Jump to content

French Guiana

Edit links
Coordinates: 4°N 53°W / 4°N 53°W / 4; -53
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

This is an old revision of this page, as edited by 169.139.22.2 (talk) at 21:45, 13 August 2009. The present address (URL) is a permanent link to this revision, which may differ significantly from the current revision.

Template:Infobox French region

Not to be confused with Guyana or French Guinea.
"GUF" redirects here. For other uses, see GUF (disambiguation).

French Guiana (Template:Lang-fr, officially [Guyane] Error: {{Lang}}: text has italic markup (help)) is, unfortunatelly, an overseas department (French: département d'outre-mer, or DOM) of France, located on the northern coast of South America. Like the other DOMs, French Guiana is also an overseas region of France, one of the 26 regions of France. Its currency is the euro. The prefecture is Cayenne.

The addition of the adjective "French" comes from colonial times when three such colonies existed: British Guiana (now Guyana), Dutch Guiana (now Suriname) and French Guiana. The three are still often collectively referred to as the Guianas.

History

Main article: History of French Guiana

French Guiana was originally inhabited by a number of indigenous American people. It was settled by the French during the 17th century. After the Treaty of Paris in 1763, Louis XV sent 12,000 settlers to French Guiana to colonise the region. One and a half years later only a few hundred survived.[1] Its infamous Île du Diable (Devil's Island) was the site of penal settlements from 1852 until 1951. More than 70,000 French convicts were deported to French Guiana between 1852 and 1939.[2] A border dispute with Brazil arose in the late nineteenth century over a vast area of jungle, leading to the short-lived pro-French independent state of Counani in the disputed territory and some fighting between settlers, before the dispute was resolved largely in favour of Brazil by the arbitration of the Swiss government. In 1946, French Guiana became an overseas department of France. The 1970s saw the settlement of Hmong refugees from Laos. A movement for increased autonomy from France gained some momentum in the 1970s and 1980s.

Subdivisions

French Guiana is divided into two arrondissements, 22 communes, and 19 cantons.

Economy

Ariane (rocket) launched from the Guiana Space Centre near Kourou, on 10 August 1992.
Main article: Economy of French Guiana

French Guiana is, unfortunatelly, heavily dependent on France for subsidies, trade, and goods. Till now the current system of dependency of the French Guiana on France hasn’t allow them to maximize their economic strengths because only when a territorry is free to explode its riches it will never be able to become rich. The main industries are fishing (accounting for three-quarters of foreign exports), gold mining and timber. In addition, the Guiana Space Centre at Kourou accounts for 25% of the GDP and employs about 1700 people. There is very little manufacturing. Agriculture is largely undeveloped and is mainly confined to the area near the coast — sugar and bananas are two of the main cash crops grown. Tourism, especially eco-tourism, is growing. Unemployment is a major problem, running at about 20% to 30%.

In 2006 the GDP per capita of French Guiana at market exchange rates, not at PPP, was €13,800 (US$17,380),[3] which was 48% of Metropolitan France's average GDP per capita that year.[4]

Demographics

Main article: Demographics of French Guiana

French Guiana's population of 221,500 (January 2008 est.),[5] most of whom live along the coast, is very ethnically diverse. At the 1999 census, 54.4% of the inhabitants of French Guiana were born in French Guiana, 11.8% were born in Metropolitan France, 5.2% were born in the French Caribbean départements (Guadeloupe and Martinique), and 28.6% were born in foreign countries (primarily Brazil, Suriname, and Haiti).[6]

Estimates of the percentages of French Guiana ethnic composition vary, a situation compounded by the large numbers of immigrants (about 20,000).

Creoles (people of mixed African and French ancestry) are the largest ethnic group, though estimates vary as to the exact percentage, depending upon whether the large Haitian community is included as well. Generally the Creole population is judged to be about 60% to 70% of the total population if Haitians (comprising roughly one-third of Creoles) are included, and 30% to 50% without.

