New France
New France was the area colonized by France in North America during a period beginning with the exploration of the Gulf of Saint Lawrence by Jacques Cartier in 1534 and ending with the cession of New France to Great Britain and Spain in 1763 under the Treaty of Paris. At its peak in 1712, the territory of New France sometimes known as the French North American Empire or Royal New France, consisted of five colonies, each with its own administration: Canada, the most developed colony and divided into the districts of Québec, Trois-Rivières and Montréal. In the sixteenth century, the lands were used to draw from the wealth of natural resources such as furs through trade with the various indigenous peoples. In the seventeenth century, successful settlements began in Acadia, in Quebec by the efforts of Champlain. By 1765, the population of the new Province of Quebec reached 70,000 settlers; the 1713 Treaty of Utrecht resulted in France relinquishing its claims to mainland Acadia, the Hudson Bay and Newfoundland to England.
France established the colony of Île Royale, now called Cape Breton Island, where they built the Fortress of Louisbourg. Acadia had a difficult history, with the British causing the Great Upheaval with the forced expulsion of the Acadians in the period from 1755 to 1764; this has been remembered on July 28 each year since 2003. Their descendants are dispersed in the Maritime Provinces of Canada, in Maine and Louisiana in the United States, with small populations in Chéticamp, Nova Scotia and the Magdalen Islands; some went to France. In 1763, France had ceded the rest of New France, except the islands of Saint Pierre and Miquelon, to Great Britain and Spain at the Treaty of Paris, which ended the Seven Years' War. Britain received Canada and the parts of French Louisiana which lay east of the Mississippi River – except for the Île d'Orléans, granted to Spain, along with the territory to the west – the larger portion of Louisiana. In 1800, Spain returned its portion of Louisiana to France under the secret Treaty of San Ildefonso.
However, French leader Napoleon Bonaparte in turn sold it to the United States in the Louisiana Purchase of 1803, permanently ending French colonial efforts on the North American mainland. New France became absorbed within the United States and Canada, with the only vestige remaining under French rule being the tiny islands of Saint Pierre and Miquelon. In the United States, the legacy of New France includes numerous placenames as well as small pockets of French-speaking communities. In Canada, institutional bilingualism and strong Francophone identities are arguably the most enduring legacy of New France. Around 1523, the Florentine navigator Giovanni da Verrazzano convinced King Francis I to commission an expedition to find a western route to Cathay. Late that year, Verrazzano set sail in Dieppe. After exploring the coast of the present-day Carolinas early the following year, he headed north along the coast anchoring in the Narrows of New York Bay; the first European to visit the site of present-day New York, Verrazzano named it Nouvelle-Angoulême in honour of the king, the former count of Angoulême.
Verrazzano's voyage convinced the king to seek to establish a colony in the newly discovered land. Verrazzano gave the names Francesca and Nova Gallia to that land between New Spain and English Newfoundland. In 1534, Jacques Cartier planted a cross in the Gaspé Peninsula and claimed the land in the name of King Francis I, it was the first province of New France. The first settlement of 400 people, Fort Charlesbourg-Royal, was attempted in 1541 but lasted only two years. French fishing fleets continued to sail to the Atlantic coast and into the St. Lawrence River, making alliances with Canadian First Nations that became important once France began to occupy the land. French merchants soon realized the St. Lawrence region was full of valuable fur-bearing animals the beaver, which were becoming rare in Europe; the French crown decided to colonize the territory to secure and expand its influence in America. Another early French attempt at settlement in North America took place in 1564 at Fort Caroline, now Jacksonville, Florida.
