History of New Caledonia: First People, French Rule, Semi-Independence | Sea Life, Islands and Oceania

NAME OF IDENTITY OF NEW CALEDONIA

An island chain in the South Pacific between Australia and Vanuatu, New Caledonia is a French-governed archipelago that contains the world’s third-largest coral reef structure and one of the world's largest nickel mines (New Caledonia has 10 percent of the world's nickel deposits). Nickel is very valuable and strategically important metal. The cluster of islands that make up New Caledonia also contains one of the largest land masses in the Pacific Ocean, plus the archipelago of IIles Loyaute and a collection of small, sparsely populated islands and atolls.

Official Name: Territory of New Caledonia and Dependencies; conventional short form: New Caledonia; local long form: Territoire des Nouvelle-Caledonie et Dependances; local short form: Nouvelle-Caledonie. Source of the Name: British explorer Captain James Cook discovered and named New Caledonia in 1774; he used the appellation because the northeast of the island reminded him of Scotland (Caledonia is the Latin designation for Scotland). [Source: CIA World Factbook 2023]

New Caledonia (pronunced n(y)oo kal-uh-DOHN-ee-uhns) is a French overseas territory in the Southwest Pacific Ocean, about 1200 kilometers (750miles) east of Australia. It consists of New Caledonia, the Loyalty Islands, Isle des Pins, Isle Bélep, and the Chesterfield and Huon Islands. It capital of Nouméa is on New Caledonia. The the islands were annexed by France in 1853 and became a French overseas territory in 1946. France governs New Caledonia but has not developed a national culture. In the 1980s, there was a growing separatist movement. Direct French rule was imposed in 1988.

People of New Caledonia

Name of the People and Culture: noun: New Caledonian(s); adjective: New Caledonian. Alternate names: Kanaks (the indigenous Melanesians that have long inhabited the islands. The word "Caledonian" is used by the French and others who have settled in the islands. The term "Kanak" is used to designate native residents of this South Pacific archipelago and their culture.

The Kanak are the original inhabitants of New Caledonia. “Kanak” is derived from the term “Canaque,” which was introduced by Polynesian sailors and had a pejorative meaning in the local context. In the early 1970s the native peoples of New Caledonia changed the spelling to “Kanak,” marking the birth of a Black Power type of consciousness. “Kanak” has deep political meaning for them because, along with the vast majority of the other native peoples in New Caledonia, they are asking for independence from France. If a 2018 independence referendum is successful, the new country will be named “Kanaky”. [Source: Donna Winslow, e Human Relations Area Files (eHRAF) World Cultures, Yale University]

Kanak are also known as Canaque, Houaïlou, Kanak, Kanaka. Ajië is one of the major southern languages found in New Caledonia. Ajië speakers call themselves "Kanak." The Kanak culture developed in this South Pacific archipelago over a period of three thousand years. The Kanak claim for independence is upheld by a culture thought of as national by the indigenous population. [Source: Alban Bensa, “Countries and Their Cultures,” 2000

J. Williams wrote in the “Worldmark Encyclopedia of Cultures and Daily Life”: The island chain of New Caledonia presents a cosmopolitan mix of cultures from many parts of the world. The original inhabitants are Melanesians, sometimes called "Kanaks." The term "kanaks" can have both positive and negative associations, depending on who is using it and in what manner. There have been French settlers in the islands since the 19th century, and their impact in terms of culture, language, and food can be clearly seen. Asians from Vietnam and Indonesia have also settled in New Caledonia and created their own immigrant communities. Lastly, Polynesian migrants from other parts of the French Pacific, especially Tahiti and the Wallis and Futuna islands, have relocated to New Caledonia in hopes of finding economic prosperity. [Source: J. Williams, “Worldmark Encyclopedia of Cultures and Daily Life,” 2009 Encyclopedia.com]

First People of New Caledonia

The first humans settled in New Caledonia at least by around 1600 B.C., maybe as early 4000 B.C.. According to the “Encyclopedia of World Cultures”: “According to the archaeological record, the earliest ancestors of the Kanaks came to New Caledonia from southeast Asia between 6,000 and 5,000 years ago. They brought with them slash-and-burn agriculture, irrigation techniques, a polished-stone tool complex, pottery, and double-pontoon sailing craft. There was also settlement from within Melanesia, especially from the Solomon Islands and Vanuatu. [Source: Donna Winslow, “Encyclopedia of World Cultures, Volume 2: Oceania,” edited by Terence E. Hays, 1996 |~|]

