Everything Everywhere Daily: History, Science, Geography & More - French Overseas Departments

Episode Date: November 25, 2023

Back in the 19th and early 20th centuries, several European countries had colonies all around the world.  Today, all of the empires have broken up, but some countries still have tiny remnants that can be found overseas. One of those countries is France. However, France’s overseas possessions are organized very differently from those held by Britain, the Netherlands, or Denmark.  Learn more about France’s Overseas Departments, the parts of France that are not in Europe, on this episode of Everything Everywhere Daily. Sponsors BetterHelp Visit BetterHelp.com/everywhere today to get 10% off your first month ButcherBox Sign up today at butcherbox.com/daily and use code daily to choose your free steak for a year and get $20 off."  Subscribe to the podcast!  https://link.chtbl.com/EverythingEverywhere?sid=ShowNotes -------------------------------- Executive Producer: Charles Daniel Associate Producers: Peter Bennett & Cameron Kieffer   Become a supporter on Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/everythingeverywhere Update your podcast app at newpodcastapps.com Discord Server: https://discord.gg/UkRUJFh Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/everythingeverywhere/ Facebook Group: https://www.facebook.com/groups/everythingeverywheredaily Twitter: https://twitter.com/everywheretrip Website: https://everything-everywhere.com/ Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Back in the 19th and early 20th centuries, several European countries had colonies all over the world. Today, all those empires have broken up, but some countries still have tiny remnants that can be found overseas. One of those countries is France. However, France's overseas possessions are organized very differently from those held by Britain, the Netherlands, or Denmark. Learn more about France's overseas departments, the parts of France that are not in Europe on this episode of Everything Everywhere Daily. What if your perceptions about the past were wrong? ThruLine is a podcast that takes you back in time to uncover the parts of the story that may have gone unnoticed. It effectively turned day into night. And how it shaped the world now.

Time travel with us every week on the ThruLine podcast from NPR. I've previously done episodes on the territories of the United Kingdom, the United States, and the Netherlands. What they all have in common is that they once controlled much larger territories, and today, what's left of their empires is now a collection of small overseas territories. Britain has places like Gibraltar and the Falkland Islands, the Netherlands has Aruba and Curacao, the United States, has Guam and the U.S. Virgin Islands. While the organization of these territories is different for every country, what they all have in common is that they are not a core part of the main country.

people in Guam can't vote for president, for example, and people on Pitcairn Island aren't represented in Parliament. The key thing to know about France's territories is that, for the most part, France doesn't have territories, at least not in the same way that the countries I just listed do. To understand this, we first need to clarify and define a few things about France. When I say France, you probably think of the roughly hexagonal-shaped country in Europe. that popularized baguettes and is famous for having hundreds of different types of cheese. Indeed, that is France. However, that is not all of France. According to the way the country is organized, the European parts of France, which include the island of Corsica, are unofficially called Metropolitan France.

The rest of France is unofficially known as Overseas France. Overseas France consists of 13 remnants of the France. French Empire. These 13 regions have different legal statuses within France, and as we'll see, possibly different futures. The 13 regions include five that are departments and regions of France. Five others are considered to be overseas collectivities. Of the remaining three, one is called a sui generis collectivity, one is an actual overseas territory, and the final one has no real status and is just considered private property owned by the state of France. So with that, let's start going through them, starting with the five overseas departments.

An overseas department has the exact same legal status as every other part of metropolitan France. That means that it is in every legal sense of the word, a part of France just as much as Hawaii is a part of the United States. The five overseas departments are French Guiana and South Carolina. America, Guadalupe and Martinique in the Caribbean, and Mayotte and Reunion in the Indian Ocean. These departments vote in France or elections and have representatives in the French Parliament. French Guiana is located on the South American continent and is considered to be a special territory of the European Union. It has a very low population density with an area about a seventh the size of metropolitan France and a population of only 300,000 people. A fun trivia question is,

