Abstract
The French presence in the Pacific was both intermittent and discreet. After its late establishment in the 19th century, France finally organised its hitherto scattered possessions during the inter-war period by defining a coherent policy. However, the shock of the Second World War put an end to France’s attempts to influence the area. All that remained of this adventure was a daydream, conducive to some fleeting political marketing operations.
Zusammenfassung
Die französische Präsenz im Pazifik war sowohl temporär als auch diskret. Nach ihrer späten Etablierung im 19. Jahrhundert koordinierte Frankreich seine zerstreuten Besitztümer in der Zwischenkriegszeit durch eine kohärente Strategie. Der Schock des Zweiten Weltkrieges setzte den Bemühungen Frankreichs um Einfluss in diesem Raum jedoch ein Ende. Alles, was von diesem Abenteuer übrigblieb, war ein Wunschtraum, der sich für einige kurzlebige politische Marketingaktionen eignete.
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Notes
For many contemporary Samoans, France is a large island close to Tahiti which invaded it. The Maori of the 19th century referred to French military detachments as “the Oui Oui tribe”.
The annexation of New Zealand happened in 1840, there were numerous Protestant missions in Melanesia.
18th century maps still showed a Southern Land, which extended 50 degrees south of Africa, up to the 15th degree of longitude of Java and reached the 24th degree south of New Guinea. Buache’s map showed the location of Alberta and Mount Brown as the ‘Western Sea’. The campaigns of Bougainville, Cook, Lapérouse, Dentrecasteaux and Dumont d’Urville were primarily scientific explorations, with longitude measurements being the first item on the agenda.
We know that France officially took possession of New Caledonia on 24 and 29 September 1853. Much less well known is the project developed in January 1843 by Admiral Duperré, Minister of the Navy and the Colonies, to take advantage of the transport of a handful of Marist missionaries to New Caledonia in order to have the sovereignty of France recognised by some of the chiefs of the island. This project was put into practice a year later by Lieutenant-Commander Julien Laferrière, but remained without echo or effect, since in July 1846 Commander Leconte withdrew the tricolour flag which was still flying over the mission establishment. The purpose of the following article is to shed light on an episode that has remained fairly mysterious to this day due to an administration that, having retracted its decision, has taken pains to give as little publicity as possible to its actions.
And Deschanel added: “The forthcoming construction of the Isthmus of Panama will produce a veritable economic, political and military revolution in the world. Will France be able to take advantage of this new Herculean task?”.
The Committee strongly supported US President Theodore Roosevelt, who declared that the 20th century would be the century of the Pacific.
A singular land boundary was established as early as 1828 to separate them, in the middle of New Guinea. Some 700 km long, it demarcated a territory occupied by the Dutch as part of their East India empire to the west, and an “empty” space to the east that would later give way to two colonies controlled by Australia: Papua on the one hand, and New Guinea (originally a German colony) on the other.
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Flichy de la Neuville, T., de Gentile, E. France in the Pacific. History of a Discreet Presence. Z Außen Sicherheitspolit 15, 69–82 (2022). https://doi.org/10.1007/s12399-022-00893-w
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s12399-022-00893-w
