Just released Caledonia (French: Nouvelle-Calédonie; popular names: Kanaky, Le caillou) occurs as French territory processed higher of the independent island and several smaller islands, in the sou'west Pacific. It has the acreage of 18,575.V klick² (7,172 sq. miles). A people at a 2004 census was 230,789 inhabitants. It has an Internet country code top-level domain (ccTLD) of .nc. A capital & big city of the territory is Nouméa.

A United Nations Committee on Decolonization includes Just released Caledonia on the United Nations list of Non-Self-Governing Territories, a extremely political listings that is disputed by France, the United States, and a United Kingdom, which all stand territories on the listing.

Name

A title Caledonia derives from a Latin name of a region corresponding or so to modern Scotland. A title Kanaky is likewise withinside most common usage in French, English & a autochthonous languages. This title is favorite by Melanesian nationalists. A word comes from either kanaka, the Polynesian word meaning human utilized by Polynesians to call for themselves. A word was late utilized per French to call for all a native indweller of the South Pacific Ocean, including the Melanesian (non-Polynesian) native denizen of Up to date Caledonia. A word, turned into Canaque around French, became derogatory. In the Sixties & Seventies, once the Melanesian native dweller began to organize themselves into political parties & ask for independence, this derogatory word was sour into a symbol of political emancipation & pride.

Geography
Independent article: Geography of New Caledonia

Future Caledonia is placed in the area of in the south-west Pacific Ocean, approximately 1,200 kilometre east of Australia and 1,50Kilometer northwest of New Zealand. A island united states of Vanuatu lies to the northeast.

Just released Caledonia is processed higher of a independent island, the Grande Terre, & many little islands, a Belep archipelago northwards of a Grande Terre, the Loyalty Islands to the east of the Grande Terre, the Île des Pins to a south of the Grande Terre, and the Chesterfield Islands and Bellona Reefs further to the west.

A Grande Terre is by far a largest of a islands, & the merely mountainous island. It has an vicinity of 16,372 km² (6,321 sq. miles), & is enlongated northwest-southeast, 350 kilometer inside length & 50 to 70 kilometer wide. a chain of mountains diarrhea the length of the island, sustaining 5 peaks ended 1500 meters. A greatest point is Mont Panié at 1,628 meters elevation (5,341 foot).

Future Caledonia contains astir of these-quarter of the globe's nickel resources.

Climate
Just released Caledonia lies astride a Tropic of Capricorn, between 19° and 23° to the south latitude. A climate of the islands is tropical, and rain is extremely seasonal, brought by trade that unremarkably are from either a east. Rain averages all about 1,500 millimeter every year in a Loyalty Islands, 2,000 millimetre at moo elevations on eastern the Grande Terre, & 2,000-4,000 millimeter at high elevations on the Grande Terre. A american side of the Grande Terre lies in the rain shadow of the central mountains, and rain norm 1200 millimetre by the season.

Ecology

Administration

Along by having more Pacific Ocean's territories of French Polynesia and Wallis and Futuna, New Caledonia is section of the French Republic. Its official status is that of the sui generis collectivity (collectivité sui generis), a status unique in the French Republic. Up to date Caledonithe was a colony until 1946, then an overseas territory (''territoire d'outre-mer, or TOM) from 1946 to 1999. A capital is Nouméa.

History
A american Pacific was first populated just about 50,000 years ago. A Austronesians go in a vicinity late. A diverse class action of population that settled on top a Melanesian archipelagos are referred to as a Lapita. It arrived in the archipelago now commonly called Future Caledonia & a Loyalty Islands around 1500 BCE. A Lapita were highly skilled navigators & grower using influence all over the big region of the Pacific.

From either all about a 11th century CE Polynesians also arrived & mixed using a populations of the archipelago.

Europeans 1st sighted Future Caledonia & a Loyalty Islands in the late 18th century. A British explorer James Cook sighted Grande Terre in 1774 and named it Just released Caledonia, fallowing a Scottish upland, which a Romans got known as Caledonia.

British & N Western whalers and sandalwood traders became interested around Just released Caledonia & tensions developed when their approach became more & more dishonorable (an chesty attitude and cheating became commonplace). Europeans utilized alcohol and tobacco amongst other items to barter for commodities. Email using Europeans brought fresh diseases like smallpox, measles, dysentery, influenza, syphilis and leprosy. Numbers of humans died following one diseases. Tensions developed into hostilities & inside 1849 the crew of the Cutter were killed & eaten per Pouma tribe.

