or Neo-Confucianism, Taoism, Chinese folk religion in China and Taiwan, Shinto in Japan, Korean shamanism in Korea. Shamanism is also prevalent among Mongolians and other populations of northern East Asia. The Chinese calendar is the root from which many other East Asian calendars are derived, Chinese Dynasties dominated the region in matters of culture, trade, and exploration as well as militarily for a very long time. There are records of tributes sent overseas from the kingdoms of Korea. There were also considerable levels of cultural and religious exchange between the Chinese and other regional Dynasties and Kingdoms, as connections began to strengthen with the Western world, Chinas power began to diminish. Around the same time, Japan solidified itself as a nation state, throughout World War II, Korea, Taiwan, much of eastern China, Hong Kong, and Vietnam all fell under Japanese control. Culturally, China, Japan, Korea, Taiwan and Vietnam are commonly seen as being encompassed by cultural East Asia, there are mixed debates around the world whether these countries or regions should be considered in East Asia or not. Vietnam Siberia in Russia Sovereignty issues exist over some territories in the South China Sea, however, in this context, the term Far East is often more appropriate which covers ASEAN countries and the countries in East Asia. However, being a Eurocentric term, Far East describes the geographical position in relation to Europe rather than its location within Asia. Alternatively, the term Asia Pacific Region is often used in describing East Asia and this usage, which is seen in economic and diplomatic discussions, is at odds with the historical meanings of both East Asia and Northeast Asia. The Council on Foreign Relations defines Northeast Asia as Japan and Korea, the military and economic superpower of China became the largest economy in the world in 2014, surpassing the United States of America. Currently in East Asia, trading systems are open, and zero or low duties on imports of consumer and capital goods etc. have considerably helped stimulate cost-efficiency. Free and flexible labor and other markets are important factors making for high levels of business-economic performance. East Asian populations have demonstrated highly positive work ethics, there are relatively large and fast-growing markets for consumer goods and services of all kinds. The culture of East Asia has been influenced by the civilisation of China, East Asia, as well as Vietnam, share a Confucian ethical philosophy, Buddhism, political and legal structures, and historically a common writing system
9.
Demonym
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A demonym is a word that identifies residents or natives of a particular place, which is derived from the name of that particular place. It is a neologism, previously gentilic was recorded in English dictionaries, e. g. the Oxford English Dictionary, thus a Thai may be any resident or citizen of Thailand, of any ethnic group, or more narrowly a member of the Thai people. Conversely, some groups of people may be associated with multiple demonyms, for example, a native of the United Kingdom may be called a British person, a Brit, or a Briton. In some languages, when a parallel demonym does not exist, in English, demonyms are capitalized and are often the same as the adjectival form of the place, e. g. Egyptian, Japanese, or Greek. Significant exceptions exist, for instance the adjectival form of Spain is Spanish, English widely includes country-level demonyms such as Ethiopian or Guatemalan and more local demonyms such as Seoulite, Wisconsinite, Chicagoan, Michigander, Fluminense, and Paulista. Some places lack a commonly used and accepted demonym and this poses a particular challenge to those toponymists who research demonyms. The word gentilic comes from the Latin gentilis and the English suffix -ic, the word demonym was derived from the Greek word meaning populace with the suffix for name. National Geographic attributes the term demonym to Merriam-Webster editor Paul Dickson in a recent work from 1990 and it was subsequently popularized in this sense in 1997 by Dickson in his book Labels for Locals. However, in What Do You Call a Person From, a Dictionary of Resident Names attributed the term to George H. Scheetz, in his Names Names, A Descriptive and Prescriptive Onymicon, which is apparently where the term first appears. Several linguistic elements are used to create demonyms in the English language, the most common is to add a suffix to the end of the location name, slightly modified in some instances. Cairo → Cairene Cyrenaica → Cyrene Damascus → Damascene Greece → Greek Nazareth → Nazarene Slovenia → Slovene Often used for Middle Eastern locations and European locations. Kingston-upon-Hull → Hullensian Leeds → Leodensian Spain → Spaniard Savoy → Savoyard -ese is usually considered proper only as an adjective, thus, a Chinese person is used rather than a Chinese. Monaco → Monégasque Menton → Mentonasque Basque Country → Basque Often used for French locations, mostly they are from Africa and the Pacific, and are not generally known or used outside the country concerned. In much of East Africa, a person of an ethnic group will be denoted by a prefix. For example, a person of the Luba people would be a Muluba, the plural form Baluba, similar patterns with minor variations in the prefixes exist throughout on a tribal level. And Fijians who are indigenous Fijians are known as Kaiviti and these demonyms are usually more informal and colloquial. In the United States such informal demonyms frequently become associated with mascots of the sports teams of the state university system. In other countries the origins are often disputed and these will typically be formed using the standard models above
10.