“We do not know a great deal about” the pioneer settlers of Oceania “apart from their mainly stone and wooden tool kit and the fact that they all apparently subsisted by hunting, gathering, and fishing. They were certainly highly mobile, as can be seen by their rapid colonization of the whole continent of Australia, and at least the initial arrivals must have possessed viable watercraft. While prehistorians debate many of the details of early settlement, all would agree that it was a gradual process, undoubtedly involving numerous separate landfalls and many different small groups. The apparent lack of any clear relationship between Australian Aboriginal languages and those of New Guinea or the rest of Oceania is but one indication that the diversity of the native peoples of the Pacific began a very long time ago. [Source:“Encyclopedia of World Cultures, Volume 2: Oceania,” edited by Terence E. Hays, 1991 |~|]

“New arrivals of human groups in Near Oceania (and local diversification within it) unquestionably continued to occur over thousands of years, perhaps slowing with the final major rise in sea levels at about 7,000 Years ago In any case, the next large-scale human incursions into the Pacific, as well as expansion into Remote Oceania, seem to have begun about 4,000 Years ago |~|

“During a period lasting for 1,000 to 1,500 years, new groups of people colonized Oceania, initially sailing from the islands of eastern Indonesia along the northern coast of New Guinea into Near Oceania, where they settled on the seacoasts and offshore islands amid the descendants of the earlier arrivals. By about 3,500 Years ago they were established in the Bismarck Archipelago and had expanded to the Santa Cruz Islands, the New Hebrides (Vanuatu), and New Caledonia. Soon afterward some of their representatives moved on to become the first settlers of Fiji, Tonga, and Samoa (by about 3,000 Years ago) and smaller islands such as Futuna and Uvea. |~|

Lapita Culture in New Caledonia

The Lapita culture is the name given to a Neolithic Austronesian people and their material culture, who settled Island Melanesia via a seaborne migration at around 1600 to 500 B.C.. The ''Lapita Culture'' is named after a site in New Caledonia. The Lapita intermarried with the Papuan populations to various degrees, and are the direct ancestors of the Austronesian peoples of Polynesia, eastern Micronesia, and Island Melanesia. [Source: Wikipedia]

The Lapita were skilled navigators and evidence of their pottery around the Pacific has served as a guide for understanding human expansion in the region. Successive waves of migrants from other islands in Melanesia intermarried with the Lapita, giving rise to the Kanak ethnic group considered indigenous to New Caledonia. [Source: CIA World Factbook, 2023]

According to the “Encyclopedia of World Cultures”: “Archaeologists have been able to trace their influence and probable movements thanks to discoveries on numerous islands of a relatively sudden and widespread appearance of their trademark a distinctive kind of pottery, characterized by small dentate toothlike) patterns stamped into the clay and simple line incisions, often in complex geometric designs. [Source:“Encyclopedia of World Cultures, Volume 2: Oceania,” edited by Terence E. Hays, 1991 |~|]

Europeans in New Caledonia

British explorer James Cook was the first European to visit New Caledonia in 1774, giving it the Latin name for Scotland. Captain James Cook sighted Grande Terre and dubbed it New Caledonia.

After 1840 there was regular contact with European and American whalers, merchants, and sandalwood traders, in addition to British and French missionaries. They brought diseases such as smallpox, dysentery, and leprosy that devastated the local population. As trade expanded in the region so did the number of missions, further eradicating local practices and traditions. French Marist missionaries arrived in 1843, and under the pretext of protecting the native peoples—when in reality it was to counteract British influence in the region.

Napoleon III annexed New Caledonia for France in 1853. to preclude any British attempt to claim the island. Although it was jointly settled by Britain and France, by 1953 New Caledonia was mostly in French hands. For 40 years, its primary purpose was as a penal colony. In 1878, High Chief Atai led a rebellion against French rule. The Kanaks were relegated to reservations, leading to periodic smaller uprisings and culminating in a large revolt in 1917 that was brutally suppressed by colonial authorities.

According to the “Worldmark Encyclopedia of Cultures and Daily Life”: The French have had some sort of political control over New Caledonia since the first French missionaries landed and settled at Balade in 1843. French settlers took land away from the indigenous Melanesians of New Caledonia and relocated them to reservations just as the Native Americans were. This history has left permanent scars for many New Caledonians and can be a source of friction between the two groups. [Source: J. Williams,“Worldmark Encyclopedia of Cultures and Daily Life,” 2009 Encyclopedia.com]

New Caledonia Penal Colony, Enslaved Labor and Poor Treatment of Locals

After New Caledonia was annexed by France in 1853, tribal lands were expropriated for a penal colony, colonial settlers, and nickel mining. This systematic and radical reduction of Kanak lands meant that the culturally cohesive and contiguous clan territories of the past were reduced to a shattered collection of isolated communities. By the end of the nineteenth century, Kanaks were confined to native reserves and compelled to do corvée (forced labor) for the settlers and on public works. [Source: Donna Winslow, e Human Relations Area Files (eHRAF) World Cultures, Yale University]

France declared New Caledonia a penal colony in 1864 and sent more than 20,000 prisoners there over the next three decades. Nickel was discovered in 1864 and French prisoners were directed to mine it. France also brought in indentured servants and enslaved labor from elsewhere in Southeast Asia to work the mines, blocking Kanaks from accessing the most profitable part of the local economy.