Intended as a haven for Huguenots, Caroline was founded under the leadership of René Goulaine de Laudonnière and Jean Ribault. It was sacked by the Spanish led by Pedro Menéndez de Avilés who established the settlement of St. Augustine on 20 September 1565. Acadia and Canada were inhabited by indigenous nomadic Algonquian peoples and sedentary Iroquoian peoples; these lands were full of valuable natural resources, which attracted all of Europe. By the 1580s, French trading companies had been set up, ships were contracted to bring back furs. Much of what transpired between the indigenous population and their European visitors around that time is not known, for lack of historical records. Other attempts at establishing permanent settlements were failures. In 1598, a French trading post was established on Sable Island, off the coast of Acadia, but was unsuccessful. In 1600, a trading post was established at Tadoussac. In 1604, a settlement w
Acadians
The Acadians are the descendants of French colonists who settled in Acadia during the 17th and 18th centuries, some of whom are descended from the Indigenous peoples of the region. The colony was located in what is now Eastern Canada's Maritime provinces, as well as part of Quebec, present-day Maine to the Kennebec River. Acadia was a distinctly separate colony of New France, it was administratively separate from the French colony of Canada. As a result, the Acadians and Québécois developed two distinct cultures, they developed a different French language. France has one official language and to accomplish this they have an administration in charge of the language. Since the Acadians were separated from this council, their French language evolved independently, Acadians retain several elements of 17th-century French that have disappeared in France; the settlers whose descendants became Acadians came from many areas in France, but regions such as Île-de-France, Brittany and Aquitaine. Acadian family names have come from many areas in France.
For example, the Maillets are from Paris. During the French and Indian War, British colonial officers suspected Acadians were aligned with France after finding some Acadians fighting alongside French troops at Fort Beausejour. Though most Acadians remained neutral during the French and Indian War, the British, together with New England legislators and militia, carried out the Great Expulsion of the Acadians during the 1755–1764 period, they deported 11,500 Acadians from the maritime region. One-third perished from disease and drowning; the result was what one historian described as an ethnic cleansing of the Acadians from Maritime Canada. Other historians indicate that it was a deportation similar to other deportations of the time period. Most Acadians were deported to various American colonies, where many were forced into servitude, or marginal lifestyles; some Acadians were deported to England, to the Caribbean, some were deported to France. After being expelled to France, many Acadians were recruited by the Spanish government to migrate to present day Louisiana state, where they developed what became known as Cajun culture.
In time, some Acadians returned to the Maritime provinces of Canada to New Brunswick because they were barred by the British from resettling their lands and villages in what became Nova Scotia. Before the US Revolutionary War, the Crown settled New England Planters in former Acadian communities and farmland as well as Loyalists after the war. British policy was to assimilate Acadians with the local populations. Acadians speak. Many of those in the Moncton area speak English; the Louisiana Cajun descendants speak a variety of American English called Cajun English, with many speaking Cajun French, a close relative of Acadian French from Canada, but influenced by Spanish and West African languages. During the early 1600s, about sixty French families were established in Acadia, they developed friendly relations with the Wabanaki Confederacy, learning their hunting and fishing techniques. The Acadians lived in the coastal regions of the Bay of Fundy. Living in a contested borderland region between French Canada and British territories, the Acadians became entangled in the conflict between the powers.
Over a period of seventy-four years, six wars took place in Acadia and Nova Scotia in which the Confederacy and some Acadians fought to keep the British from taking over the region. While France lost political control of Acadia in 1713, the Mí'kmaq did not concede land to the British. Along with some Acadians, the Mi'kmaq from time to time used military force to resist the British; this was evident in the early 1720s during Dummer's War but hostilities were brought to a close by a treaty signed in 1726. The British Conquest of Acadia happened in 1710. Over the next forty-five years the Acadians refused to sign an unconditional oath of allegiance to Britain. Many were influenced by Father Jean-Louis Le Loutre, who from his arrival in 1738 until his capture in 1755 preached against the'English devils'. During this time period Acadians participated in various militia operations against the British and maintained vital supply lines to the French Fortress of Louisbourg and Fort Beausejour. During the French and Indian War, the British sought to neutralize any military threat Acadians posed and to interrupt the vital supply lines Acadians provided to Louisbourg by deporting Acadians from Acadia.
