History of New Caledonia

In 1917, archaeologist Maurice Pirut discovered the remains of ancient ceramics in the area west of the city of Kone . Since 1952, serious archaeological research began in New Caledonia, which made it possible to get an idea of ​​her life before contacting Europeans.

The Kone Tradition

The term "Kone tradition" is applied to the period of the XIII — II centuries. BC e. It is based on a large number of finds dated to this period of ceramics, and similar ceramics are no longer found in finds dated to the 1st century. BC e. Ceramics of the Kone tradition period is divided into two types: ceramics of the Lapita type ^[1] , and ceramics of the Podtane type (name - at the place of the first find). Some archaeologists suggest that the presence of two types of ceramics that existed simultaneously indicates two waves of migration that inhabited the island, while others - that these two types of ceramics were used for different needs. Pottery like Lapita abruptly disappears from the 1st century BC. e., while ceramics like Podtane continues to be found, but already changing in design.

The Naya Unjo Tradition

In the period lasting from the 1st century BC. e. According to the XVIII century, archaeologists distinguish several traditions:

• The Naya I Tradition. Ceramics of this type are found exclusively in coastal areas on the south and west coasts from Buray to Le Mont-Dore .
• The Naya II Tradition. Pottery of this type is also found exclusively in the south of the island, but not only on the coast, but also in the interior.
• The Unjo Tradition. Pottery of this type is found exclusively in the northern part of the island; this culture developed, apparently, shortly before the arrival of Europeans.

The differences in cultures may be explained by the information preserved in the oral tradition of the Kanaks (belonging to the Melanesians ) about the relatively late migration of Polynesians .

On September 4, 1774, graduate student Colnet, aboard the Resolution sloop during James Cook's second round-the-world expedition, noticed the island, which Cook called New Caledonia in honor of the ancient name of his homeland, Scotland . On September 5, when Cook and his team landed on the northeast coast of the island, the first contact was made between Aborigines and Europeans. After this, the Cook expedition sailed along the east coast of the island, and on September 23 discovered Pen Island.

It is assumed that in 1788, the expedition of Laperouse passed along the west coast of the island shortly before his death on the islands of Santa Cruz . In 1791, Joseph d' Antrkasto, who was looking for traces of the Laperouse expedition, passed the western coast of New Caledonia on his way to Tonga . The first to plot the exact location of the island on the map was the French explorer Dumont-Durville in 1827.

Since 1793, whalers began to show interest in the island, since humpback whales left Australia for the winter. However, serious contacts between islanders and Europeans began when the Europeans became interested in the sandalwood growing here. In the early 1850s, the British merchant James Paddon settled on the island of Nu (modern Noumea ) with several members of his family.

First European Settlements

Since 1841, Protestant missionaries from the London Missionary Society settled on Pen Island and the Luayote Islands , and in 1842 the Tuaru mission was founded at the southern tip of New Caledonia, but soon the missionaries from Pen and Tuaru were expelled (but the Luayote Islands remain to this day stronghold of Protestantism). In 1843, the mission was tried to be founded by Catholics from the Brotherhood of the Virgin Mary, led by Bishop Duarre, but in 1847 they were also expelled from the island, although they managed to gain a foothold on Pena. The missionaries brought with them previously unknown diseases, from which the natives were badly affected.

Two missionary organizations turned to their patrons to help them gain a foothold in New Caledonia: Protestants turned to Great Britain, Catholics turned to France. In addition to the missionaries, there were other requests for colonization: the British settlers in Australia tried to secure the Pacific islands for Great Britain, and the French were looking for a place with a warm climate to organize a place of exile.

The Parish of the French (1851-1853)

In 1850, officers from the French corvette L'Alcmène examined New Caledonia for the organization of a male prison, and considered it suitable for this role. After reviewing their report, Napoleon III sent several warships to establish French authority over the islands. On September 24, 1853, Rear Admiral Febrier-Despouant declared New Caledonia a French colony, and on September 29 agreed on the annexation of the island of Pen with the leader Vendegu. The head of the colony was the imperial commissioner, heading the Tahiti Protectorate. June 25, 1854 in the south-west of the island of New Caledonia, a French military base was founded, which later grew up in the city of Noumea .

Exiled or free settlers? (1860-1895)

In 1860, New Caledonia was separated from the Tahiti Protectorate into a separate colony, Rear Admiral Guillaume became its first governor. The governor's task was to create a prison, as well as allocating land for those convicts who would like to live free, but at the same time stay on the island twice as much as stipulated by the sentence (this policy encouraged the exiles to stay on the island forever). It was also the governor's responsibility to create an administrative structure for Aboriginal people.

