{"id":355,"date":"2018-05-30T04:00:35","date_gmt":"2018-05-30T04:00:35","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.smoketreemanor.com\/?p=355"},"modified":"2018-09-28T01:18:12","modified_gmt":"2018-09-28T01:18:12","slug":"mysterious-islands-saint-pierre-miquelon","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.smoketreemanor.com\/mysterious-islands-saint-pierre-miquelon\/","title":{"rendered":"The Mysterious Islands of Saint Pierre and Miquelon"},"content":{"rendered":"

St. Pierre and Miquelon are the sole surviving remnants of what were once were large French holdings in the New World, as North America was known shortly after its discovery.\u00a0 New France<\/a> contained much of eastern Canada and most all of the drainage basin of the Mississippi River, or in other words, most all of the American midwest and heartland.<\/p>\n

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New France Map<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

The French were after furs rather than seeking to actively colonize the land, so they had generally good relations with the local native peoples, with whom they worked extensively in the fur trade.\u00a0 The French were interested in the cod banks off Newfoundland, much of which they controlled anyway, and a part of that fishing empire were the two smallish islands located just off the Burin Peninsula of Newfoundland<\/a>,<\/p>\n

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Burin Peninsula Map<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Saint Pierre and Miquelon, with Miquelon being by far the larger but always the least populated.<\/p>\n

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Saint Pierre and Miquelon on Global Map<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

The 1713 Treaty of Utrecht<\/a> resulted in France relinquishing its claims to what is now Canada.\u00a0 The Seven Years’ War<\/a> (known as the French and Indian War in North America and especially the United States) ended France’s and its First Nations’ control of the New France territory.\u00a0 The 1763 Treaty of Paris<\/a> transferred the rest of New France, except the islands of Saint Pierre and Miquelon, to Great Britain and Spain.\u00a0 Britain now ruled Canada, Acadia, and the parts of French Louisiana which lay east of the Mississippi River.\u00a0 In 1800, Spain returned its portion of Louisiana to France under the secret Treaty of San Ildefonso<\/a>.\u00a0 However, French leader Napoleon Bonaparte in turn sold it to the United States in the Louisiana Purchase<\/a> of 1803, permanently ending French colonial efforts on the North American mainland.<\/p>\n

It is not entirely clear to me why France would have bothered to retain the small islands of Saint Pierre and Miquelon, but they did.\u00a0 The current reasoning, and a hard fought treaty with Canada regarding boundaries, has everything to do with Exclusive Economic Zones<\/a> in the waters which surround the islands, and perhaps that was always the point, to retain a foothold in some of the, formerly, greatest fishing areas known to the world, prior to the collapse of them due to rampant overfishing.<\/p>\n

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Map of Exclusive Economic Zone of Saint Pierre and Miquelon<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

<\/p>\n

The first European to land on the islands was the Portuguese explorer Jo\u00e3o \u00c1lvares Fagundes<\/a> who made landfall in October 1520.\u00a0 In 1536 by Jacques Cartier<\/a> claimed the islands on behalf of the King of France.\u00a0 Although the island were frequently visited by native peoples and European fishermen, they were not permanently settled until the late 17th century, with four permanent inhabitants counted in 1670 and 22 in 1691.<\/p>\n

By the early 1700s, the islands were again uninhabited, and were ceded to the British by the Treaty of Utrecht.\u00a0 Under the terms of the Treaty of Paris (1763), which put an end to the Seven Years’ War, France ceded all its North American possessions, but Saint-Pierre and Miquelon were returned to France.<\/p>\n

Because France was allied with the Americans during the Revolutionary War, Britain invaded and razed the French colony on Saint Pierre and Miquelon in 1778.\u00a0 The British forced the return of the entire population of 2,000 people to France.\u00a0 In 1794 the British returned, again expelling any French settlers and attempted to replace them with British settlers instead.\u00a0 In turn, the French sacked the British population in 1796.\u00a0 The Treaty of Amiens of 1802<\/a> returned the islands to France, but Britain reoccupied them when hostilities recommenced the next year.\u00a0 Finally, the Treaty of Paris (1814) gave Saint Pierre and Miquelon back to France, though Britain occupied them yet again during the Hundred Days War<\/a>.\u00a0 France then reclaimed the then uninhabited islands and the islands were resettled in 1816.\u00a0 The settlers were mostly Basques<\/a>, Bretons<\/a> and Normans<\/a>, who were joined by various other elements, particularly from the nearby island of Newfoundland<\/a>.\u00a0 Only around the middle of the century did increased fishing bring a certain prosperity to the little colony.<\/p>\n