what countries border France. People might get the European countries, but will probably totally overlook the fact that Brazil and Suriname both border France as well. French Guiana is perhaps best known as being the launch site for rockets from the European Space Agency and as the location of the famous French prison, Devil's Island. The Guyana Amazonian National Park is the largest park, oddly enough, in the European Union. Wadalupe and Martinique are both two of the larger islands in the lesser Antilles in the Caribbean. They're only about 110 kilometers or 68 miles apart from each other at their closest point. Guadalupe is a butterfly-shaped island with other smaller islands around it, and it has a population of approximately 384,000. Martinique is to the south of Guadalupe and

the nation of Dominica. It's a bit smaller than Guadalupe and has a population of about 361,000. Mayotte and Reunion are both in the Indian Ocean. Mayotte is located approximately half between the island of Madagascar and the coast of Mozambique. Reunion is located east of Madagascar and is the largest overseas department with a population of approximately 873,000. These five departments, despite legally being an integral part of France, are culturally very different from metropolitan France. Europeans make up a small minority of the population in all of these departments. In French Guiana, the population is a mix of Afro-Caribbean people, people native to the region, as well as a mix of immigrants from other countries.

In Guadalupe and Martinique, the population is primarily Afro-Caribbean. In Mayat, 97% of the population is Muslim, who are mostly ethnic Comorians, the people from the nation of Comoros. The Comorians are themselves a mix of Arab, African, and Malagasy people from Madagascar. In reunion, the population is largely Malagasy, along with African, Indian, Chinese, and some Europeans. Each of these overseas departments is worthy of its own episode in the future. But the point I'm trying to make for this episode is that they are all legally very much a part of France,

but culturally very different from France. The next group are the regions categorized as an overseas collectivity. The category of overseas collectivity was created in 2003 in a French constitutional reform. The difference between an overseas collectivity and an overseas department is that overseas collectivity, have a greater ability to establish their own laws, except for cases of national defense, international relations, trade, currency, and judicial affairs. The five overseas collectivities are French Polynesia, St. Bartholomey, aka St. Barthes, St. Martin, St. Pierre and Michelin, and Wales and Futuna.

French Polynesia is the outlier in this group, as it has the largest area and the largest population. It covers an area of the Pacific Ocean that's almost 2,000 kilometers or 12th. 1,200 miles, and consists of 121 islands and atolls, 75 of which are inhabited. French Polynesia also has the status of an overseas country, which is basically a unique status given to it. It was the location of French nuclear weapons testing in 1962 when they could no longer perform tests in Algeria. French Polynesia is still listed on the United Nations list of non-self-governing territories, one of two French overseas territories to have this distinction. French Polynesia has flirted with and rejected and flirted with the idea of

independence for decades. There have been pro and anti-independence presidents elected in very recent memory. The vast majority of the people speak French, however, about 20% of the population speak to Heishon, with other Polynesian dialects being spoken on the outer islands. The other overseas collectivity in the Pacific is Wales and Futuna. Most people haven't heard of Whalas and Fetuna. It's two islands, Wailas and Fetuna, and it's located between Fiji, Samoa, Tonga, and Tuvalu. Whalus and Fetuna only has a population of 11,500 people, the vast majority of which are Polynesian. The islands are still divided into chieftains with three on Wales and two on Fetuna. The other three overseas collectivities are in the Atlantic.

St. Pierre and Michelin is the last remaining French territory in North America that was originally part of New France. They consist of just two islands that lie 12 miles or 20 kilometers off the coast of Newfoundland and Canada. The islands were given to the French by the British, after they took them from the French, after the end of the Seven Years War in 1763. Britain received all of New France, what is today, Quebec, and they agreed to give St. Pierre and Michelon to the French in order to provide them with some limited fishing rights in the region. The French and the British swapped control of the islands in the late 18th and early 19th, centuries, but in the end, they wound up in the possession of France. The island served as a base

for smuggling into the United States and Canada, which became extremely active during American Prohibition. On June 17, 1939, the last public guillotining in history took place outside the prison on the island of St. Pierre. During World War II, the island was invaded by free French forces under Charles de Gaulle after the island's administrator pledged loyalty to Vichy France. In a subsequent referendum right after the invasion, the population voted 98% in favor of the takeover by the free French forces. The current population is only about 6,000 people, and it's a frequent stop for cruise ships along the coast of Newfoundland. The fishing rights and oceanic economic zone of St. Pierre and Michelin have frustrated Canada for decades. The other two overseas

collectivities are in the Caribbean. One is St. Martin, which is the northern half of the island of St. Martin, which is shared with the Netherlands. The French control about 60% of the island's area, but only have about 43% of the population, with a total population of about 32,000 people on the French side. Outside of a sign on the side of the road, you really wouldn't even notice going from one side of the island to the other. While the official language is French, there's probably less French spoken in St. Martin than in any other French territory.

