is a very large island in the western Pacific, located in Melanesia.
There are several other much smaller islands that are also within the jurisdiction of New Caledonia, including the Loyalty Islands,
the Chesterfield Islands,
the Belep archipelago,
the Isle of Pines,
and a few remote islets. The main island is referred to as Grande Terre
and it is by far the largest of all the islands. In fact, it is 6,321 square miles in size, making it larger than the United States state of Connecticut.
Human habitation in New Caledonia started in Lapita period,
about 1600 BCE to 500 BCE. The first European to sight the main island was Captain James Cook
on 4 September 1774. It was Captain Cook that named the island because the northern reaches reminded him of Scotland (Caledonia being the Latin name for Scotland). The island would be visited intermittently by whalers and other sailors who came in search of sandalwood
as well as for forced laborers in a practice euphemistically known as “blackbirding.”
However, landing on New Caledonia was a risky proposition since cannibalism was widely practiced as late as 1849. In that year, the crew of the American ship Cutter was killed and eaten by the Pouma clan.
The future of New Caledonia changed forever on 24 September 1853, when, under orders from Napoleon III,
took formal possession of New Caledonia. Port-de-France (now known as Nouméa)
was founded on 25 June 1854. Despite the presence of a few free settlers on the western coast, New Caledonia quickly became a penal colony. From the 1860s until 1897, about 22,000 criminals and political prisoners were sent to New Caledonia.
In 1864, nickel
was discovered and in 1876, mining began in earnest. The French imported laborers to work in the mines from neighboring islands and also attempted to encourage European immigration, without much success.
The indigenous population or Kanak
were excluded from the French economy and from mining work, ultimately confined to reservations. But in addition to physical and political repression, the Europeans also brought new diseases such as smallpox
and measles.
These new diseases, against which the local population had no immunity or experience, killed many.
In 1946, New Caledonia became a French overseas territory and by 1953, French citizenship had been granted to all New Caledonians, regardless of ethnicity.