Politics of French Polynesia
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Executive power is exercised by the government. Legislative power is vested in both the government and the Assembly of French Polynesia, between 1946 and 2003, French Polynesia had the status of an overseas territory. In 2003 it became an overseas collectivity and its statutory law of 27 February 2004 gives it the particular designation of overseas country to underline the large autonomy of the territory. The President of the French Republic is represented by the High Commissioner of the Republic in French Polynesia, the government is headed by the President of French Polynesia. He submits as Council of Ministers a list of members of the Territorial Assembly, French Polynesia elects the Assembly of French Polynesia, the unicameral legislature on the territorial level. The Assembly of French Polynesia has 57 members, elected for a term by proportional representation in multi-seat constituencies. Since the territorial elections of March 6,2001, the parity bill now binds that the number of matches the number of men at the Assembly
11.
President of France
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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
12.
Emmanuel Macron
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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
13.
President of French Polynesia
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The following is a list of Presidents of French Polynesia since 1984, when the office of President of the Government was established. Politics of French Polynesia Kingdom of Tahiti List of monarchs of Tahiti List of colonial and departmental heads of French Polynesia Ben Cahoon
14.
Assembly of French Polynesia
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The Assembly of French Polynesia is the unicameral legislature of French Polynesia, located at the Place Tarahoi in Papeete, Tahiti. It consists of 57 members who are elected by popular vote, the only official language of the Assembly is French. The most recent election was in 2013, the number of seats was changed from 49 seats to 57 seats on 23 May 2004, for the 2004 election. On February 13,2005, by-elections for the Assembly in the constituency of the Windward Islands were held. The next elections are to be held May 2009, the members of the Assembly of French Polynesia are elected in 6 different multi-seat constituencies or electoral districts or electoral circumscriptions. Every electoral circumsription of French Polynesia is represented in the Assembly of French Polynesia by at least 3 representatives, since the territorial elections of March 6,2001, the parity bill now binds that the number of women matches the number of men at the Assembly. Antony Géros - May 9,2004 - April 12,2006 Philip Schyle - April 14,2006 - April 12,2007 Édouard Fritch - April 12,2007 -
15.
France
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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
16.
Geography of French Polynesia
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This article describes the geography of French Polynesia. French Polynesia is located in Oceania and it is an archipelago in the South Pacific Ocean, about halfway between South America and Australia. Its area is about 4,167 km², of which 3,827 km² is land and 340 km² is water and it has a coastline of 2,525 km but no land borders with order countries. 68% Permanent crops,6. 28% Other,93
17.
Gross domestic product
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Gross Domestic Product is a monetary measure of the market value of all final goods and services produced in a period. Nominal GDP estimates are used to determine the economic performance of a whole country or region. The OECD defines GDP as a measure of production equal to the sum of the gross values added of all resident and institutional units engaged in production. ”An IMF publication states that GDP measures the monetary value of final goods and services - that is. Total GDP can also be broken down into the contribution of industry or sector of the economy. The ratio of GDP to the population of the region is the per capita GDP. William Petty came up with a concept of GDP to defend landlords against unfair taxation during warfare between the Dutch and the English between 1652 and 1674. Charles Davenant developed the method further in 1695, the modern concept of GDP was first developed by Simon Kuznets for a US Congress report in 1934. In this report, Kuznets warned against its use as a measure of welfare, after the Bretton Woods conference in 1944, GDP became the main tool for measuring a countrys economy. The switch from GNP to GDP in the US was in 1991, the history of the concept of GDP should be distinguished from the history of changes in ways of estimating it. The value added by firms is relatively easy to calculate from their accounts, but the value added by the sector, by financial industries. GDP can be determined in three ways, all of which should, in principle, give the same result and they are the production approach, the income approach, or the expenditure approach. The most direct of the three is the approach, which sums the outputs of every class of enterprise to arrive at the total. The income approach works on the principle that the incomes of the factors must be equal to the value of their product. This approach mirrors the OECD definition given above, deduct intermediate consumption from gross value to obtain the gross value added. Gross value added = gross value of output – value of intermediate consumption, value of output = value of the total sales of goods and services plus value of changes in the inventories. The sum of the value added in the various economic activities is known as GDP at factor cost. GDP at factor cost plus indirect taxes less subsidies on products = GDP at producer price, for measuring output of domestic product, economic activities are classified into various sectors. Subtracting each sectors intermediate consumption from gross output gives the GDP at factor cost, adding indirect tax minus subsidies in GDP at factor cost gives the GDP at producer prices
18.