With the founding of Halifax in 1749 the Mi'kmaq resisted British settlements by making numerous raids on Halifax, Dartmouth and Lunenburg. During the French and Indian War, the Mi'kmaq assisted the Acadians in resisting the British during the Expulsion of the Acadians. Many Acadians might have signed an unconditional oath to the British monarchy had the circumstances been better, while other Acadians did not sign because they were anti-British. For the Acadians who might have signed an unconditional oath, there were numerous reasons why they did not; the difficulty was p
Bougainvillea
Bougainvillea is a genus of thorny ornamental vines, bushes, or trees. The inflorescence consists of large colourful sepallike bracts which surround three simple waxy flowers, it is native to South America from Brazil south to southern Argentina. Different authors accept between 18 species in the genus. Bougainvillea are known as buganvilla, bouganvilla, pokok bunga kertas, Napoleón, veranera, Santa Rita, primavera, vukamvilia or Saron / Saron Par / Sarawn; the vine species grow anywhere from 1 to 12 m tall, scrambling over other plants with their spiky thorns. The thorns are tipped with a waxy substance, they are evergreen where rainfall deciduous if there is a dry season. The leaves are 4 -- 13 cm long and 2 -- 6 cm broad; the actual flower of the plant is small and white, but each cluster of three flowers is surrounded by three or six bracts with the bright colours associated with the plant, including pink, purple, orange, white, or yellow. Bougainvillea glabra is sometimes referred to as "paper flower" because the bracts are thin and papery.
The fruit is a narrow five-lobed achene. The first European to describe these plants was Philibert Commerçon, a botanist accompanying French Navy admiral Louis Antoine de Bougainville during his voyage of circumnavigation of the Earth, first published by Antoine Laurent de Jussieu in 1789, it is possible that the first European to observe these plants was Jeanne Baré, Commerçon's lover and assistant, an expert in botany. Because she was not allowed on ship as a woman, she disguised herself as a man in order to make the journey. Twenty years after Commerçon's description, it was first published as'Buginvillæa' in Genera Plantarum by A. L. de Jussieu in 1789. The genus was subsequently spelled in several ways until it was established as "Bougainvillea" in the Index Kewensis in the 1930s. B. spectabilis and B. glabra were undifferentiated until the mid-1980s when botanists classified them as distinct species. In the early 19th century, these two species were the first to be introduced into Europe, soon, nurseries in France and Britain sold these varieties in Australia and throughout their former colonies.
Meanwhile, Kew Gardens distributed plants it had propagated to British colonies throughout the world. Soon thereafter, a crimson specimen in Cartagena, Colombia was added to the genus descriptions. Thought to be a distinct species, it was named B. buttiana in honour of the European who first encountered it. However studies classified it as a natural hybrid of a variety of B. glabra and B. peruviana - a "local pink bougainvillea" from Peru. Natural hybrids were soon found to be common occurrences all over the world. For instance, around the 1930s, when the three species were grown together, many hybrid crosses were produced spontaneously in East Africa, the Canary Islands, North America, the Philippines. Bougainvillea are popular ornamental plants in most areas with warm climates, such as Florida and South Carolina, across The Mediterranean Basin. Although it is frost-sensitive and hardy in USDA Hardiness Zones 9b and 10, bougainvillea can be used as a houseplant or hanging basket in cooler climates.
In the landscape, it makes an excellent hot season plant, its drought tolerance makes it ideal for warm climates year-round. Its high salt tolerance makes it a natural choice for colour in coastal regions, it can be pruned into a standard, but is grown along fence lines, on walls, in containers and hanging baskets, as a hedge or an accent plant. Its long arching thorny branches bear heart-shaped leaves and masses of papery bracts in white, orange and burgundy. Many cultivars, including double-flowered and variegated, are available. Many of today's bougainvillea are the result of interbreeding among only three out of the eighteen South American species recognised by botanists. There are over 300 varieties of bougainvillea around the world; because many of the hybrids have been crossed over several generations, it is difficult to identify their respective origins. Natural mutations seem to occur spontaneously throughout the world; this had led to multiple names for the same cultivar and has added to the confusion over the names of bougainvillea cultivars.