Because it's a popular tourist destination and because it shares the island, and because it shares the island with the Netherlands, English and Dutch are widely spoken as well. It's also very close to the island and British territory of Anguilla, which is only about eight kilometers or five miles from French St. Martin. The final overseas collectivity is the nearby island of St. Barthelmy, often known as St. Barth's. St. Barth lies about 30 kilometers or 19 miles southeast of the island of St. Martin. The island was actually a former colony of Sweden, but they sold it to France in 1878, after a referendum was held on the island where the people voted to join France. Today, the island has a population of about 11,000 people and is best known as a vacation destination

for the very wealthy. Some of the highest end luxury resorts in the Caribbean are in St. Barth. And it also has one of the most challenging and dangerous airports in the world for pilots. The territory that is classified as a sui generis collectivity is New Caledonia in the Pacific. Sui generis is the Latin word for of its own. own kind. New Caledonia is a Melanesian island located between Vanuatu and Australia. Outside of French Guiana, it is by far the largest French territory by area. It has a population of approximately 271,000 people, 41% of whom are indigenous Kanak people. New Caledonia is rich in resources, and the movement for independence here has been stronger than in any current French

territory. Violent unrest took place there throughout the 70s and 80s. and an agreement was reached that allowed for future referendums on independence to take place. Referendums were held in 2018 and in 2020, with independents being rejected both times by 56.7% and 53.4% of the vote. One of the complaints about the referendums is that the vote was swayed by the 24% of the population that is of European ancestry who moved there. A referendum that was supposed to be held in 2023 was canceled. The 11 regions I just mentioned all have representation in the French Parliament and can vote in French presidential elections.

The only territory that has the official status of an overseas territory is the French, southern, and Antarctic lands. These are a collection of islands in the Indian and Southern Oceans and territory in Antarctica that have no native populations and only a skeleton team of a few hundred researchers who live there at any given time. The territory consists of Adelaide Land, which is a wedge of Antarctica that Francis claimed, the Crozay Islands between Madagascar and Antarctica, the Kyrgyzstan Islands, which are located to the east of the Crozai Islands, St. Paul and Amsterdam Islands, which are located north of the Kurgulan Islands, and finally a group that's simply known as the Scattered Islands, which are uninhabited islands around Madagascar.

The very last bit of French territory, which has no real special legal status at all and is only considered to be state private property of the French government is Clipperton Island. Clipperton is an uninhabited coral atoll located approximately 1,280 kilometers, or 690 miles southwest of Acapulco, Mexico. There have been attempts to populate this island over the years to strengthen the sovereignty claims, but its remoteness and lack of fresh water caused all attempts to fail. There have been historical claims to the island by both the United States in Mexico, but they haven't been pursued recently. Today, the island and the area around it is a nature preserve. But every few years, there are amateur radio operators who will make what is known

as a de-expedition where they set up camp and talk to amateur radio operators around the world. France's overseas departments, collectivities, and territories are the remnants of what was once a much larger empire. Today, they are all in some respect, just a part of the French Republic. The executive producer of Everything Everywhere Daily is Charles Daniel. The associate producers are Peter Bennett and Cameron Kiefer. I wanted to give a big thanks to everyone who supports the show on Patreon. Your support helps me put out a new show every day. And if you're interested in Everything Everywhere Daily merchandise,

Patreon is currently the only place where it's available. And if you'd like to talk to other listeners of the show and get notified of future episodes and projects, please join my Facebook group or Discord server. Links to everything are in the show notes.