CFP franc
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The CFP franc is the currency used in the French overseas collectivities of French Polynesia, New Caledonia and Wallis and Futuna. The initials CFP originally stood for Colonies Françaises du Pacifique and this was later changed to Communauté Financière du Pacifique and then to the present term, Change Franc Pacifique. The ISO4217 currency code is XPF, the CFP franc was created in December 1945, together with the CFA franc, used in Africa. The reason for the creation of these francs was the weakness of the French franc immediately after the Second World War, when France ratified the Bretton Woods Agreement in December 1945, the French franc was devalued in order to set a fixed exchange rate with the US dollar. New currencies were created in the French colonies to spare them the strong devaluation of December 1945. ”The CFA franc and the other colonial currencies were set at a fixed exchange rate with the French franc. However, the CFP franc was set at an exchange rate with the US dollar. That situation ended in September 1949 when the CFP franc was given a fixed rate with the French franc. The CFP franc has been issued by the IEOM since 1967, the IEOM has its headquarters in Paris. The currency was issued in three distinct forms for French Polynesia, New Caledonia and the New Hebrides. Wallis and Futuna used the New Caledonian franc, in 1969, the New Hebrides franc was separated from the CFP franc and was replaced by the Vanuatu vatu in 1982. The new highest denomination 10,000 CFP franc banknote issued on 1 October 1986, was the first one that was not overprinted with a city name. The 500 franc banknote, issued in 1992, and the 1000 and 5000 franc banknotes, the designs of the 500,1000,5000 franc banknotes did not change till 2014, when news designs and sizes were introduced. Today, all banknotes are strictly identical from New Caledonia to French Polynesia, one side of the banknotes shows landscapes or historical figures of French Polynesia, while the other side of the banknotes shows landscapes or historical figures of New Caledonia. Both sets of coins can be used in all three French territories, the situation of the CFP coins is thus quite similar to that of the euro coins, which have a national side but can be used in all countries of the eurozone. December 26,1945 to September 20,1949 – Fixed exchange with the US dollar at 1 USD =49.6 XPF, non-fixed exchange rate with the French franc, which devaluates 4 times vs. the US dollar. From 1 XPF =2.40 FRF in December 1945, in 1949, New Caledonia and what was then called French Oceania began to issue coins. The coins have been separated in two types, the obverses are identical, whilst the reverses are distinct, both types of coins can be used in all three French territories. The situation of the CFP coins is quite similar to that of the euro coins
19.
ISO 4217
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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
20.
Coordinated Universal Time
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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
21.