Transports with deportees arrived in New Caledonia from 1864 to 1897. After the defeat of the Paris Commune, the military courts created by the Thiers government exiled many communards here. In 1874, six communards were able to escape, which served as a reason for changing the governor and expanding his powers: now the governor was also the head of the prison.

In addition to the exiles, free settlers arrived in New Caledonia. These were exclusively farmers who settled along the west coast of the island. In 1866, discovered nickel deposits, the development of which attracted merchants and caused a financial fever for several years.

In 1895, Governor stopped sending exiles and launched a campaign in France that resulted in a wave of organized immigrants, but their hopes for coffee cultivation ended in failure. In the 1910s, migration from Asian countries began, these migrants went to work as miners. In the 1920s, there was another wave of migration: immigrants from northern France expected to grow cotton in New Caledonia, but their hopes also proved futile.

Land and Aborigines (1855-1944)

New Caledonia, along with Algeria, was a French colony into which immigrants traveled. Individual migration and several waves of organized resettlement led to the fact that the number of immigrants from Europe and their descendants was equal to the number of Aboriginal people. Since immigration was important for the colonial authorities, one of the main tasks was to provide immigrants with land.

Having declared his archipelago, the French state declared itself in the proclamations of 1855 and 1862 and the owner of all its land. The decree of January 22, 1868 allotted part of the land for the Kanaks, but its provisions were drawn up so that part of the land allotted to the Melanesians, eventually became the property of the settlers. Decrees of 1874 and 1881 introduced a code of laws for Aboriginal people that entered into full force in New Caledonia in 1887; the Melanesians did not recognize any civil rights, and only personal ones were assigned, concerning beliefs and customs. Aborigines had to pay taxes, they could be attracted to work for the administration or immigrants, the governor appointed the leaders of the tribes and “big leaders” and determined their powers, witchcraft practices were prohibited. In 1897, the French government decided to collect all the Kanaks on reserves, allocating land for them at the rate of three hectares per person; thereby completely abolished the division of land made in 1868. However, the authorities regularly cut even these lands in order to allocate plots of new immigrants, and the area of ​​reservations decreased from 320,000 hectares in 1898 to 124,000 hectares in 1902.

Previously unknown diseases, alcoholism, wars (among the Aborigines gathered over a small area, aggravation of inter-clan contradictions took place) led to a reduction in the number of the indigenous population: if in 1774 the number of islanders was estimated at 40-80 thousand people, and in 1853 - at 50 thousand people, then in 1901 there were 29,206 of them, and in 1921 - 27,100.

Kanaki tried to fight oppression. If in the period from 1853 to 1878 the attempts of uprisings were small and local, and easily suppressed by the authorities, then in 1878 a gigantic uprising broke out under the leadership of the “great leader” , which led to the deaths of many settlers. To suppress it, the colonial administration used enmity between the Melanesians, as a result of which Atai was killed and beheaded by other Kanaks, and his head was sent to Paris. In 1917, leader Noel Dua revolted in the northern part of the island, but he was also beheaded by the Kanaks.

In 1931, a group of kanaks was shown in a cage at the International Colonial Exhibition .

World War II (1940-1945)

During World War II, New Caledonia joined Free France in 1940, and subsequently became an important rear base for the United States during the Pacific War. Since March 12, 1942, tens of thousands of people began to arrive in New Caledonia, who built airfields, equipped hospitals, etc. Their presence over the course of several years led to the appearance of features of the American way of life in New Caledonia.

Autonomy, centralization, economic development (1944-1973)

World War II marked the beginning of the decolonization process. The Origin of the Aboriginal Code was abolished on March 7, 1944, the in 1946 granted full French citizenship to all, including Aboriginal people, and the statute of September 20, 1947 guaranteed political equality and access to all institutions. Kanaki received freedom of movement, ownership and civil rights. The Kanaki theoretically gained the right to vote back in 1946, but it was introduced gradually due to local debate about the possibility of a two-stage election system: in fact, in 1946 only 267 members of the Melanesian elite received the right to vote, the act of May 23, 1951 expanded the electoral base in overseas territories , allowing 60% of adult Melanesians to vote, and universal suffrage was introduced by decree of July 22, 1957.