When trade sandalwood declined it was replaced by a newly form of trade. Blackbirding involved enslaving people from either Future Caledonia, a Loyalty Islands, Vanuatu, Papua New Guinea and the Solomon Islands to work withinside sugar cane plantations in Fiji and Queensland. A trade ceased at first of the 20th century.

Catholic & Protestant missionaries 1st arrived in the 19th century. It experienced the profound result in autochthonic culture. It insisted humans should put on textile to handle themselves. It eradicated several local practices & traditions.

the island was processed a French possession inside 1853 in an attempt by Napoleon III to rival the British colonies inside Australia and New Zealand. Resulting a lesson placed per British in nearby Australia, between 1854 and 1922 France sent the sum of 22,000 condemned felons to penal colonies along the south-south-west coast of the isl&; this total includes regular malefactor too when political prisoners like Parisian socialists and Kabyle nationalists. Towards a prevent of the penal colony era, free European settlers (including former convicts) & Asian contract workers by far out-numbered a people of forced workers. A endemic Kanak populations declined drastically in this equivalent time due to introduced diseases & an apartheid-like supervisor call instruction Codiamond state de fifty'Indigénat'' which imposed severe restrictions in their bread & butter, freedom of movement and land ownership.

Just released Caledonithe has get on a United Nations list of non-self-governing territories since 1986. This listing includes such wharehouses when a American Samoa, the British Falkland Islands, or a Future Zealand territory of Tokelau, but observably it doesn't include web pages rather Tibet or Irian Jaya, which has led to its reputation as a politically biased listings. Agitation per Front de Libération Nationale Kanak Socialiste (FLNKS) for independence began in 1985. A FLNKS (led per late Jean Marie Tjibaou, assassinated in 1989) advocated the creation of an independent state of 'Kanaky'. A troubles culminated around 1988 with a damn hostage taking in Ouvéa. A unrest led to agreement in increased autonomy in the Matignon Accords of 1988 and the Nouméa Accord of 1998.

Politics
Independent article: Politics of New Caledonia

the unique status of Just released Caledonia is around between that of an independent united states & a regular overseas département of France. On one hand, the territorial Congress (Congrès du territoire) & the government of the territory keep close at hand been established, and the devolution of powers is organized per 1998 Nouméa Accord. Key areas like taxation, labor law, health & hygiene & foreign trade come already in the mitts of the territorial Congress. Farther competency might purportedly become given to the territorial Congress in the close first. At length, a French Republic should lone remain competent for foreign affairs, justice, defence, public the correct sequence, & treasury.

The Just released Caledonian "citizenship" has too been introduced: simply Just released Caledonian "citizens" keep close at hand the right to vote in the local elections. This measure has been criticized, because it creates another-class status for French citizens sleep in Up to date Caledonia world health organization don't possess Just released Caledonian "citizenship" (because it settled in the territory recently). Future Caledonia is besides allowed to locate within international cooperation by having independent countries of the Pacific Ocean. Eventually, a territorial Congress is allowed to pass legislative act that come disparaging to French law in a certain total of areas.

Then again, Just released Caledonia remains an integral a share of the French Republic. Habitant of Up to date Caledonia come French citizens & carry French passports. It participate in the legislative & presidential French elections. Up to date Caledonia sends 2 representatives to the French National Assembly and one senator to the French Senate. A representative of the French central state within Future Caledonia is the High Commissioner of the Republic (Haut-Commissaire de la République, locally known as "haussaire"), world health organization is the head of civil services, & world health organization seats in the government of the territory.

It was decided in the Nouméa Accord that the territorial Congress have had the right to require a referendum on independence after 2014, at a time of its finding.

A todays president of the government elected per territorial Congress is Marie-Noëlle Thémereau, from a stalwart (we.e. anti-independence) Avenir ensemble party ("Future together"), which toppled a long-instance opinion RPCR (Rally for Caledonia inside a Republic) around Will 2004. "Future Together" occurs as person of mostly Caucasian & Polynesian Up to date Caledonians opposed to independence however tired of the hegemonic & allegedly corrupt anti-independence RPCR. Their toppling of a RPCR (that wwhen until so seen as the merely voice of Up to date Caledonian whites) was the surprise to numbers of, & a sign that the society of Up to date Caledonia is undergoing changes. "Future together", when a title implies, is opposed to the racial vision of Up to date Caledonian society, opposing Melanesians native habitant & European settlers, & is in favour of a multicultural Up to date Caledonia, better reflecting the being of big populations of Polynesians, Indonesians, Chinese, & more immigrants. A few members of "Future Together" come possibly pro independence, though non necessarily on a equivalent basis when the Melanesian independence parties.