Left- and right-hand traffic
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This is so fundamental to traffic flow that it is sometimes referred to as the rule of the road. About two-thirds of the population use RHT, with the remaining 76 countries and territories using LHT. Countries that use LHT account for about a sixth of the worlds area, in the early 1900s some countries including Canada, Spain, and Brazil had different rules in different parts of the country. During the 1900s many countries standardised within their jurisdictions, and changed from LHT to RHT, in 1919,104 of the worlds territories were LHT and an equal number were RHT. From 1919 to 1986,34 of the LHT territories switched to RHT, many of the countries with LHT are former British colonies in the Caribbean, Southern Africa, Southeast Asia, Australia, and New Zealand. Japan, Thailand, Nepal, Bhutan, Mozambique, Suriname, East Timor, in Europe, only four countries still drive on the left, the United Kingdom, Ireland, Malta, and Cyprus, all of which are islands. Nearly all countries use one side or the other throughout their entire territory, most exceptions are due to historical considerations and involve islands with no road connection to the main part of a country. China is RHT except the Special Administrative Regions of China of Hong Kong, the United States is RHT except the United States Virgin Islands. The United Kingdom is LHT, but its overseas territories of Gibraltar, according to the International Regulations for Preventing Collisions at Sea, water traffic is RHT. For aircraft the US Federal Aviation Regulations provide for passing on the right, light rail vehicles generally operate on the same side as other road traffic in the country. Many countries use RHT for automobiles but LHT for trains, often because of the influence of the British on early railway systems, in some countries rail traffic remained LHT after automobile traffic switched to RHT, for example in China, Brazil, and Argentina. However, France, Belgium, and Switzerland have used RHT for automobiles since their introduction, there is no technical reason to prefer one side over the other. Ancient Greek, Egyptian, and Roman troops kept to the left when marching, in 1998, archaeologists found a well-preserved double track leading to a Roman quarry near Swindon. The first reference in English law to an order for LHT was in 1756, northcote Parkinson, believed that ancient travellers on horseback or on foot generally kept to the left, since most people were right handed. If two men riding on horseback were to start a fight, each would edge toward the left, in the year 1300, Pope Boniface VIII directed pilgrims to keep left. In the late 1700s, traffic in the United States was RHT based on use of large freight wagons pulled by several pairs of horses. The wagons had no seat, so a postilion sat on the left rear horse. Seated on the left, the driver preferred that other wagons pass him on the left so that he could be sure to keep clear of the wheels of oncoming wagons, in France, traditionally foot traffic had kept right, while carriage traffic kept left
22.
Wikisource
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Wikisource is an online digital library of free content textual sources on a wiki, operated by the Wikimedia Foundation. Wikisource is the name of the project as a whole and the name for each instance of that project, the projects aims are to host all forms of free text, in many languages, and translations. Originally conceived as an archive to store useful or important historical texts, the project officially began in November 24,2003 under the name Project Sourceberg. The name Wikisource was adopted later that year and it received its own domain name seven months later, the project has come under criticism for lack of reliability but it is also cited by organisations such as the National Archives and Records Administration. The project holds works that are either in the domain or freely licensed, professionally published works or historical source documents, not vanity products. Verification was initially made offline, or by trusting the reliability of digital libraries. Now works are supported by online scans via the ProofreadPage extension, some individual Wikisources, each representing a specific language, now only allow works backed up with scans. While the bulk of its collection are texts, Wikisource as a whole hosts other media, some Wikisources allow user-generated annotations, subject to the specific policies of the Wikisource in question. Wikisources early history included several changes of name and location, the original concept for Wikisource was as storage for useful or important historical texts. These texts were intended to support Wikipedia articles, by providing evidence and original source texts. The collection was focused on important historical and cultural material. The project was originally called Project Sourceberg during its planning stages, in 2001, there was a dispute on Wikipedia regarding the addition of primary source material, leading to edit wars over their inclusion or deletion. Project Sourceberg was suggested as a solution to this, perhaps Project Sourceberg can mainly work as an interface for easily linking from Wikipedia to a Project Gutenberg file, and as an interface for people to easily submit new work to PG. Wed want to complement Project Gutenberg--how, exactly, and Jimmy Wales adding like Larry, Im interested that we think it over to see what we can add to Project Gutenberg. It seems unlikely that primary sources should in general be editable by anyone -- I mean, Shakespeare is Shakespeare, unlike our commentary on his work, the project began its activity at ps. wikipedia. org. The contributors understood the PS subdomain to mean either primary sources or Project Sourceberg, however, this resulted in Project Sourceberg occupying the subdomain of the Pashto Wikipedia. A vote on the name changed it to Wikisource on December 6,2003. Despite the change in name, the project did not move to its permanent URL until July 23,2004, since Wikisource was initially called Project Sourceberg, its first logo was a picture of an iceberg
23.
