Difference between revisions of "New Caledonia" - New World Encyclopedia

From New World Encyclopedia
(New Caledonia - edit)
(New Caledonia - infobox)
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{{Infobox_Country
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{| border=1 align=right cellpadding=2 cellspacing=0 width=300 style="margin: 0.5em 0 1em 1em; background: #ffffff; border: 1px #aaaaaa solid; border-collapse: collapse; font-size: 95%;"
|native_name =Nouvelle-Calédonie 
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|+<big><big>'''New Caledonia'''</big></big>
|common_name =New Caledonia
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|-
|image_flag =Flag_of_France.svg
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| style="background:#ffffff;" align=center colspan=2 |
|image_coat =NC Armoires.gif
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{| border=0 cellpadding=2 cellspacing=0
|image_map =New caledonia.jpg
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| align=center width=296 | [[Image:Flag of France.svg |250px|Flag of France]]
|national_motto =
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|-
|national_anthem =''[[La Marseillaise]]''  
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| align=center width=296 | [[NC Armoires.gif]]
|official_languages =[[French language|French]]
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|}
|capital =[[Nouméa]]
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|-
|latd= |latm= |latNS= |longd= |longm= |longEW=
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| align=center colspan=2 | [[Image:New Caledonia.jpg]]
|largest_city = [[Nouméa]]
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|-
|government_type =<small>overseas territory of France</small>
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| '''Official languages'''
|leader_title1 =[[President of France|President]]
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|French
|leader_title2 = High Commissioner
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|-
|leader_title3 = President
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| '''Capital'''
|leader_name1 =[[Jacques Chirac]]
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| Nouméa
|leader_name2 = Michel Mathieu
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|-
|leader_name3 = [[Marie-Noëlle Thémereau]]
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| '''Government type'''
|area_rank =155th
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| Overseas territory of France
|area_magnitude =1 E8
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|-
|area=19,058
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| '''President'''
|areami²=7,359  <!-- Do not remove per [[WP:MOSNUM]] -->
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| Marie-Noëlle Thémereau
|percent_water =Land: [[1 E8 m²|18,575.5 km²]]
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|-
|population_estimate = 232,258
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| '''Area'''
|population_estimate_rank = 181st
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Ranked 155th <br/>&nbsp;&ndash; Total<br/>&nbsp;&ndash; % water
|population_estimate_year =January 2005
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| <br/>&nbsp; 19,058km²<br/>&nbsp;0
|population_census =230,789
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|-
|population_census_year = September 2004
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| '''Population'''
|population_density =12.5
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Ranked 181st <br/>&nbsp;&ndash; Total (2005)
|population_densitymi² =32.4  <!-- Do not remove per [[WP:MOSNUM]] —>
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| <br />&nbsp; 232,258
|population_density_rank = 199th
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|-
|GDP_PPP = $3.158 billion <!cia.gov—>
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| '''Currency'''
|GDP_PPP_rank =170th
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| CFP franc
|GDP_PPP_year=2003
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|-
|GDP_PPP_per_capita =$14,800 <small>(2003 est.)</small>  
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| '''Time zone'''
|GDP_PPP_per_capita_rank =65th
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| Universal Time+11 <br/>(no daylight saving time)
|sovereignty_type =<small>overseas territory of France</small>  
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|-
|sovereignty_note = since 1853
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| '''National anthem'''
|HDI =n/a
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| La Marseillaise
|HDI_rank =n/a
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|-
|HDI_year = 2003
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| '''Calling Code'''
|HDI_category =<font color=gray>unranked</font>  
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|687
|currency = CFP franc
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|-
|currency_code =XPF
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| '''Internet TLD'''
|country_code =
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| .nc
|time_zone =
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|}
|utc_offset =+11
 
|time_zone_DST =
 
|utc_offset_DST =
 
|cctld =[[.nc]]
 
|calling_code = 687
 
|footnotes =
 
}}
 
  
 
'''New Caledonia''', or ''Nouvelle-Calédonie'' is an overseas territory of [[France]].  British explorer [[James Cook]] named the territory’s main island “New Caledonia” after the [[Scottish Highlands]], which it resembled, because of the purple hills.
 
