So, if you are reading this I wouldn’t be surprised if you are asking yourself, what the hell and where the fuck are the French Southern and Antarctic Lands?
Admittedly, it isn’t a location that springs to mind for most people, although, perhaps unsurprisingly, I would know immediately. Ah, the perils of being a geography geek.
Your first clue is “antarctic” which I am confident most readers know is the southernmost continent. Some readers may also know that several countries, in violation of the Antarctic Treaty that they are signatories to, claim territory on the Antarctic continent as their sovereign territory. These claims, being against international law, are not recognized by most any other country nor are the claims aggressively enforced.
The French claim to the Antarctic mainland is called Terre Adélie (Adélie Land)
and is located in a narrow slice to the due south of the French island of Reunion
and the former French colony Madagascar.
There is a French research station there but, of course, no permanent population. At most there are about 110 research staff present in the summer months and about 30 hardy souls who brave the winter.
While the claims to Terre Adélie are not internationally recognized or enforced, French claims to the other islands that comprise the rest of the Southern and Antarctic Lands are recognized and enforced by the French Navy,
although Mauritius,
the Comoros,
and Madagascar dispute, to some desultory degree, French claims to some very small islands, the Îles Éparses (Scattered Islands)
consisting of five small islands, four to the west of Madagascar and one to the east, that host no permanent population. The islands, with the exception of Bassas da India,
do host research staff totaling across the remaining four islands about 56 persons.
The remaining islands in the territory include:
Saint Paul / Île Amsterdam – in the southern Indian Ocean about midway between Madagascar and Australia, hosting about 30 research scientists at any one time. They have been under French control since 1892 although formally claimed much earlier in 1843.
Archipel Crozet – also in the southern Indian Ocean to the SSE of Madagascar, hosts about 25 research staff. These islands have been French possessions since their discovery in 1772.
Archipel des Kerguelen (Kerguelen Islands) – also in the southern Indian Ocean to the extreme southeast of Madagascar closer to Antarctica than any other land mass. These islands are by far the largest of the islands in the French and Southern Lands. They have been French possessions since 1772. While hosting no permanent population, there is a research staff of about 70, with more in the summer, as is true of all of these small islands, of about 110.