{"id":236,"date":"2018-05-18T04:00:57","date_gmt":"2018-05-18T04:00:57","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.smoketreemanor.com\/?p=236"},"modified":"2018-09-28T01:24:25","modified_gmt":"2018-09-28T01:24:25","slug":"little-known-mayotte-todays-flag","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.smoketreemanor.com\/little-known-mayotte-todays-flag\/","title":{"rendered":"Little Known Mayotte – Today’s Flag"},"content":{"rendered":"

Mayotte is located in the Comorian Archipelago<\/a><\/p>\n

\"\"
Comoros Map<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

off the eastern coast<\/p>\n

\"\"
Comoros in World Map<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

of southern Africa,<\/p>\n

\"\"
Mayotte Map<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

between modern-day Mozambique<\/a> and the island of Madagascar.<\/a><\/p>\n

\"\"
Comoros Map in Africa<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

While geographically part of the independent nation of the Comoros, Mayotte chose a different path from the other three main islands of the Archipelago.<\/p>\n

In 1500, the Maore or Mawuti sultanate was established on the island.<\/p>\n

In 1503, Mayotte was observed by Portuguese explorers, but not colonized.<\/p>\n

In 1832, Mayotte was conquered by Andriantsoly, former king of Iboina<\/a> on Madagascar; in 1833, it was conquered by the neighboring sultanate of Mwali.\u00a0 On 19 November 1835, Mayotte was again conquered by the Ndzuwani Sultanate<\/a>; a governor was installed with the unusual Islamic style of Qadi. However, in 1836 it regained its independence under a last local Sultan.<\/p>\n

Mayotte was purchased by France in 1841.<\/p>\n

Mayotte was the only island in the archipelago that voted in both 1974 and 1976 to retain its link with France and forgo independence.\u00a0 The Comoros continue to claim the island.<\/p>\n

Mayotte became an overseas department of France in March 2011.<\/p>\n

Mayotte is a small island with only\u00a0256,518\u00a0people.\u00a0 However as the island is only 144 square miles in size, which results in a very densely populated island with 690 people per square kilometer while the same space in France is only occupied by, on average, 122 people.<\/p>\n

The main island, Grande-Terre,<\/p>\n

\"\"
Grande Terre Mayotte<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

is 39 kilometres (24 mi) long and 22 kilometres (14 mi) wide, and its highest point is Mount Benara,<\/p>\n

\"\"
Mount Benara<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

at 660 metres (2,165 ft) above sea level.\u00a0 The volcanic soil is relatively rich and allows for agricultural production of such commodities as<\/p>\n

\"\"
Vanilla Beans<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

vanilla<\/a>,<\/p>\n

\"\"
Vanilla Flower<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

ylang-ylang<\/a><\/p>\n

\"\"
Ylang-Ylang Blossoms<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

for perfume manufacture, coffee<\/a>,<\/p>\n

\"\"
Coffee Beans<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

and copra<\/a>.<\/p>\n

\"\"
Copra Drying<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Dzaoudzi<\/p>\n

\"\"
Dzaoudzi<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

was the capital of Mayotte until 1977 when it was shifted to Mamoudzou<\/a><\/p>\n

\"\"
Mamoudzou<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

on the main island.<\/p>\n

The coral reef that surrounds the island<\/p>\n

\"\"
R\u00e9cif Sakouli Mayotte<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

provides for some fishing and for excellent underwater activities such as scuba diving and snorkeling.\u00a0 The reef consists of a large outer barrier reef, enclosing one of the world’s largest and deepest lagoons, followed by a fringing reef, interrupted by many mangroves.<\/p>\n

\"\"
Mangroves<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

While the natural beauty could attract tourists, the very remote location and limited transportation options severely limits this aspect of the economy.<\/p>\n

Mayotte relies heavily on Metropolitan France for most all imports, of which there are many, as well as generous cash subsidies because of the limited economy.<\/p>\n

Mayotte is overwhelming Muslim with 97% of the population following this major world religion.\u00a0 The 3% remaining are nominally Roman Catholic.<\/p>\n

While French remains the only official language, the population speaks several other regional languages as well with some 40% of people being more proficient in various local languages than in French.<\/p>\n

As is the case with all parts of Overseas France, the only official flag is the French tricolor.\u00a0 However, there is an unofficial local flag and that is the flag we have flown today.<\/p>\n

We hope you have enjoyed this brief sojourn in one of the most remote parts of Overseas France.\u00a0 In our next installment we will return to the Pacific ocean, close to Australia, when we visit yet another island member of Overseas France.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Mayotte was purchased by France in 1841. Mayotte was the only island in the archipelago that voted in both 1974 and 1976 to retain its link with France and forgo independence.\u00a0 The Comoros continue to claim the island. Mayotte became an overseas department of France in March 2011. Mayotte is a small island with only\u00a0256,518\u00a0people.\u00a0 However as the island is only 144 square miles in size, which results in a very densely populated island with 690 people per square kilometer while the same space in France is only occupied by, on average, 122 people. The main island, Grande-Terre is 39 kilometres (24 mi) long and 22 kilometres (14 mi) wide, and its highest point is Mount Benara.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":237,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"site-sidebar-layout":"default","site-content-layout":"","ast-site-content-layout":"","site-content-style":"default","site-sidebar-style":"default","ast-global-header-display":"","ast-banner-title-visibility":"","ast-main-header-display":"","ast-hfb-above-header-display":"","ast-hfb-below-header-display":"","ast-hfb-mobile-header-display":"","site-post-title":"","ast-breadcrumbs-content":"","ast-featured-img":"","footer-sml-layout":"","theme-transparent-header-meta":"","adv-header-id-meta":"","stick-header-meta":"","header-above-stick-meta":"","header-main-stick-meta":"","header-below-stick-meta":"","astra-migrate-meta-layouts":"default","ast-page-background-enabled":"default","ast-page-background-meta":{"desktop":{"background-color":"","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-gradient":""},"tablet":{"background-color":"","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-gradient":""},"mobile":{"background-color":"","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-gradient":""}},"ast-content-background-meta":{"desktop":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-5)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-gradient":""},"tablet":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-5)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-gradient":""},"mobile":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-5)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-gradient":""}},"footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.smoketreemanor.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/236"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.smoketreemanor.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.smoketreemanor.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.smoketreemanor.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.smoketreemanor.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=236"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.smoketreemanor.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/236\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.smoketreemanor.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/237"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.smoketreemanor.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=236"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.smoketreemanor.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=236"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.smoketreemanor.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=236"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}