'''New Caledonia''', or ''Nouvelle-Calédonie'' is an overseas territory of [[France]].  British explorer [[James Cook]] named the territory’s main island “New Caledonia” after the [[Scottish Highlands]], which it resembled, because of the purple hills.

Revision as of 23:28, 20 September 2006

New Caledonia
Flag of France
NC Armoires.gif
File:New Caledonia.jpg
Official languages French
Capital Nouméa
Government type Overseas territory of France
President Marie-Noëlle Thémereau
Area

Ranked 155th
 – Total
 – % water


  19,058km²
 0
Population

Ranked 181st
 – Total (2005)


  232,258
Currency CFP franc
Time zone Universal Time+11
(no daylight saving time)
National anthem La Marseillaise
Calling Code 687
Internet TLD .nc

New Caledonia, or Nouvelle-Calédonie is an overseas territory of France. British explorer James Cook named the territory’s main island “New Caledonia” after the Scottish Highlands, which it resembled, because of the purple hills.

The issues of independence from France and resurgent Kanak nationalism have underpinned the affairs of the territory since 1985, causing protest and bloodshed.

Its capital Nouméa is the seat of the Secretariat of the Pacific Community, formed by Australia, France, the Netherlands, New Zealand, the United Kingdom, and the United States, in 1947, to promote economic and social stability in countries of the south Pacific.

Geography

Located in Melanesia, in the southwest Pacific Ocean, approximately 1200 kilometers (746 miles) east of Australia and 1500km northwest of New Zealand, New Caledonia is made up of a main island, the “Grande Terre,” and several smaller islands, the Belep archipelago to the north of the Grande Terre, the Loyalty Islands to the east, the Île des Pins to the south, and the Chesterfield Islands and Bellona Reefs further to the west. Vanuatu lies to the northeast.

At about half the size of Taiwan, it has a land area of 18,575 square kilometers (7,172 sq mi).

The Grande Terre, by far the largest, has an area of 16,372 square kilometers, and is elongated northwest-southeast, 350km in length and 50km to 70km wide. A mountain range runs the length of the island, with five peaks over 1500 meters. The highest point is Mont Panié at 1628 meters.

The capital is Nouméa, the only major conurbation in the territory.

New Caledonia contains about one-quarter of the world's nickel resources. The mining is mostly done in open-pit mining.

New Caledonia from space

New Caledonia lies astride the Tropic of Capricorn, between 19 degrees and 23 degrees south latitude. The climate is tropical, and rainfall is highly seasonal, brought by trade winds that usually come from the east. Rainfall averages about 1500 millimeters yearly on the Loyalty Islands, 2000mm at low elevations on eastern the Grande Terre, and 2000mm to 4000mm at high elevations on the Grande Terre. The western side of the Grande Terre lies in the rain shadow of the central mountains, and rainfall averages 1200mm a year.

Unlike many Pacific islands that are of relatively recent volcanic origin, New Caledonia is an ancient fragment of the Gondwana super-continent. New Caledonia and New Zealand separated from Australia 85 million years ago, and from one another 55 million years ago, and New Caledonia still carries many unique and endemic plants and animals of Gondwanan origin. The best known is a hen-sized bird, the Kagu, which cannot fly, has a large crest, and a peculiar cooing, and whose song and image serves as an emblem. The Niaouli tree, which also grows in Australia and New Guinea, is of medical interest, as its sap yields Gomenol, which smells like camphor and is used to treat head colds.

Before the Europeans arrived, there was no mammal other than the Roussette (flying fox), a big vegetarian bat, a local delicacy.

The islands make up two terrestrial eco-regions, the New Caledonia rain forests on the Loyalty Islands, Ile des Pins, and the eastern side of Grand Terre, and the New Caledonia dry forests in the rain shadow on the western side of Grand Terre. As the Europeans settled on the dry west coast and left the east to the Kanaks, the political division maps the natural one.

New Caledonia's freshwater ecology also evolved in long isolation, and the New Caledonia rivers and streams are home to many endemic species. The New Caledonia Barrier Reef, which surrounds the Grande Terre and the Île des Pins, is the second-largest coral reef in the world after Australia's Great Barrier Reef, reaching a length of 1500km. The reef has great species diversity, is home to endangered dugongs (Dugong dugon), and is an important nesting site for Green Sea Turtle (Chelonia mydas).