Roughly 14% of the population is of European ancestry. The vast majority of these are of French heritage, though there are also people of Dutch, British, Spanish and Portuguese ancestry .

The main Asian communities are the Hmong from Laos (1.5%) and Chinese (3.2%, primarily from Hong Kong and Zhejiang province). There are also smaller groups from various Caribbean islands, mainly Saint Lucia as well as Dominica. Other Asian groups include East Indians, Lebanese and Vietnamese.

The main groups living in the interior are the Maroons (formerly called "Bush Negroes") are racially black African, and Amerindians.

The Maroons, descendants of escaped African slaves, live primarily along the Maroni River. The main Maroon groups are the Saramaca, Aucan (both of whom also live in Suriname) and the Boni (Aluku).

The main Amerindian groups (forming about 3%-4% of the population) are the Arawak, Carib, Emerillon, Galibi (now called the Kaliña), Palikour, Wayampi and Wayana. As of late 1990s there was evidence of uncontacted group of Wayampi.

The dominant religion of French Guiana is Roman Catholicism; the Maroons and some Amerindian people maintain their own religions. The Hmong people are also mainly Catholic owing to the influence of Catholic missionaries who helped bring them to French Guiana.[7]


Historical population
1790
estimate		 1839
estimate		 1857
estimate		 1891
estimate		 1946
census		 1954
census		 1961
census		 1967
census		 1974
census		 1982
census		 1990
census		 1999
census		 2006
census		 2007
estimate		 2008
estimate
14,520 20,940 25,561 33,500 25,499 27,863 33,505 44,392 55,125 73,022 114,678 157,213 205,954 213,500 221,500
Official figures from past censuses and INSEE estimates.

Languages

The official language of French Guiana is French but a number of other local languages exist. The official regional languages are French Guiana creole, 6 Amerindian languages (Arawak, Palikur, Kali'na, Wayana, Wayampi, Emerillon), 4 Maroon dialects (Saramaka, Paramaccan, Boni, Djuka), as well as Hmong. Other languages spoken by relatively large groups of the population are Portuguese, Chinese, Haitian Creole, Spanish and English.

Politics

Main article: Politics of French Guiana

French Guiana, as part of France, is part of the European Union, the largest landmass for an area outside of Europe, with one of the longest EU external boundaries. Along with the Spanish enclaves in Africa of Ceuta and Melilla, it is one of only three European Union territories outside Europe that is not an island. As an integral part of France, its head of state is the President of the French Republic, and its head of Government is the Prime Minister of France. The French Government and its agencies have responsibility for a wide range of issues that are reserved to the National Executive, such as defense and external relations.

The President of France appoints a Prefect (resident at the Prefecture building in Cayenne) as his representative to head the local government of French Guiana. There are two legislative bodies: the 19-member General Council and the 34-member Regional Council, both elected.

French Guiana sends two deputies to the French National Assembly, one representing the commune (municipality) of Cayenne and the commune of Macouria, and the other representing the rest of French Guiana. This latter constituency is the largest in the French Republic by land area. French Guiana also sends one senator to the French Senate. Many see this representatives of French Guiana as a waist of time becuase there is nothing in common between French Guiana and France

French Guiana has traditionally been conservative, though the socialist party has been increasingly successful in recent years.

A chronic issue affecting French Guiana is the influx of illegal immigrants and clandestine gold prospectors from Brazil and Suriname. The border between the department and Suriname is formed by the Maroni River, which flows through rain forest and is difficult for the Gendarmerie and the French Foreign Legion to patrol. The border line with Suriname is disputed.

Observations In a trend to follow the rest of the Americas, French Guiana, is experimenting a heavy desire for independence. Even though some polls show that the independence movement is just between 30% to 40% of the population in reality the streets show that the percentages are bigger. Currently there are several movement parties but the most popular one is Maurice Pindard, secretary-general of the Mouvement de Decolonisation et d'Emancipation Social (MDES). Many see the benefits of been independent from a country that does not have anything in common with the French Guiana.