Demographics
Independent article: Demographics of New Caledonia

Political life is complicated per fact that a autochthonous Melanesian Kanak community is now the minority of a bit of 44.6% (at 1996 census) as a consequence sooner people decline & immigration under French rule. A rest of the people is mass produced higher of ethnic groups world health organization arrived inside Future Caledonia in the survive 150 years: Whites (34.5%), Polynesians (Wallisians, Tahitians) (11.8%), Javanese (2.6%), Vietnamese (1.4%), ni-Vanuatu (1.2%), & various more groups, like Malabaris, Maghrebins, Japanese, Chinese, Fijians (3.9%). A Kanak come known officially when Melanesians, however this term technically includes a ni-Vantuatu too. Likewise, people whose roots come within French Polynesia are known either when Tahitians (which excludes souls originating in the more archipelagoes of French Polynesia) or even only when Polynesians (which would include two Tahitians & Wallisians, likewise as several more minor groups). Whites that stand sleep in Just released Caledonia for many generations come locally referred to as "Caldoches", whereas newcomers world health organization develop immigrated from either metropolitan France come known as "Métros" or even "Métropolitains". In a official technical indicator category "Europeans" there are no distinction is mass produced between Caledonian-born whites & French-born whites, still these are judged that around deuce thirds identify themselves using a Caldoche community when a rest watch themselves primarily when French immigrants. There is a important contingent of population that arrive from either France to act for even a year or 2 and others that keep close at hand came to retire. A Caldoche normally refer to themselves only when "calédoniens" & can be either white (mostly French or even German) or even white by owning an admixture of Asian, Melanesian or Polynesian ancestry. Caldoche culture has numbers of similarities by having Australian and Afrikaner culture. Until super recently a Kanak people held an economically deprived position within Just released Caledonian society, when affluent French expatriats formed a top of the socio-economic hierarchy. A Asian & Polynesian denizen dominate certain segments of the local economy.

There keep close at hand been frequent accusations per pro-independence movement that a French government is attempting to skew a demographic balance between a ethnic communities by clandestinely settling hundreds to thousands of humans from either mainland France among a whiten Caledonians. It argue that todays French policies around Just released Caledonia mimic people of Turkey, which has for many years been secretly chanelling inside Anatolian Turks settlers to assimilate into the Turkish Cypriot population of Northern Cyprus for many years. Nosecount come highly critical to the balance of power inside Just released Caledonia, & the organization of a recently nose count was regularly postponed when 1996. One of these days a nosecount was carried call at August & September 2004, amidst raging controversies on top ethnic questions. Due to an intervention by French president Jacques Chirac, questions asking for a ethnicity of population were deleted from either a 2004 nosecount, officially because it were deemed to contravene the French Constitution, which states that no distinction according to ethnicity or even religion should exist as processed among French citizens. A forearm Melanesian Kanak leaders, world health organization come pleasantly sensitive to ethnic balance issues, known as for Up to date Caledonians of Kanak ethnicity does'nt to link to nosecount forms in case questions on ethnicity were non asked, threatening to derail a nosecount run. One of these days, the stalemate was resolved whilst a local Up to date Caledonian technical indicator professional (a branch of the national French technical indicator professional INSEE) agreed to ask questions regarding ethnicity. Notwithstanding, these are nin known whether questions on ethnicity were asked to everthing residents of Just freed Caledonia, & at any rate there is no principles develop been released, allowing a ethnic tables from either a 1996 nosecount when a simply information on ethnicity presently available.

Based on data from a 2004 nose count, there were 230,789 habitant inside Future Caledonia when of September 2004. This means the people increase of Ace.9% by the season since 1996, which is to a lesser degree got been anticipated. Particularly, Kanak leaders were cowardly of the big inflow of caucasoid race from either metropolitan France which would alter a ethnic balance in the territory. Nosecount final result indicate that immigration to Just released Caledonithe wwhen non when high as hoped-for, by using however a caring migration flow of astir 1,000 population annually to Just released Caledonia between 1996 & 2004 (we.e. there are 1,000 additional humans world health organization migrate to Up to date Caledonia yearly than humans world health organization leave Future Caledonia).

Miscellaneous

Communications in New Caledonia Disputes - international: Matthew and Hunter Islands claimed by France and Vanuatu. Economy of New Caledonia Military of New Caledonia Music of New Caledonia Sister city: Gold Coast, Australia Transportation in New Caledonia