History

The western Pacific was first populated about fifty thousand years ago. The Austronesians moved into the area later. The diverse group of people that settled over the Melanesian archipelagos are known as the Lapita. They arrived in the archipelago now commonly known as New Caledonia and the Loyalty Islands around 1500 B.C.E. The Lapita were highly skilled navigators and agriculturists with influence over a large area of the Pacific.

From about the eleventh century, Polynesians also arrived and mixed with the populations of the archipelago.

The British explorer James Cook sighted Grande Terre in 1774 and named it “New Caledonia” after the Scottish Highlands, because of the purple hills and mountainside which looked as if they were covered in heather. Caledonia was a popular poetic and patriotic term for Scotland, and James Cook's father was Scots.

British and North American whalers and sandalwood traders became interested in New Caledonia. Europeans used liquor and tobacco among other things to barter for commodities. Contact with Europeans brought new diseases such as smallpox, measles, dysentery, influenza, syphilis and leprosy. Many people died as a result of these diseases. Tensions developed into hostilities and in 1849 the crew of the Cutter were killed and eaten by the Pouma clan.

As trade in sandalwood declined it was replaced by a new form of trade, “blackbirding,” that involved enslaving people from New Caledonia, the Loyalty Islands, Vanuatu, Papua New Guinea and the Solomon Islands to work in sugar cane plantations in Fiji and Queensland. The trade ceased at the start of the twentieth century.

Catholic and Protestant missionaries first arrived in the nineteenth century. They insisted people should wear clothes to cover themselves. They eradicated many local practices and traditions.

The island was made a French possession in 1853 in an attempt by Napoleon III to rival the British colonies in Australia and New Zealand. Following the example set by the British in nearby Australia, between 1854 and 1922 France sent a total of 22,000 convicted felons to penal colonies along the south-west coast of the island. This number included regular criminals as well as political prisoners such as Parisian socialists and Kabyle nationalists.

Before colonization by the French, linguistic and territorial divisions separated Melanesian groups. Social and racial discrimination practiced by whites commingled all Pacific blacks and then only those of New Caledonia under the term “Kanak."

Towards the end of the penal colony era, free European settlers (including former convicts) and Asian contract workers out-numbered the population of forced workers. The indigenous Kanak populations declined drastically in that same period due to introduced diseases and an apartheid-like system called Code de l'Indigénat which imposed restrictions on their livelihood, freedom of movement and land ownership.

New Caledonia has been on a United Nations list of non-self-governing territories since 1986.

Agitation by the Front de Libération Nationale Kanak Socialiste (FLNKS) for independence began in 1985. The FLNKS (led by the late Jean-Marie Tjibaou, assassinated in 1989) advocated the creation of an independent state of “Kanaky.”

The troubles culminated in 1988 with a bloody hostage taking in Ouvéa. The unrest led to agreement on increased autonomy in the Matignon Accords of 1988 and the Nouméa Accord of 1998. This accord describes the devolution process as "irreversible" and also provides for a local Caledonian citizenship, separate official symbols of Caledonian identity (such as a "national" flag), as well as mandating a referendum on independence from the French Republic sometime after 2014.

The name Kanaky is favored by Melanesian nationalists. The word comes from “kanaka,” a Polynesian word meaning “human.” The French later used the word to describe all the native inhabitants of the South Pacific Ocean. The word, turned into “Canaque” in French, and became derogative. When Melanesian inhabitants started to form political parties, this derogative word became a symbol of political emancipation and pride.

Politics

Official emblem.

Along with French Polynesia and Wallis and Futuna, New Caledonia is part of the French Republic, but is unique in that its status is in between that of an independent country and an overseas territory of France. New Caledonia was a colony until 1946, then an overseas territory from 1946 to 1999.

Administratively, the archipelago is divided into three provinces: the Loyalty Islands, the northern mainland, and the southern mainland. It is further subdivided into 33 communes. Eight “traditional spheres” exist to administer Kanak tribal affairs. Their jurisdiction does not encompass non-Kanaks living within these zones. These traditional spheres roughly correspond to indigenous language areas and areas of pre-French tribal alliances.