The growth rate of bougainvillea varies depending on the variety. They tend to flower all year round in equatorial regions. Elsewhere, they are seasonal, with bloom cycles four to six weeks. Bougainvillea grow best in dry soil, in bright full sun and with frequent fertilisation, they can be propagated via tip cuttings. Bougainvillea is a attractive genus for Bonsai enthusiasts, due to their ease of training and their radiant flowering during the spring, they can be kept small by bonsai techniques. B. × buttiana is a garden hybrid of B. peruviana. It has produced numerous garden-worthy cultivars. Bougainvillea are pest-free plants, but they may be su
Royal Society
The President and Fellows of the Royal Society of London for Improving Natural Knowledge known as the Royal Society, is a learned society. Founded on 28 November 1660, it was granted a royal charter by King Charles II as "The Royal Society", it is the oldest national scientific institution in the world. The society is the United Kingdom's and Commonwealth of Nations' Academy of Sciences and fulfils a number of roles: promoting science and its benefits, recognising excellence in science, supporting outstanding science, providing scientific advice for policy, fostering international and global co-operation and public engagement; the society is governed by its Council, chaired by the Society's President, according to a set of statutes and standing orders. The members of Council and the President are elected from and by its Fellows, the basic members of the society, who are themselves elected by existing Fellows; as of 2016, there are about 1,600 fellows, allowed to use the postnominal title FRS, with up to 52 new fellows appointed each year.
There are royal fellows, honorary fellows and foreign members, the last of which are allowed to use the postnominal title ForMemRS. The Royal Society President is Venkatraman Ramakrishnan, who took up the post on 30 November 2015. Since 1967, the society has been based at 6–9 Carlton House Terrace, a Grade I listed building in central London, used by the Embassy of Germany, London; the Invisible College has been described as a precursor group to the Royal Society of London, consisting of a number of natural philosophers around Robert Boyle. The concept of "invisible college" is mentioned in German Rosicrucian pamphlets in the early 17th century. Ben Jonson in England referenced the idea, related in meaning to Francis Bacon's House of Solomon, in a masque The Fortunate Isles and Their Union from 1624/5; the term accrued currency for the exchanges of correspondence within the Republic of Letters. In letters in 1646 and 1647, Boyle refers to "our invisible college" or "our philosophical college".
The society's common theme was to acquire knowledge through experimental investigation. Three dated letters are the basic documentary evidence: Boyle sent them to Isaac Marcombes, Francis Tallents who at that point was a fellow of Magdalene College and London-based Samuel Hartlib; the Royal Society started from groups of physicians and natural philosophers, meeting at a variety of locations, including Gresham College in London. They were influenced by the "new science", as promoted by Francis Bacon in his New Atlantis, from 1645 onwards. A group known as "The Philosophical Society of Oxford" was run under a set of rules still retained by the Bodleian Library. After the English Restoration, there were regular meetings at Gresham College, it is held that these groups were the inspiration for the foundation of the Royal Society. Another view of the founding, held at the time, was that it was due to the influence of French scientists and the Montmor Academy in 1657, reports of which were sent back to England by English scientists attending.
This view was held by Jean-Baptiste du Hamel, Giovanni Domenico Cassini, Bernard le Bovier de Fontenelle and Melchisédech Thévenot at the time and has some grounding in that Henry Oldenburg, the society's first secretary, had attended the Montmor Academy meeting. Robert Hooke, disputed this, writing that: makes Mr Oldenburg to have been the instrument, who inspired the English with a desire to imitate the French, in having Philosophical Clubs, or Meetings. I will not say, that Mr Oldenburg did rather inspire the French to follow the English, or, at least, did help them, hinder us. But'tis well known who were the principal men that began and promoted that design, both in this city and in Oxford, and not only these Philosophic Meetings were. On 28 November 1660, the 1660 committee of 12 announced the formation of a "College for the Promoting of Physico-Mathematical Experimental Learning", which would meet weekly to discuss science and run experiments. At the second meeting, Sir Robert Moray announced that the King approved of the gatherings, a royal charter was signed on 15 July 1662 which created the "Royal Society of London", with Lord Brouncker serving as the first president.
