French Polynesia

French Polynesia
French Polynesia (/ˈfrɛntʃ pɒlɪˈniːʒə/ ( listen); French: Polynésie française [pɔlinezi fʁɑ̃sɛz];
Tahitian: Pōrīnetia Farāni) is an overseas collectivity of France and its sole overseas country. It
comprises 118 geographically dispersed islands and atolls stretching over more than 2,000
kilometres (1,200 mi) in the South Pacific Ocean. The total land area of French Polynesia is
4,167 square kilometres (1,609 sq mi).
French Polynesia is divided into five groups of islands:
1. the Society Islands archipelago, comprising the Windward Islands and the Leeward Islands
2. the Tuamotu Archipelago
3. the Gambier Islands
4. the Marquesas Islands
5. the Austral Islands.
Among its 118 islands and atolls, 67 are inhabited. Tahiti, which is in the Society Islands group,
is the most populous island, being home to nearly 69% of the population of French Polynesia as
of 2017. Papeete, located on Tahiti, is the capital of French Polynesia. Although not an integral
part of its territory, Clipperton Island was administered from French Polynesia until 2007.
Hundreds of years after the Great Polynesian Migration, European explorers began traveling
through the region, visiting the islands of French Polynesia on several occasions. Traders and
whaling ships also visited. In 1842, the French took over the islands and established a French
protectorate that they called Établissements français d'Océanie (EFO) (French
Establishments/Settlements of Oceania).
In 1946, the EFO became an overseas territory under the constitution of the French Fourth
Republic, and Polynesians were granted the right to vote through citizenship. In 1957, the EFO
were renamed French Polynesia. In 1983 French Polynesia became a member of the Pacific
Community, a regional development organization. Since 28 March 2003, French Polynesia has
been an overseas collectivity of the French Republic under the constitutional revision of article
74, and later gained, with law 2004-192 of 27 February 2004, an administrative autonomy, two
symbolic manifestations of which are the title of the President of French Polynesia and its
additional designation as an overseas country.[4]
Contents
 1 History
 2 Governance
o 2.1 Administration
o 2.2 Relations with mainland France
o 2.3 Defence
 3 Geography
o 3.1 Administrative divisions
 4 Demographics
o 4.1 Historical population
 5 Culture
o 5.1 Languages
o 5.2 Music
o 5.3 Religion
o 5.4 Sports
 5.4.1 Football
 5.4.2 Va'a
 5.4.3 Surfing
 5.4.4 Kitesurfing
 5.4.5 Diving
 5.4.6 Rugby
 6 Economy and infrastructure
o 6.1 Transportation
o 6.2 Communication
 7 Notable people
 8 See also
 9 Notes
 10 References
 11 Bibliography
 12 External links
History
The French frigate Floréal in November 2002, stationed in Bora Bora lagoon
Anthropologists and historians believe the Great Polynesian Migration commenced around 1500
BC as Austronesian peoples went on a journey using celestial navigation to find islands in the
South Pacific Ocean. The first islands of French Polynesia to be settled were the Marquesas
Islands in about 200 BC. The Polynesians later ventured southwest and discovered the Society
Islands around AD 300.[5]
European encounters began in 1521 when Portuguese explorer Ferdinand Magellan, sailing at the
service of the Spanish Crown, sighted Puka-Puka in the Tuāmotu-Gambier Archipelago. In 1606
another Spanish expedition under Pedro Fernandes de Queirós sailed through Polynesia sighting
an inhabited island on 10 February[6] which they called Sagitaria (or Sagittaria), probably the
island of Rekareka to the southeast of Tahiti.[7] In 1722, Dutchman Jakob Roggeveen while on an
expedition sponsored by the Dutch West India Company, charted the location of six islands in
the Tuamotu Archipelago and two islands in the Society Islands, one of which was Bora Bora.
British explorer Samuel Wallis became the first European navigator to visit Tahiti in 1767.
French explorer Louis Antoine de Bougainville also visited Tahiti in 1768, while British explorer
James Cook arrived in 1769,[5] and observed the transit of Venus. He would stop in Tahiti again
in 1773 during his second voyage to the Pacific, and once more in 1777 during his third and last
voyage before being killed in Hawaii.
In 1772, the Spanish Viceroy of Peru Don Manuel de Amat ordered a number of expeditions to
Tahiti under the command of Domingo de Bonechea who was the first European to explore all of
the main islands beyond Tahiti.[8] A short-lived Spanish settlement was created in 1774,[5] and for