World War II
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World War II, also known as the Second World War, was a global war that lasted from 1939 to 1945, although related conflicts began earlier. It involved the vast majority of the worlds countries—including all of the great powers—eventually forming two opposing alliances, the Allies and the Axis. It was the most widespread war in history, and directly involved more than 100 million people from over 30 countries. Marked by mass deaths of civilians, including the Holocaust and the bombing of industrial and population centres. These made World War II the deadliest conflict in human history, from late 1939 to early 1941, in a series of campaigns and treaties, Germany conquered or controlled much of continental Europe, and formed the Axis alliance with Italy and Japan. Under the Molotov–Ribbentrop Pact of August 1939, Germany and the Soviet Union partitioned and annexed territories of their European neighbours, Poland, Finland, Romania and the Baltic states. In December 1941, Japan attacked the United States and European colonies in the Pacific Ocean, and quickly conquered much of the Western Pacific. The Axis advance halted in 1942 when Japan lost the critical Battle of Midway, near Hawaii, in 1944, the Western Allies invaded German-occupied France, while the Soviet Union regained all of its territorial losses and invaded Germany and its allies. During 1944 and 1945 the Japanese suffered major reverses in mainland Asia in South Central China and Burma, while the Allies crippled the Japanese Navy, thus ended the war in Asia, cementing the total victory of the Allies. World War II altered the political alignment and social structure of the world, the United Nations was established to foster international co-operation and prevent future conflicts. The victorious great powers—the United States, the Soviet Union, China, the United Kingdom, the Soviet Union and the United States emerged as rival superpowers, setting the stage for the Cold War, which lasted for the next 46 years. Meanwhile, the influence of European great powers waned, while the decolonisation of Asia, most countries whose industries had been damaged moved towards economic recovery. Political integration, especially in Europe, emerged as an effort to end pre-war enmities, the start of the war in Europe is generally held to be 1 September 1939, beginning with the German invasion of Poland, Britain and France declared war on Germany two days later. The dates for the beginning of war in the Pacific include the start of the Second Sino-Japanese War on 7 July 1937, or even the Japanese invasion of Manchuria on 19 September 1931. Others follow the British historian A. J. P. Taylor, who held that the Sino-Japanese War and war in Europe and its colonies occurred simultaneously and this article uses the conventional dating. Other starting dates sometimes used for World War II include the Italian invasion of Abyssinia on 3 October 1935. The British historian Antony Beevor views the beginning of World War II as the Battles of Khalkhin Gol fought between Japan and the forces of Mongolia and the Soviet Union from May to September 1939, the exact date of the wars end is also not universally agreed upon. It was generally accepted at the time that the war ended with the armistice of 14 August 1945, rather than the formal surrender of Japan
24.
Tahiti
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Tahiti is the largest island in the Windward group of French Polynesia, this overseas collectivity of the French Republic is sometimes referred to as a French overseas country. The island was formed from volcanic activity and is high and mountainous with surrounding coral reefs, the population is 183,645 inhabitants, making it the most populous island of French Polynesia and accounting for 68.5 percent of its total population. Tahiti is the economic, cultural and political centre of French Polynesia, the capital, Papeete, is located on the northwest coast with the only international airport in the region, Faaā International Airport, situated 5 km from the town centre. Tahiti was originally settled by Polynesians between 300 and 800 CE and they represent about 70 percent of the islands population with the rest made up of Europeans, Chinese and those of mixed heritage. The island was part of the Kingdom of Tahiti until its annexation by France in 1880, when it was proclaimed a colony of France, French is the only official language although the Tahitian language is widely spoken. Tahiti is the highest and largest island in French Polynesia lying close to Moorea island and it is located 4,400 kilometres south of Hawaii,7,900 km from Chile and 5,700 km from Australia. The island is 45 km across at its widest point and covers an area of 1,045 km2, the highest peak is Mont Orohena. Mount Roonui, or Mount Ronui in the southeast rises to 1,332 m, the island consists of two roughly round portions centred on volcanic mountains and connected by a short isthmus named after the small town of Taravao, situated there. The northwestern portion is known as Tahiti Nui, while the much smaller portion is known as Tahiti Iti or Taiarapū. Tahiti Nui is heavily populated along the coast, especially around the capital, the interior of Tahiti Nui is almost entirely uninhabited. Tahiti Iti has remained isolated, as its half is accessible only to those travelling by boat or on foot. The rest of the island is encircled by a road which cuts between the mountains and the sea. A scenic and winding road climbs past dairy farms and citrus groves with panoramic views. Tahitis landscape features lush rainforests and many rivers and waterfalls, including the Papenoo River on the side. November to April is the wet season, the wettest month of which is January with 13.2 in of rain in Papeetē, August is the driest with 1.9 inches. The average temperature ranges between 21 and 31 °C with little seasonal variation, the lowest and highest temperatures recorded in Papeete are 16 and 34 °C, respectively. The first Tahitians arrived from Southeast Asia in about 200 BCE and this hypothesis of an emigration from Southeast Asia is supported by a number of linguistic, biological and archaeological proofs. For example, the languages of Fiji and Polynesia all belong to the same Oceanic sub-group, Fijian-Polynesian, in 1769, for instance, James Cook mentions a great traditional ship in Tahiti that was 33 m long, and could be propelled by sail or paddles
25.