A second royal charter was signed on 23 April 1663, with the king noted as the founder and with the name of "the Royal Society of London for the Improvement of Natural Knowledge". This initial royal favour has continued and, since every monarch has been the patron of the society; the society's early meetings included experiments performed first by Hooke and by Denis Papin, appointed in 1684. These experiments varied in their subject area, were both important in some cases and trivial in others; the society published an English translation of Essays of Natural Experiments Made in the Accademia del Cimento, under the Protection of the Most Serene Prince Leopold of Tuscany in 1684, an Italian book documenting experiments at the Accademia del Cimento. Although meeting at Gresham College, the Society temporarily moved to Arundel House in 1666 after the Great Fire of London, which did not harm Gresham but did lead to its appropriation by the Lord Mayor; the Society r
Order of Saint Louis
The Royal and Military Order of Saint Louis is a dynastic order of chivalry founded 5 April 1693 by King Louis XIV, named after Saint Louis. It was intended as a reward for exceptional officers, notable as the first decoration that could be granted to non-nobles. By the authorities of the French Republic, it is considered a predecessor of the Legion of Honour, with which it shares the red ribbon. Although abolished by the government authorities of the July Revolution in 1830 following the French Revolution, its activities carried on as a dynastic order of the sovereign royal family; as such, it is still recognised by the International Commission on Orders of Chivalry. The King was the Grand Master of the order, the Dauphin was automatically a member as well; the Order had three classes: Grand-Croix Commandeur Chevalier The entire order included 8 Grand Crosses, 28 Commanders and a variable number of Knights. Officers of the Order included, after a Trésorier, a Greffier and a Huissier; the badge of the order consisted of a portrait of Saint Louis surrounded by the motto « LUD M IN 1693 ».
The reverse features a sword interlaced with a laurel crown and a white sash, with the inscription « BELL VIRTUTIS PRAEM ». Knights wore the badge suspended from a ribbon on the breast, Commanders wore a red ribband over the right shoulder, recipients of the Grand Cross wore the ribband as well as a star on the left breast; the general assembly of the Order was held annually on 25 August, the feast day of Saint Louis, in the residence of the King. Conditions for being inducted did not include nobility. Members of the Order received a pension. Hereditary nobility was granted to a knight's son and grandsons. Another decoration, the Institution of Military Merit was created for the Protestant officers in service of the French king; until the death of Louis XIV, the medal was awarded to outstanding officers only, but it came to be an award that most officers would receive during their career. On 1 January 1791, during the French Revolution, a decree changed the name to décoration militaire, it was subsequently withdrawn on 15 October 1792.
One of the first acts of Louis XVIII was to reinstate the Order of Saint Louis, using it to award officers of the Royal and Imperial armies alike. In 1830 the new king Louis-Philippe abolished the order, never reinstated. Louis, by the grace of God King of Navarre, to all present and yet to come, hail; the officers of our troops have distinguished themselves by so many actions of considerable virtue and courage, in the conquest which it pleased God to bless the justice of our arms, ordinary awards becoming insufficient to the affection and the thankfulness which we have for them, we have deemed it necessary to seek new ways to reward their zeal and fidelity. In this view have we decided to establish a purely military Order to which, in addition to the external marks of honour which are associated to it, we shall guarantee revenues and pensions which shall rise in proportion to them growing more and more worthy through their behaviour. We have decided that only officers still serving in our troops shall be introduced and that virtue and distinguished service in our armies shall be the only criteria to enter.
We shall in the future give a particular attention to increase the advantages of this order, so that we shall have the satisfaction to always be able to grant graces to the officers, on the other hand, seeing rewards guaranteed by valour, they would every day bear renewed ardour in deserving them by their actions. In these causes, with the advice of our council, our certain science, full power and royal authority, we have created and built, by the present, our military Order with the name of Saint Louis, with the forms, statutes and rules as follow: Ordre Royal et Militaire de Saint-Louis—includes photographs, explanations and a 20,000 name list of recipients Histoire de l'Ordre royal & militaire de Saint-Louis—History of the Order
French and Indian War
The French and Indian War pitted the colonies of British America against those of New France, each side supported by military units from the parent country and by American Indian allies. At the start of the war, the French colonies had a population of 60,000 settlers, compared with 2 million in the British colonies; the outnumbered French depended on the Indians. The European nations declared a wider war upon one another overseas in 1756, two years into the French and Indian war, some view the French and Indian War as being the American theater of the worldwide Seven Years' War of 1756–63; the name French and Indian War is used in the United States, referring to the two enemies of the British colonists, while European historians use the term Seven Years' War, as do English-speaking Canadians. French Canadians call it the Fourth Intercolonial War; the British colonists were supported at various times by the Iroquois and Cherokee tribes, the French colonists were supported by Wabanaki Confederacy member tribes Abenaki and Mi'kmaq, the Algonquin, Ojibwa, Ottawa and Wyandot tribes.