Flag of the independence movements

A territorial congress and a government have been established. Under the 1998 Nouméa Accord, taxation, labour law, health and hygiene, and foreign trade are already in the hands of the territorial congress, with further responsibilities likely. Eventually, the French Republic should only remain control foreign affairs, justice, defense, public order, and treasury.

A New Caledonian “citizenship” has been introduced. Only New Caledonian “citizens" may vote in the local elections, a measure that has been criticised, because it excludes recently arrived French citizens. New Caledonia may cooperate with independent countries of the Pacific Ocean. The territorial congress may pass statutes that differ from French law.

But inhabitants of New Caledonia are French citizens and carry French passports. They take part in the legislative and presidential French elections. New Caledonia sends two representatives to the French National Assembly and one senator to the French Senate. The representative of the French central state in New Caledonia is the High Commissioner of the Republic, locally known as “haussaire”, who is the head of civil services.

According to the Nouméa Accord, the territorial congress will have the right to call for a referendum on independence after 2014.

In 2006, territorial congress elected Marie-Noëlle Thémereau as president. He is from the loyalist (anti-independence) Future Together party, which toppled the long-time ruling Rally for Caledonia inside the Republic (RPCR) in May 2004. Future Together comprises mostly Caucasian and Polynesian New Caledonians opposed to independence but tired of the RPCR. Future Together opposes race-based policies and favors a multicultural society.

Economy

New Caledonia has about 25 percent of the world's known nickel resources. Only a small amount of the land is suitable for cultivation, and food accounts for about 20 percent of imports. In addition to nickel, substantial financial support from France, equal to more than one-fourth of GDP, and tourism, are keys to the health of the economy. Substantial new investment in the nickel industry, combined with the recovery of global nickel prices in 2006, brightened the economic outlook.

Exports totalled $US999-million in 2004. Export commodities were ferro nickels, nickel ore, and fish. Export partners were Japan 18.4 percent, France 13.8 percent, Taiwan 12.8 percent, South Korea 12.6 percent, Spain 7.7 percent, China 6.3 percent, Australia 4.7 percent, South Africa 4.7 percent, Ukraine 4.1 percent, and Belgium 4.1 percent/ Imports totalled $US1.636-billion in 2004. Import commodities included machinery and equipment, fuels, chemicals, and foodstuffs. Import partners were France 40.1 percent, Singapore 17.8 percent, Australia 9.6 percent, and New Zealand 5.1 percent.

Per capita GDP was $US15,000 in 2003.

The currency is the CFP franc. It has an Internet country code top-level domain (ccTLD) of .nc.

Demographics

The population at the 2004 census was 230,789 inhabitants.

The indigenous Melanesian Kanak community represented 44.6 percent of the population at the 1996 census, a proportion that has declined due to immigration. Kanaks are the black people of the Western Pacific with links to Papuans and Australian Aborigines, and call themselves Ti-Va-Ouere, or “Brothers of the Earth.”

The rest of the population is made up of ethnic groups that arrived in the past 150 years. Europeans make up 34.5 percent (the majority French with German, British and Italian minorities), Polynesians, (Wallisians, and Tahitians) 11.8 percent, Indonesians, 2.6 percent, Vietnamese 1.4 percent, Ni-Vanuatu 1.2 percent, and various other groups.

Whites who have lived in New Caledonia for several generations are locally known as “Caldoches,” whereas newcomers who have emigrated from metropolitan France are called Métros or Métropolitains. Official statistics do not distinguish between Caledonian-born whites and French-born whites, however it is estimated that approximately two thirds identify themselves with the Caldoche community. There is a significant contingent of people who arrive from France to work for a year or two and others who have come to retire. Caldoche culture has similarities with Australian and Afrikaner culture. Until recently the Kanak population were economically disadvantaged.

The pro-independence movement has alleged that the French government attempted to skew the demographic balance by clandestinely settling thousands of people from mainland France. The census in August and September 2004 was carried out amid this controversy. French president Jacques Chirac, had questions on ethnicity deleted from that census, on grounds that such questions contravened the French Constitution. The indigenous Melanesian Kanak leaders called for New Caledonians of Kanak ethnicity not to return census forms if questions regarding ethnicity were not asked, threatening to derail the census process. Eventually, the statistics office agreed to ask questions regarding ethnicity, but no data was released, leaving the ethnic tables from the 1996 census as the only information on ethnicity available.