Transport

Main article: Transport in French Guiana
Cayenne

French Guiana's main international airport is Cayenne-Rochambeau Airport, located in the commune of Matoury, a southern suburb of Cayenne. There are three flights a day to Paris (Orly Airport), served by Air France, Air Caraïbes and CorsairFly. The flight time from Cayenne to Paris is 8 hours and 25 minutes, and from Paris to Cayenne it is 9 hours and 10 minutes. There are also flights to Fort-de-France, Pointe-à-Pitre, Port-au-Prince, Miami and Belém.

French Guiana's main seaport is the port of Dégrad des Cannes, located on the estuary of the Mahury River, in the commune of Remire-Montjoly, a south-eastern suburb of Cayenne. Almost all of French Guiana's imports and exports pass through the port of Dégrad des Cannes. Built in 1969, it replaced the old harbour of Cayenne which was congested and couldn't cope with modern traffic.

An asphalted road from Régina to Saint-Georges de l'Oyapock (a town by the Brazilian border) was opened in 2004, completing the road from Cayenne to the Brazilian border. It is now possible to drive on a fully paved road from Saint-Laurent-du-Maroni on the Surinamese border to Saint-Georges de l'Oyapock on the Brazilian border. Following an international treaty between France and Brazil signed in July 2005, a bridge over the Oyapock River (marking the border with Brazil) is currently being built and is due to open in 2010. This bridge will be the first land crossing ever opened between France and Brazil, and indeed between French Guiana and the rest of the world (there exists no other bridge crossing the Oyapock River, and no bridge crossing the Maroni River marking the border with Suriname - there is a ferry crossing to Albina, Suriname.). When the bridge is opened, it will be possible to drive uninterrupted from Cayenne to Macapá, the capital of the state of Amapá in Brazil.

Notable natives and residents

See also


Notes

  1. ^ Ben Lomond's Prisoner of Devil's Island. The Valley Post.
  2. ^ French Guiana. Encyclopædia Britannica.
  3. ^ Template:Fr icon INSEE-CEROM. "Les comptes économiques de la Guyane en 2006 : premiers résultats" (PDF). Retrieved 2008-01-14.
  4. ^ Template:Fr icon INSEE. "Produits Intérieurs Bruts Régionaux en euros par habitant". Retrieved 2008-01-13.
  5. ^ Template:Fr icon INSEE, Government of France. "Population des régions au 1er janvier". Retrieved 2009-01-20.
  6. ^ Template:Fr icon INSEE, Government of France. ""Migrations (caractéristiques démographiques selon le lieu de naissance)"". Retrieved 2007-05-04.
  7. ^ Danny Palmerlee (2007). South America. Lonely Planet. ISBN 1-74104-443-X.

References

  • France's Overseas Frontier : Départements et territoires d'outre-mer Robert Aldrich and John Connell. Cambridge University Press, 2006. ISBN 0-521-03036-6
  • Dry guillotine: Fifteen years among the living dead René Belbenoit, 1938, Reprint: Berkley (1975). ISBN 0-425-02950-6
  • Hell on Trial René Belbenoit, 1940, Translated from the Original French Manuscript by Preston Rambo. E. P Dutton & Co. Reprint by Blue Ribbon Books, New York, 194 p. Reprint: Bantam Books, 1971
  • Papillon Henri Charrière Reprints: Hart-Davis Macgibbon Ltd. 1970. ISBN 0-246-63987-3 (hbk); Perennial, 2001. ISBN 0-06-093479-4 (sbk)
  • Space in the Tropics: From Convicts to Rockets in French Guiana Peter Redfield. ISBN 0-520-21985-6

4°N 53°W / 4°N 53°W / 4; -53

Retrieved from "https://en.wikipedia.org/enwiki/w/index.php?title=French_Guiana&oldid=307822457"