By the early 20th centure, the fishing business became unprofitable enough that large numbers of the inhabitants left for Nova Scotia<\/a> and Quebec<\/a>.\u00a0 To make matters worse, the compulsory draft of all male inhabitants of eligible age at the beginning of World War I<\/a> severely hampered what fishing business remained.<\/p>\n

Smuggling had always been an important economic activity in the islands, but it became especially prominent in the 1920s with the institution of prohibition in the United States.\u00a0 The end of prohibition in 1933 plunged the islands into economic depression.<\/p>\n

After the 1958 French constitutional referendum, the islands were given the option of becoming fully integrated with France, becoming a self-governing state within the French Community, or preserving the status of overseas territory.\u00a0 Saint Pierre and Miquelon voted to remain a territory.<\/p>\n

After fishing was formally limited by treaty between France and Canada in the 1970s and 1980s, Saint Pierre and Miquelon have attempted to diversify their economy to include tourism and other activities but approximately half of the budget for the islands continues to arrive in the form of French subsidies and direct assistance, making Saint Pierre and Miquelon the most expensive, per capita, of all of the constituent territories of Overseas France.<\/p>\n

Technically there are eight islands in Saint Pierre and Miquelon but only the named two are inhabited.\u00a0 The islands are geologically part of the Appalachian Mountain Range which continues on into Newfoundland.\u00a0 An interesting side note:\u00a0 while Miquelon<\/p>\n

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Miquelon<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

is considerably larger than Saint Pierre, it is home to only about 600 people while Saint Pierre is home to about 5,500.<\/p>\n

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Saint Pierre in 2014 Aerial View<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Technically, Miquelon is two islands joined by a narrow isthmus but it is traditional to refer to it as one island.<\/p>\n

Saint Pierre is home to the only international airport in the territory while Miquelon has a small airport for flights from Saint Pierre.\u00a0 While the Saint Pierre Airport<\/p>\n

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St Pierre Airport<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

is capable of receiving flights from Metropolitan France, no such flights currently exist.\u00a0 Instead flights into Saint Pierre are operated by Air Saint Pierre which operates both year-round and seasonal routes from various cities in Canada as well as commuter flights to Miquelon.\u00a0 The flights from Saint Pierre to Miquelon are among the shortest commercial flights in the world.\u00a0 There is also a ferry service from the Newfoundland town of Fortune<\/a> on a seasonal basis from mid-April to November.\u00a0 At other times, because of ice in the harbor, the only connections are via air.\u00a0 The ferry is passenger only; no cars allowed.<\/p>\n

The official flag of Saint Pierre and Miquelon, as is true of all of Overseas France,<\/p>\n

\"\"
Overseas France Present Day<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

is the French Tricolour.<\/p>\n

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French Flag<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

However, there is a local and unofficial flag that is seen in use and that is the flag we were flying today.<\/p>\n

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Flag of St Pierre and Miquelon on Our Flagpole<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

The unofficial flag was designed in 1982, likely by a local business owner, Andr\u00e9 Paturel.\u00a0 The flag is based on the Collectivity’s coat of arms.\u00a0 The flag is blue with a yellow ship, said to be Grande Hermine, which brought Jacques Cartier to Saint-Pierre on 15 June 1536.\u00a0 Three square fields placed along the hoist recall the origin of most inhabitants of the islands, from top to bottom, Basques, Bretons, and Normans.<\/p>\n

\"\"
Flag of Saint Pierre and Miquelon<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

We have one more very obscure component of Overseas France to cover before we are done and this one takes us back to the south Pacific Ocean to two very far flung specks of land which without French support and direct assistance would likely have a very different level of lifestyle.\u00a0 Stay tuned for our next, and final, installment of Overseas France.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The official flag of Saint Pierre and Miquelon, as is true of all of Overseas France, is the French Tricolour.\u00a0 However, there is a local and unofficial flag that is seen in use and that is the flag we were flying today.\u00a0 The unofficial flag was designed in 1982, likely by a local business owner, Andr\u00e9 Paturel.\u00a0 The flag is based on the Collectivity’s coat of arms.\u00a0 The flag is blue with a yellow ship, said to be Grande Hermine, which brought Jacques Cartier to Saint-Pierre on 15 June 1536.\u00a0 Three square fields placed along the hoist recall the origin of most inhabitants of the islands, from top to bottom, Basques, Bretons, and Normans.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":356,"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":[5,27,11,6,7,29],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.smoketreemanor.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/355"}],"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=355"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.smoketreemanor.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/355\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.smoketreemanor.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/356"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.smoketreemanor.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=355"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.smoketreemanor.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=355"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.smoketreemanor.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=355"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}