Overseas country of France
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Overseas country is the designation for the overseas collectivity of French Polynesia. French Polynesia was formerly a territory until the constitutional reform on 28 March 2003 created the overseas collectivities. Then, on 27 February 2004 a law was passed giving French Polynesia the particular designation of overseas country while recalling that it belongs to the category of overseas collectivities. However, the Constitutional Council of France ruled that this description was merely a designation and not a legal status, the territorys new status meant a certain autonomy for French Polynesia in the Pacific region. This translated into the transfer of new areas of responsibility while protecting existing autonomy in the fields of health, development and town planning. In addition, French Polynesia gained the power to oppose the application of laws voted by the French Parliament which do not respect these areas of responsibility, furthermore, it established French Polynesian citizenship based on permanent residency - a requirement for the right to vote in regional elections. However, France maintains control over justice, security and public order, currency, defence, New Caledonia, which has the unique status of a sui generis collectivity, is also sometimes incorrectly referred to as an overseas country. However, if the people of New Caledonia choose to remain part of France in a referendum on independence scheduled for 2014 or later, pays Outre-mer Frédéric Monera, Lidée de République et la jurisprudence du Conseil constitutionnel - Paris, L. G. D. J. 2004 -, Official website past and current developments of Frances overseas administrative divisions like pays doutre-mer
26.
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
27.
Society Islands
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The Society Islands includes a group of islands in the South Pacific Ocean. It is, politically and legally, part of French Polynesia and they have a population of 235,295 inhabitants. They cover an area of 1,590 square kilometres. The islanders explain their origins in term of a myth, the feathered god Taaroa lay in his shell. He called out but no-one answered, so he went back into his shell, when he came out he changed his body into the multi-layered dome of the sky. Other parts of his body he transformed into Papa-fenua, the earth, other parts he made into Te Tuma, the ata, or shadow of his phallus. Taaroa said, Cast your eyes on my phallus, gaze upon it and insert it in the earth. He came down to earth at Opoa in Havaii, one of the most sacred places in the Society Islands, other gods were created, and these ran directly into the time of the people. The high chiefs or arii rahi were descendants from the gods, in their presence commoners showed respect by stripping to the waist. The high chiefs erected marae as places of worship, in the generations before Europeans arrived, a cult called Oro-maro-ura developed, the cult of the red-feathered girdle. This became a symbol of the chiefs power. Key followers of the Oro cult were the arioi, who lived separately from the common people and they wore scented flowers and adorned themselves with scents and scarlet-dyed cloth. The head of each group was heavily tattooed from ankle to thigh. Both male and female blacklegs were a group but they were forbidden to have children. Their babies were all killed at birth and they received and gave lavish presents. They had a range of artistic skills and could be priests, navigators. Only good-looking men or women could become arioi and they played a crucial role in ceremonies associated with birth, deaths and marriage. The first European explorers arrived in 1722, jacob Roggeveens Dutch West Indian Expedition was shipwrecked on Takapoto
28.
Windward Islands (Society Islands)
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The Windward Islands are the eastern group of the Society Islands in French Polynesia, an overseas collectivity of France in the southern Pacific Ocean. These islands were named the Georgian Islands in honor of King George III of England. Tahiti, Moorea, and Mehetia are high islands, tetiaroa and Maiao are coral atolls. The majority of the population speaks French and Tahitian, administratively, the Windward Islands form the administrative subdivision of the Windward Islands, one of French Polynesias five administrative subdivisions
29.