As part of the administrative reform carried out in 1957 by , New Caledonia received the status of “overseas territory”. However, the decolonization process, which began in the 1960s, threw the management system back: in 1963, the Governing Council was placed under the control of the governor, and the Billot Act of 1968 deprived the most rights, including issues related to nickel mining.

The increase in the number of Kanaks after 1945 prompted the metropolitan authorities to stimulate immigration to the island, especially from Wallis and Futuna ; immigration was spurred on by a “nickel boom”, which gave the newcomers a bright economic outlook. From 1969 to 1976, the population of the island grew by 20%, while about 20 thousand people were immigrants. Although the Kanak population usually exceeded the number of “Europeans” (55 thousand Kanaks versus 50 thousand “whites” in 1976), they never made up the majority, as there were about 20 thousand people from other groups on the island (Asians, Polynesians , the natives of Wallis and Futuna stood out separately).

The Birth of the Independence Movement (1968-1984)

After the events of May 1968 (“De Gaulle centralization”), disproportions in the distribution of land in relation to traditional clans began to manifest, in those same years, the declaration of independence by the states of Oceania began ( Western Samoa in 1962, Nauru in 1968, Tonga in 1970, Papua New Guinea in 1975, the Solomon Islands and Tuvalu in 1978, Kiribati in 1979, Vanuatu in 1980). In such circumstances, Kanak organizations began to form, with the goal of declaring the independence of New Caledonia, the most famous of which were the Foulards Rouges and Groupe 1878. In December 1975, at the congress in Temala, Foulards Rouges and Groupe 1878 united into .

However, while these parties strove to create a multinational state, the work of European ethnologists and anthropologists ( , , etc.), who demonstrated the existence of Kanak identity, generated among a number of intellectuals a desire to declare independence on a cultural basis. In 1975, Jean-Marie Tjibau organized the Melanesian art festival “ ”, in 1977 at the congress in Burali, the Caledonian Union proclaimed its goal as independence, and in 1979 the Caledonian Union and PaliCo united in .

Opponents of the separatists in 1977 created the party of , led by .

"Events" (1984-1988)

In 1981, François Mitterrand was elected president of France, and tension began to grow between the ruling Socialist Party and local nationalists. In 1984, being unhappy with the overseas status proposed by Secretary of State , as well as the development of the situation in some sensitive areas (in particular, regarding land distribution), the Kanak Socialist National Liberation Front (which replaced the Independence Front) boycotted local elections , blocked the road and announced the creation of the "Provisional Kanak government" led by Tzhibau. So began four years of conflict, which became known as the "Events". Со смертью возглавлявшего Каледонский союз националиста началась эскалация конфликта, постепенно перешедшего в гражданскую войну. Центральное правительство было вынуждено ввести чрезвычайное положение, длившееся с января по июнь 1985 года.

Кульминацией конфликта стал состоявшийся в 1988 году на острове Увеа захват заложников, в качестве условий для освобождения которых было выдвинуто немедленное предоставление независимости Новой Каледонии. Однако французское правительство отвергло какие-либо переговоры и осуществило силовую акцию, в ходе которой были убиты 19 канаков, причём большая часть их была убита уже после прекращения сопротивления; никто из заложников не пострадал.

«Трёхстороннее соглашение»

Общественность была шокирована трагедией на Увеа и непропорциональным использованием силы властями, и французская администрация была вынуждена пойти на значительные уступки. 26 июня 1988 года премьер Мишель Рокар и Жан-Мари Тжибау заключили Матиньонские соглашения , упразднив должность верховного комиссара, ранее осуществлявшего прямое управление Новой Каледонией, и договорившись о 10-летнем переходном периоде, после которого должен быть проведён референдум о независимости.

Сам Тжибау был убит в мае 1989 года .

По мере приближения срока проведения референдума, когда стало ясно, что большинство населения Новой Каледонии скорее всего выскажется «против» независимости, партия «За Каледонию в составе Республики» и сепаратисты решили заключить новое соглашение. 5 мая 1998 года было подписано соглашение в Нумеа, признававшее как положительные, так и отрицательные стороны колонизации, и существование «двух легитимных сторон» (канаков с одной стороны, и различных общин, принявших участие в современной истории Новой Каледонии — с другой). Оно предусматривало предоставление Новой Каледонии высокой степени автономии и охрану канакской культуры, включая использование канакских мотивов в государственной символике.

Проведение всенародного опроса о независимости предусматривалось подписанным в 1998 году соглашением о последовательной деколонизации этого французского архипелага. Референдум о независимости Новой Каледонии должен состояться 4 ноября 2018 года.