There were 230,789 inhabitants in September 2004, meaning a less-than-expected population increase of 1.9 percent a year since 1996. A large influx of white people from metropolitan France feared by Kanak leaders did not eventuate.

French is the official language, while an estimated 27 Kanak languages, belonging to the Oceanic sub-branch of Austronesian languages, coexist.

New Caledonia is a Christian territory. Sixty percent are Roman Catholic, 30 percent Protestant, and 10 percent follow other religions. Kanaks maintain a belief in an immanent ancestral presence under diverse forms (animals, plants, minerals, and atmospheric phenomena). There is no priestly caste, but each lineage has a guardian of the magic that protects the clan.

Rites that invoke ancestors are domestic. There are no collective religious rituals. Sacred places, old dwelling sites, and cemeteries exist, but propitiatory rites are made individually. Kanaks believe the land of the dead is underwater. It receives the souls of those who have had funeral ceremonies that continue for one year after death. Through those ceremonies, one becomes an ancestor.

Society and culture

Traditional Kanak society is organised around clans, comprising several families related through a common ancestor, and numbering between 50 and several hundred people. Within the clan there is a hierarchy between the members of the clan and between the families, then within the descendents. The clan's chief is called the “eldest brother,” who presides over clan life and settles any disputes.

In the Loyalty Islands, clans have integrated into a “customary district," a more elaborate organisation centering on a large "chefferie," or dwelling place ruled by the chief. The chief’s status and prestige is similar to Polynesian royalty. The clan's chief owes obedience and respect to the great chief, who is the final arbiter in any dispute.

Kanak society distinguishes the responsibilities of men and women. Men are responsible for the community's food resources, for public life, for entering into alliances, and the clan's social relations. Women are responsible for housework, for the family's supplies, and for the reproduction of the members of the clan. Boys work for the community and are cared for by it. After adolescence they live together in a separate area where they are educated on their future social and clan responsibilities. The girls live with their mother at the family home until marriage, where they learn the rudiments of family and domestic life.

The Kanak will thus have distinct attitudes and gestures depending on whether he is addressing a brother, an uncle, a brother-in-law, or an aunt. Favours are bestowed according to age. At meals, the old men and women will be served first.

The education system, that achieves 91 percent literacy, consists of primary and secondary schools, and the University of New Caledonia in Noumea.

The most widely known New Caledonian art forms are found on chiefly houses, high, conical dwellings that featured striking door frames with massive, broad faces and patterns structured around zigzags and diamonds. More stylized carvings, representing clan ancestors, are found on spires emerging from the tip of the roof. Other art forms include fine greenstone ceremonial adzes, composed of a large flat disc, mounted on a staff with tapa, fibre, and fur. These were carried by chiefs, and used by priests in ceremonial invocations. Engraved bamboos, featuring geometric motifs and images of fish, boats, guns, depict interactions between Europeans and Kanaks.

New Caledonia (Kanaky) boasts a folk music heritage in the Melanesian tradition. The Pacific Tempo is an important music festival, held every three years in Noumea; the biennial Équinoxe is also an important celebration.

Modern popular performers include OK! Ryos, Edou and Gurejele, who are at the forefront of the popular Kaneka movement, which began in the mid-1980s. Kaneka fuses traditional styles with pop and world music. The most well-known modern record label on New Caledonia is Alain Lecante's Mangrove Studios, which distributes much of the Kaneka music. Traditional instruments include bamboo flutes and conch shells.

The Kanaks have developed dance into an art form. The traditional pilou dance tells the stories of births, marriages, cyclones or preparations for battle, although colonial authorities banned pilous in 1951 for the high-energy and trance-like state they induced in the dancers, and for the occasional eating of human flesh.

Oral literature consists of poetry, epics, tales, myths, and historical accounts. There have been several publications, but the majority of texts collected in vernacular languages are unpublished. A written modern Kanak literature has emerged.

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