a time some maps bore the name Isla de Amat after Viceroy Amat.[9] Christian missions began
with Spanish priests who stayed in Tahiti for a year. Protestants from the London Missionary
Society settled permanently in Polynesia in 1797.
Society Island kingdoms
King Pōmare II of Tahiti was forced to flee to Mo'orea in 1803[why?]; he and his subjects were
converted to Protestantism in 1812. French Catholic missionaries arrived on Tahiti in 1834; their
expulsion in 1836 caused France to send a gunboat in 1838. In 1842, Tahiti and Tahuata were
declared a French protectorate, to allow Catholic missionaries to work undisturbed. The capital
of Papeetē was founded in 1843. In 1880, France annexed Tahiti, changing the status from that
of a protectorate to that of a colony. The island groups were not officially united until the
establishment of the French protectorate in 1889.[10]
After France declared a protectorate over Tahiti in 1840 and fought a war with Tahiti (1844–
1847), the British and French signed the Jarnac Convention in 1847, declaring that the kingdoms
of Raiatea, Huahine and Bora Bora were to remain independent from either powers and that no
single chief was to be allowed to reign over the entire archipelago. France eventually broke the
agreement, and the islands were annexed and became a colony in 1888 (eight years after the
Windward Islands) after many native resistances and conflicts called the Leewards War, lasting
until 1897.[11][12]
In the 1880s, France claimed the Tuamotu Archipelago, which formerly belonged to the Pōmare
Dynasty, without formally annexing it. Having declared a protectorate over Tahuata in 1842, the
French regarded the entire Marquesas Islands as French. In 1885, France appointed a governor
and established a general council, thus giving it the proper administration for a colony. The
islands of Rimatara and Rūrutu unsuccessfully lobbied for British protection in 1888, so in 1889
they were annexed by France. Postage stamps were first issued in the colony in 1892. The first
official name for the colony was Établissements de l'Océanie (Establishments in Oceania); in
1903 the general council was changed to an advisory council and the colony's name was changed
to Établissements Français de l'Océanie (French Establishments in Oceania).[13]
In 1940, the administration of French Polynesia recognised the Free French Forces and many
Polynesians served in World War II. Unknown at the time to the French and Polynesians, the
Konoe Cabinet in Imperial Japan on 16 September 1940 included French Polynesia among the
many territories which were to become Japanese possessions, as part of the "Eastern Pacific
Government-General" in the post-war world.[14] However, in the course of the war in the Pacific
the Japanese were not able to launch an actual invasion of the French islands.
A two-franc World War II emergency-issue banknote (1943), printed in Papeete, and depicting the
outline of Tahiti on the reverse
In 1946, Polynesians were granted French citizenship and the islands' status was changed to an
overseas territory; the islands' name was changed in 1957 to Polynésie Française (French
Polynesia). In 1962, France's early nuclear testing ground in Algeria was no longer useable when
Algeria became independent and the Moruroa atoll in the Tuamotu Archipelago was selected as
the new testing site; tests were conducted underground after 1974.[15] In 1977, French Polynesia
was granted partial internal autonomy; in 1984, the autonomy was extended. French Polynesia
became a full overseas collectivity of France in 2003.[16]
In September 1995, France stirred up widespread protests by resuming nuclear testing at

Fangataufa atoll after a three-year moratorium. The last test was on 27 January 1996. On 29
January 1996, France announced that it would accede to the Comprehensive Test Ban Treaty,
and no longer test nuclear weapons.[17]
French Polynesia was relisted in the UN List of Non-Self Governing Territories in 2013, making
it eligible for a UN-backed independence referendum. The relisting was made after the
indigenous opposition was voiced and supported by the Polynesian Leaders Group, Pacific
Conference of Churches, Women's International League for Peace and Freedom, Non-Aligned
Movement, World Council of Churches, and Melanesian Spearhead Group.[18]

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French Polynesia

French Polynesia is divided into five groups of islands:

Society Island kingdoms

In September 1995, France stirred up widespread protests by resuming nuclear testing at

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