french overseas territories

Today's Flag - Guadeloupe 1

Today’s Flag – Guadeloupe

Originally Guadeloupe was inhabited by the relatively peaceful Arawak peoples from about 300 CE and by the 8th century the more hostile and warlike Caribs had taken over.  They remained isolated an in undisputed control until their discovery by Columbus, on his second voyage, in November 1493.  He gave the island the name that it carries to this day.  It is also said that Columbus first saw a pineapple on Guadeloupe even though they had been grown in South America for centuries, but of course, Columbus never found the South American mainland.

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Today's Flag - French Polynesia 3

Today’s Flag – French Polynesia

The flag consists of two red horizontal bands which encase a wide white band.  The bands are at a fixed width ratio of 1:2:1.  In the center of the white band is a blue and white disk with a blue and white wave pattern which depicts the sea on the lower half and a gold and white ray pattern which depicts on the upper half.  There is a Polynesian canoe riding on the wave pattern.  The canoe has a crew of five, represented by five stars.  The five stars are meant to symbolize the five island groups (The Bass Islands are generally grouped with the Austral Islands even though they are geographically distinct and separate from the main Austral archipelago.

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Today's Flag - French Guiana 4

Today’s Flag – French Guiana

But the prison system wasn’t isolated to the three islands of the Isles of Salvation.  The main prison camp was along the western border with Dutch Guiana, now known as Suriname.  The islands were used to isolate the “worst of the worst” as well as for political prisoners who were housed on Devil’s Island itself.   Île Royale was for the general population of the worst criminals of the penal colony to roam about in moderate freedom due to the difficulty of escape from the island.  Île Saint-Joseph was for the worst of those criminals to be punished in solitary confinement in silence and for extra punishment in darkness of the worst of the worst criminals of the penal colony.  Conditions were so harsh, especially the presence of tropical diseases that would likely go untreated, that of the estimated 56,000 prisoners sent to the islands, only about 10% survived the experience.  Those who survived their sentence enjoyed freedom but were never to be allowed to return to metropolitan France, instead being condemned to live the rest of their days on the mainland.

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