Fighting took place along the frontiers between New France and the British colonies, from the Province of Virginia in the south to Newfoundland in the north. It began with a dispute over control of the confluence of the Allegheny River and Monongahela River called the Forks of the Ohio, the site of the French Fort Duquesne in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania; the dispute erupted into violence in the Battle of Jumonville Glen in May 1754, during which Virginia militiamen under the command of 22-year-old George Washington ambushed a French patrol. In 1755, six colonial governors met with General Edward Braddock, the newly arrived British Army commander, planned a four-way attack on the French. None succeeded, the main effort by Braddock proved a disaster. British operations failed in the frontier areas of the Province of Pennsylvania and the Province of New York during 1755–57 due to a combination of poor management, internal divisions, effective Canadian scouts, French regular forces, Indian warrior allies.
In 1755, the British captured Fort Beauséjour on the border separating Nova Scotia from Acadia, they ordered the expulsion of the Acadians soon afterwards. Orders for the deportation were given by Commander-in-Chief William Shirley without direction from Great Britain; the Acadians were expelled, both those captured in arms and those who had sworn the loyalty oath to the King. Indians were driven off the land to make way for settlers from New England; the British colonial government fell in the region of Nova Scotia after several disastrous campaigns in 1757, including a failed expedition against Louisbourg and the Siege of Fort William Henry. William Pitt came to power and increased British military resources in the colonies at a time when France was unwilling to risk large convoys to aid the limited forces that they had in New France, preferring to concentrate their forces against Prussia and its allies who were now engaged in the Seven Years' War in Europe. Between 1758 and 1760, the British military launched a campaign to capture French Canada.
They succeeded in capturing territory in surrounding colonies and the city of Quebec. The British lost the Battle of Sainte-Foy west of Quebec, but the French ceded Canada in accordance with the Treaty of Paris. France ceded its territory east of the Mississippi to Great Britain, as well as French Louisiana west of the Mississippi River to its ally Spain in compensation for Spain's loss to Britain of Spanish Florida. France's colonial presence north of the Caribbean was reduced to the islands of Saint Pierre and Miquelon, confirming Great Britain's position as the dominant colonial power in America. In British America, wars were named after the sitting British monarch, such as King William's War or Queen Anne's War. There had been a King George's War in the 1740s during the reign of King George II, so British colonists named this conflict after their opponents, it became known as the French and Indian War; this continues as the standard name for the war in the United States, although Indians fought on both sides of the conflict.
It led into the Seven Years' War overseas, a much larger conflict between France and Great Britain that did not involve the American colonies. Less used names for the war include the Fourth Intercolonial War and the Great War for the Empire. In Europe, the French and Indian War is conflated into the Seven Years' War and not given a separate name. "Seven Years" refers to events in Europe, from the official declaration of war in 1756—two years after the French and Indian War had started—to the signing of the peace treaty in 1763. The French and Indian War in America, by contrast, was concluded in six years from the Battle of Jumonville Glen in 1754 to the capture of Montreal in 1760. Canadians conflate both the American conflicts into the Seven Years' War. French Canadi
Bougainville Island
Bougainville Island is the main island of the Autonomous Region of Bougainville of Papua New Guinea. This region is known as Bougainville Province or the North Solomons, its land area is 9,300 km2. The population of the province is 234,280, which includes the adjacent island of Buka and assorted outlying islands including the Carterets. Mount Balbi at 2,700 m is the highest point. Bougainville Island is the largest of the Solomon Islands archipelago, forming part of the Northern Solomon Islands, politically separate from the sovereign country called Solomon Islands. Bougainville was first settled some 28,000 years ago. Three to four thousand years ago, Austronesian people arrived, bringing with them domesticated pigs, chickens and obsidian tools; the first European contact with Bougainville was in 1768, when the French explorer Louis de Bougainville arrived and named the main island for himself. Germany laid claim to Bougainville in 1899. Christian missionaries arrived on the island in 1902. During World War I, Australia occupied German New Guinea, including Bougainville.