According to the Encyclopedia of Western Colonialism: Desperate to replace their failed penal colony of Guiana, the French began deporting convicts to New Caledonia in May 1864 and political exiles associated with the Paris Commune in 1871. By the time deportation was halted in 1897—in an effort to hasten free colonization—nearly 21,000 convicts had been exiled. As increasing numbers of free settlers arrived, native villages were displaced to make way for cattle grazing, which led to numerous revolts against French rule, all of which were violently repressed. [Source: Encyclopedia of Western Colonialism since 1450]

New Caledonia in World War II and Afterwards

During World War II, New Caledonia became an important base for Allied troops, and the U.S. moved its South Pacific headquarters to the island in 1942. Following the war, France made New Caledonia an overseas territory and granted French citizenship to all inhabitants in 1953, thereby permitting the Kanaks to move off the reservations.The Kanak nationalist movement began in the 1950s, but most voters chose to remain a territory in an independence referendum in 1958. [Source: CIA World Factbook, 2023]

Donna Winslow wrote in the “Encyclopedia of World Cultures”: “ After World War II, colonial policy was liberalized, forced labor was abolished, and Kanaks were accorded the right to vote. In spite of increased political participation, Kanaks continued to be economically marginalized as the financial gap between Kanaks and the rest of the New Caledonian population continued to widen.[Source: Donna Winslow, e Human Relations Area Files (eHRAF) World Cultures, Yale University]

According to the Encyclopedia of Western Colonialism: In 1956 New Caledonia's status changed from a colony to an overseas territory and Kanaks were given the right to vote the following year. This did not forestall political radicalization, however, and increasing demands for land reform and independence sparked a wave of violence between Kanaks and Caldoches in the mid-1980s. This unrest prompted France to grant New Caledonia a unique status somewhere between an independent country and overseas department. Thus, a fifty-four-member territorial congress elected by popular vote is responsible for taxation, labor law, and health, while the French Republic retains authority over foreign affairs, justice, and the treasury. [Source: Encyclopedia of Western Colonialism since 1450]

Violence and Demands for Independence in New Caledonia

The European population of New Caledonia boomed in the 1970s with a renewed focus on nickel mining, reigniting Kanak nationalism. Key Kanak leaders were assassinated in the early 1980s, leading to escalating violence and dozens of fatalities. The Matignon Accords of 1988 provided for a 10-year transition period.

Donna Winslow wrote: Urbanization increased as the rural areas were drained of labor. The collapse of the nickel boom in the mid-1970s led to unemployment and economic recession. Kanak youths returned to overcrowded native reserves only to find that there was little place for them and no available land. At this time, Kanak demands for participation in economic and political decision-making increased, and the Kanak independence movement grew. In 1984 the Kanaks boycotted territorial elections, set up a provisional government, and demanded freedom from French rule in favor of “Kanak socialist independence.” By 1987 the territory had erupted into violence. In one incident, pro-independence militants took 27 people hostage and in an effort to free them the government killed 19 militants. A settlement known as the Matignon Accords was negotiated in 1988 between Kanaks, the settlers, and the French government. This agreement heralded a ten-year “peace period” during which the French government would attempt to redress socioeconomic inequalities in the territory, in particular by promoting development and training programs in Kanak communities. At the end of this ten-year period in 1998 another agreement, the Nouméa Accord, was signed, setting a deadline of 2018 for New Caledonians to choose between independence and staying within the French republic. [Source: Donna Winslow, e Human Relations Area Files (eHRAF) World Cultures, Yale University]

In November 1998, residents of new Caledonia supported a referendum for more autonomy from France by 72 percent. The Noumea Accord of 1998 transferred increasing governing responsibility from France to New Caledonia over a 20-year period and provided for three independence referenda. In the first held in 2018, voters rejected independence by 57 percent to 43 percent; in the second held in 2020, voters rejected independence 53 percent to 47 percent. In the third referendum held in December 2021, voters rejected independence 96 percent to 4 percent; however, a boycott by key Kanak groups spurred challenges about the legitimacy of the vote. In February 2021, pro-independence parties gained a majority in the New Caledonian Government for the first time. France and New Caledonia officials remain in talks about the status of the country. [Source: CIA World Factbook, 2023]

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Text Sources: CIA World Factbook, 2023; “Encyclopedia of World Cultures, Volume 2: Oceania,” edited by Terence E. Hays, 1991, Wikipedia, Encyclopedia.com, New York Times, Washington Post, Los Angeles Times, Times of London, Lonely Planet Guides, Library of Congress, The Guardian, National Geographic, Smithsonian magazine, The New Yorker, Reuters, Associated Press, AFP, BBC, CNN, and various books, websites and other publications.

Last updated September 2023