New Caledonia.
Information.
NEW CALEDONIA (french. Nouvelle-Caledonie) — is an overseas collectivity of France located in the subregion of Melanesia in the southwest Pacific. Area - 18 575 sq.km. Population - 249 000 (2009) Capital - Noumea. The Western Pacific was first populated by humans about 3,000 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 BC. The Lapita were highly skilled navigators and agriculturists with influence over a large area of the Pacific. From about the 11th century Polynesians also arrived and mixed with the populations of the archipelago. Europeans first sighted New Caledonia and the Loyalty Islands in the late 18th century. The British explorer James Cook sighted Grande Terre in 1774 and named it New Caledonia, Caledonia being a Latin name for Scotland. During the same voyage he also named the islands to the north of New Caledonia the New Hebrides (now Vanuatu), after the isles off the west coast of Scotland. New Caledonia was made a French possession in late 1853, a part of an attempt by Napoleon III to rival the British colonies in Australia and New Zealand. Auguste Febvrier Despointes led the expedition that seized the island. Following the example set by the United Kingdom in parts of nearby Australia, France sent a total of 22,000 convicted felons to penal colonies along the south-west coast of New Caledonia between 1864 and 1922. During World War II, the French South Pacific colonies of New Caledonia, French Polynesia and the New Hebrides joined the Free French Forces. Assisted by Australia, the South Pacific colonies became vital Allied bases in the Pacific Ocean. American Allied forces built up a major naval base in New Caledonia to combat the advance of Imperial Japan toward Australia, New Zealand, and the Solomon Islands. If left unchecked, Japanese advances threatened to sever the sea lanes between North America and Australia. Noumea served as a headquarters of the United States Navy and Army in the South Pacific. Currency : French colonies of the Pacific franc (XPF)