It became part of the Australian Territory of New Guinea under a League of Nations mandate in 1920. In 1942, during World War II, Japan invaded the island, but allied forces launched the Bougainville campaign to regain control of the island in 1943. Despite heavy bombardments, the Japanese garrisons remained on the island until 1945. Following the war, the Territory of New Guinea, including Bougainville, returned to Australian control. In 1949, the Territory of New Guinea, including Bougainville, merged with the Australian Territory of Papua, forming the Territory of Papua and New Guinea, a United Nations Trust Territory under Australian administration. On 9 September 1975, the Parliament of Australia passed the Papua New Guinea Independence Act 1975; the Act set 16 September 1975 as date of independence and terminated all remaining sovereign and legislative powers of Australia over the territory. Bougainville was to become part of an independent Papua New Guinea. However, on 11 September 1975, in a failed bid for self-determination, Bougainville declared itself the Republic of the North Solomons.
The republic failed to achieve any international recognition, a settlement was reached in August 1976. Bougainville was absorbed politically into Papua New Guinea with increased self-governance powers. Between 1988 and 1998, the Bougainville Civil War claimed over 15,000 lives. Peace talks brokered by New Zealand led to autonomy. A multinational Peace Monitoring Group under Australian leadership was deployed. In 2001, a peace agreement was signed including promise of a referendum on independence from Papua New Guinea, which will be held in 2019. Bougainville is the largest island in the Solomon Islands archipelago, it is part of the Solomon Islands rain forests ecoregion. Bougainville and the nearby island of Buka are a single landmass separated by a deep 300-metre-wide strait; the island has an area of 9000 square kilometres, there are several active, dormant or inactive volcanoes which rise to 2400 m. Mount Bagana in the north central part of Bougainville is conspicuously active, spewing out smoke, visible many kilometres distant.
Earthquakes cause little damage. The daily volume of wild rivers appears to be decreasing; this has been affected by deforestation caused by the increased demand for gardens to feed the growing population. Mining with its use of chemicals and its aftereffects poses other environmental issues, e.g. alluvial gold mining and the now decommissioned Rio Tinto-owned Panguna mine. Bougainville has one of the world's largest copper deposits; these have been under development since 1972. The majority of people on Bougainville are Christian, an estimated 70% being Roman Catholic and a substantial minority United Church of Papua New Guinea since 1968. Few non-natives remain. There are many indigenous languages in Bougainville Province, belonging to three language families; the languages of the northern end of the island, some scattered around the coast, belong to the Austronesian family. The languages of the north-central and southern lobes of Bougainville Island belong to the North and South Bougainville families.
The most spoken Austronesian language is Halia and its dialects, spoken in the island of Buka and the Selau peninsula of Northern Bougainville. Other Austronesian languages include Nehan, Solos, Saposa and Tinputz, all spoken in the northern quarter of Bougainville and surrounding islands; these languages are related. Bannoni and Torau are Austronesian languages not related to the former, which are spoken in the coastal areas of central and south Bougainville. On the nearby Takuu Atoll a Polynesian language is spoken, Takuu; the Papuan languages are confined to the main island of Bougainville. These include Rotokas, a language with a small inventory of phonemes, Terei, Nasioi, Siwai, Baitsi and several others; these constitute North Bougainville and South Bougainville. None of the languages are spoken by more than 20% of the population, the larger languages such as Nasioi, Korokoro Motuna and Halia are split into dialects that are not always mutually understandable. For general communication most Bougainvilleans use Tok Pisin as a lingua franca, at least in the coastal areas Tok Pisin is learned by children in a bilingual environment.
English and Tok Pisin are the languages of official government. A 2013 U