Leeward Islands (Society Islands)
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The Leeward Islands are the western part of the Society Islands in French Polynesia, an overseas collectivity of France in the South Pacific. They lie south of the Line Islands, east of the Cooks and their area is 395 km² with a population of over 33,000. The islands to the west comprise a three atoll group, Manuae, Motu One atoll, lying most northerly of the Leeward Islands, the archipelago comprises an administrative division of French Polynesia. The capital of the Leeward Islands administrative subdivision is Uturoa, the Leeward Islands are one of French Polynesias five administrative subdivisions. The administrative subdivision is identical with the district of the Leeward Islands. The first European to encounter the archipelago was James Cook on 12 April 1769 during the British expedition to observe the transit of Venus, on this first voyage, he named the Leeward group of islands Society in honor of the Royal Society. France eventually broke the agreement, and the islands were annexed and became a colony in 1888 after many native resistances and conflicts called the Leewards War, the islands are mountainous, consisting of volcanic rock. They are formed of trachyte, dolerite and basalt, there are raised coral beds high up the mountains, and lava occurs in a variety of forms, even in solid flows. Volcanic activity ceased so long ago that the craters have been almost entirely obliterated by erosion, flora includes breadfruit, pandanus, and coconut palms. The limited terrestrial fauna includes feral pigs, rats, and small lizards, tourism is the mainstay of the economy. Agriculturally, the products are copra, sugar, rum, mother-of-pearl
30.
Tuamotus
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Its major islands are Anaa, Fakarava, Hao and Makemo. The Tuamotu islands were settled by Polynesians, so Tuamotuans share a common culture. French Polynesia is an island group designated as an overseas country of France. The Tuamotus combine with the Gambier Islands to form the Îles Tuamotu-Gambier which is one of the five divisions of French Polynesia. The Tuamotus are grouped into sixteen communes, Anaa, Arutua, Fakarava, Fangatau, Hao, Hikueru, Makemo, Manihi, Napuka, Nukutavake, Puka Puka, Rangiroa, Reao, Takaroa, Tatakoto, and Tureia. The communes on Tuamotu are part of two different electoral districts represented in the Assembly of French Polynesia, the other five communes in western Tuamotu – Arutua, Fakarava, Manihi, Rangiroa, and Takaroa – form the Îles Tuamotu Ouest electoral district. At the 2007 census, the Tuamotus had a population of 18,317 inhabitants, of these,769 inhabitants live in a 215-nautical-mile radius around Mururoa and Fangataufa, the sites of former French nuclear tests. The common language spoken in the Tuamotus is Tuamotuan, except in Puka-Puka which uses the Marquesan language, the islands economy is predominantly composed of subsistence agriculture. The most important sources of income are the cultivation of black pearls. Tourism-related income remains meager, especially by comparison to the industry of the neighboring Society Islands. A modest tourism infrastructure is found on the atolls of Rangiroa, despite the vast spread of the archipelago, it covers a total land area of only about 885 km2. The climate is tropical, without pronounced seasons. The annual average temperature is a relatively continuous 26 °C, water sources such as lakes or rivers are absent, leaving catchments of rain as the only source of fresh water. The annual average rainfall is 1400 mm, rainfall is not markedly different throughout the year, although it is lowest during the months of September and November. Geological stability of the archipelago is high, as it was created by the weakly active Easter Fracture Zone, no volcanic eruptions have been recorded historically. The sparse soil of the coral islands does not permit a diverse vegetation, the coconut palm, which forms the basis for copra production, is of special economic importance. On a few islands, vanilla is also cultivated, agriculture is generally otherwise limited to simple subsistence. Fruit and vegetable staples include yams, taro, and breadfruit, pandanus leaves are traditionally woven together as roof thatch, as well as for other items, such as mats and hats
31.
Gambier Islands
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Because of their proximity, the Acteon Group, and the nearby atolls of Maria Est, Morane, Marutea Sud and Temoe, all permanently uninhabited, are sometimes included among the Gambiers. The commune of Gambier is made up of the Gambier Islands, the uninhabited Acteon Group to the northwest, and this group of islands and atolls covers an area of 35 km². Although these archipelagos are administered as a municipality, the main village is Rikitea. Temoe atoll, one island and a dozen of motus separated by passes over the corall reef. Acteon Group made of four atolls Tenararo, Vahanga, Tenarunga, apart from the above groups, it also includes the three isolated atolls of Marutea Sud, Maria Est, and Morane. The Gambier Islands, together with the islands in the part of the Tuamotus, form Îles Gambier et Tuamotu Est. Together with the Tuamotus, the Gambier Islands form Îles Tuamotu-Gambier, the Gambier Islands proper have an enclosing coral reef which is broken by only three passages to the open sea. Besides Mangareva, the notable high islands of the group are Akamaru, Angakauitai, Aukena, Kamaka, Kouaku, Makapu, Makaroa, Manui, Mekiro. These are primarily of volcanic origin, a number of others are actually coral islands, hence of secondary volcanic origin, including Papuri, Puaumu, Totengengie and the Tokorua group. The islands proper are located at 23°09′S 134°58′W and are approximately 31 km² in area, the total population in 2007 was 1,641. The primary town is Rikitea, located on Mangareva, as is the highest point in the Gambiers, Mt. Duff, the more distant atolls of the Gambiers in the broad sense are all uninhabited. However, excessive logging by the islanders resulted in almost complete deforestation on Mangareva, with results for the islands environment. The folklore of the records a slide into civil war and even cannibalism as trade links with the outside world broke down. Today, the islands can support a population of only a few hundred, in 1834, the French Picpus priests Honoré Laval and François Caret with their assistant Columba Murphy founded a Roman Catholic mission in the Gambiers. After their success here, they moved to Tahiti in 1836, Mangareva along with its dependencies in the Gambier Islands were ruled by a line of kings and later regents that ruled until the French formally annexed the islands in 1881. A French protectorate was requested on 16 February 1844 by King Maputeoa but was never ratified by the French government, on 4 February 1870, Prince Regent Arone Teikatoara and the Mangarevan government formally withdrew the protectorate request and asked the French to not intervene in the kingdoms affairs. The Gambier Islands were finally annexed on 21 February 1881 under Prince Regent Bernardo Putairi, the Gambiers served as a logistical staging base for French nuclear testing activity in Mururoa, approximately 400 kilometers away. During this time, the French military dragged a chain through some of the reef beds to cut a wider and deeper channel for deep draft vessels
32.
Marquesas Islands
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The Marquesas Islands are a group of volcanic islands in French Polynesia, an overseas collectivity of France in the southern Pacific Ocean. The Marquesas are located at 9°00 S, 139°30 W, the highest point is the peak of Mount Oave on Ua Pu island at 1,230 m above sea level. Based on 2010 studies, new research suggests that the islands were colonized rapidly in two waves by indigenous colonists from West Polynesia, beginning c. 1025–1120 AD, leading to development of a remarkably uniform culture, human biology and language. The Marquesas Islands form one of the five divisions of French Polynesia. The capital of the Marquesas Islands administrative subdivision is the settlement of Taiohae on the island of Nuku Hiva, the population of the Marquesas Islands was 9,264 inhabitants at the August 2012 census. D. ∼1025–1120, four centuries later than previously assumed, then after 70–265 years and this rapid colonization is believed to account for the remarkable uniformity of East Polynesia culture, biology and language. The new information will require major reworking of scholarship about the development of linguistics, ethnological and linguistic evidence suggests that they likely migrated from the Western regions of Polynesia. The rich environment of the islands supported a large population and they lived by fishing, eating both fish and shellfish. They used breadfruit and raised other foods, the islands were given their name by Spanish explorer Álvaro de Mendaña, who reached them seventy years later on 21 July 1595. He named them after his patron, García Hurtado de Mendoza, 5th Marquis of Cañete, Mendaña visited first Fatu Hiva and then Tahuata before continuing on to the Solomon Islands. His expedition charted the four southernmost Marquesas as Magdalena, Dominica, San Pedro, in the late 16th century, European explorers estimated the population to have been more than 100,000. Europeans and Americans were impressed with how easy life appeared to be in the islands, in 1791 the American maritime fur trader Joseph Ingraham first visited the northern Marquesas while commanding the brig Hope. He named them as the Washington Islands, in 1813, Commodore David Porter claimed Nuku Hiva for the United States, but the United States Congress never ratified that claim. In 1842, France conducted a military operation on behalf of native chief Iotete. The government laid claim to the group and established a settlement on Nuku Hiva. That settlement was abandoned in 1857, but France reestablished control over the group in 1870 and it later incorporated the Marquesas into French Polynesia. Of all major groups in the Pacific, the Marquesas suffered the greatest population decline in Polynesia from endemic diseases carried by Western explorers. The indigenous people suffered high rates of mortality, as they had no immunity to the new diseases, such infectious diseases as smallpox, measles and others reduced the eighteenth-century population of over 78,000 inhabitants to about 20,000 by the middle of the nineteenth century
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listen); French: Polynésie française [pɔlinezi fʁɑ̃sɛz]; Tahitian: Pōrīnetia Farāni) is an overseas collectivity of the French Republic; collectivité d'outre-mer de la République française 
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