It was returned to France with the signing of the Treaty of Paris in Though Portugal returned the region to France, it kept a military presence until After French Guiana had been established as a penal colony, officials sometimes used convicts to catch butterflies.
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The sentences of the convicts were often long, and the prospect of employment very weak, so the convicts caught butterflies to sell in the international market, both for scientific purposes as well as general collecting. A border dispute with Brazil arose in the late 19th century over a vast area of jungle, resulting in the short-lived, pro-French, independent state of Counani in the disputed territory.
There was some fighting among settlers. The dispute was resolved largely in favor of Brazil by the arbitration of the Swiss government. The territory of Inini consisted of most of the interior of French Guiana when it was created in It was abolished in , the year that French Guiana as a whole was formally established as an overseas department of France. During the s, following the French withdrawal from Vietnam in the s and warfare conducted in the region by the United States, France helped resettle thousands of Hmong refugees from Laos to French Guiana.
In , French president Charles de Gaulle decided to construct a space-travel base in French Guiana. It was intended to replace the Sahara base in Algeria and stimulate economic growth in French Guiana. The department was considered particularly suitable for the purpose because it is near the equator and has extensive access to the ocean as a buffer zone. It is now part of the European space industry and has had commercial success with such launches as the Ariane 4 and Ariane 5.
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The Guianese General Council officially adopted a departmental flag in On March 20, , French Guianans began going on strike and demonstrating for more resources and infrastructure. It consists of two main geographical regions: The Petit-Saut Dam , a hydroelectric dam in the north of French Guiana forms an artificial lake and provides hydroelectricity.
There are many rivers in French Guiana, including the Waki River. As of [update] , the Amazonian forest , located in the most remote part of the department, is protected as the Guiana Amazonian Park , one of the ten national parks of France. French Guiana is divided into 2 arrondissements and 22 communes:.
French Guiana has a tropical rainforest climate. Located within six degrees of the Equator and rising only to modest elevations, French Guiana is hot and oppressively humid all year round. During most of the year, rainfall across the country is very heavy due to the presence of the Intertropical Convergence Zone and its powerful thunderstorm cells. In most parts of French Guiana, rainfall is always very heavy from December to June or July — typically over millimetres or 13 inches can be expected each month during this period throughout the department.
Between August and November in the eastern half is a "dry" season with as little as 30 millimetres or 1. French Guiana is home to many different ecosystems: French Guiana has a high level of biodiversity in terms of both flora and fauna. This is due to the presence of old-growth forests i. The rainforests of French Guiana provide shelter for many species during dry periods and terrestrial glaciation. These forests are protected by a national park the Guiana Amazonian Park , and six additional nature reserves.
Article 49 of the law proposed the creation of a single organization responsible for environmental conservation in French Guiana. Article 64 proposes a "departmental plan of mining orientation" for French Guiana, which would promote mining specifically of gold that is compatible with requirements for environmental protection. The micro-organisms would be much more numerous, especially in the north, which competes with the Brazilian Amazon, Borneo and Sumatra. Threats to the ecosystem are: Logging remains moderate due to the lack of roads, difficult climate, and difficult terrain.
Logging concessions or free transfers are sometimes granted by local authorities to persons traditionally deriving their livelihood from the forest.
The beaches of the natural reserve of the Amana , the joint Awala-Yalimapo in the west, is an exceptional marine turtle nesting site. This is one of the largest worldwide for the leatherback turtle. French Guiana has some of the poorest soils in the world. The soil is low in nutrients e. Soil acidity is another cause of the poor soils, and it requires farmers to add lime to their fields. All of these soil characteristics have led to the use of slash and burn agriculture.
The resulting ashes elevate soil pH i. Sites of Terra preta anthropogenic soils have been discovered in French Guiana, particularly near the border with Brazil. Research is being actively pursued in multiple fields to determine how these enriched soils were historically created, and how this can be done in modern times. French Guiana is heavily dependent on mainland France for subsidies, trade, and goods. There is very little manufacturing.
Agriculture is largely undeveloped and is mainly confined to the area near the coast and along the Maroni River. Sugar and bananas were traditionally two of the main cash crops grown for export but have almost completely disappeared. Today they have been replaced by livestock raising essentially beef cattle and pigs in the coastal savannas between Cayenne and the second-largest town, Saint-Laurent-du-Maroni , and market gardening fruits and vegetables developed by the Hmong communities settled in French Guiana in the s, both destined to the local market.
A thriving rice production, developed on polders near Mana from the early s to the late s, has almost completely disappeared since due to marine erosion and new EU plant health rules which forbid the use of many pesticides and fertilizers. Tourism, especially eco-tourism , is growing. Unemployment has been persistently high in the last few decades: French Guiana's population of , estimate [1] , most of whom live along the coast, is very ethnically diverse. At the census, Estimates of the percentages of French Guiana ethnic composition vary, a situation compounded by the large proportion of immigrants.
Mulattoes people of mixed African and French ancestry , are the largest ethnic group, though estimates vary as to the exact percentage, depending upon whether the large Haitian community is included as well.
History of French Guiana
There are also smaller groups from various Caribbean islands, mainly Martinique, Guadeloupe, Saint Lucia as well as Dominica. The vast majority of these are of French heritage, though there are also people of Dutch , British, Spanish and Portuguese ancestry. The main groups living in the interior are the Maroons who are of African descent, and Amerindians. The Maroons, descendants of escaped African slaves, live primarily along the Maroni River.
As of the late s, there was evidence of an uncontacted group of Wayampi. The dominant religion of French Guiana is Roman Catholicism ; the Maroons and some Amerindian peoples maintain their own religions.
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The Hmong people are also largely Catholic owing to the influence of missionaries who helped bring them to French Guiana. The total fertility rate in French Guiana has remained high and is today considerably higher than that of metropolitan France , as well as most of the other French overseas departments. It is largely responsible for the rapid population growth of French Guiana.
The official language of French Guiana is French , and it is the predominant language of the department, spoken by most residents as a first or second language. In addition, a number of other local languages exist. French Guiana, as part of France, forms part of the European Union — the largest landmass for an area outside of Europe since Greenland left the European Community in , with one of the longest EU external boundaries. As an integral part of France, its head of state is the President of the French Republic , and its head of government is the Prime Minister of France.
The French Government and its agencies have responsibility for a wide range of issues that are reserved to the national executive power, such as defense and external relations. The President of France appoints a prefect resident at the prefecture building in Cayenne as his representative to head the local government of French Guiana. French Guiana sends two deputies to the French National Assembly , one representing the commune municipality of Cayenne and the commune of Macouria , and the other representing the rest of French Guiana.
This latter constituency is the largest in the French Republic by land area. French Guiana also sends two senators to the French Senate. A chronic issue affecting French Guiana is the influx of illegal immigrants and clandestine gold prospectors from Brazil and Suriname. The border between the department and Suriname, the Maroni River , flows through rain forest and is difficult for the Gendarmerie and the French Foreign Legion to patrol. There have been several phases launched by the French government to combat illegal gold mining in French Guiana, beginning with Operation Anaconda beginning in , followed by Operation Harpie in , and Operation Harpie Reinforce in On 12 March a team of French soldiers and border police were attacked while returning from a successful operation, during which "the soldiers had arrested 15 miners, confiscated three boats, and seized grams of gold Garimpeiros returned to retrieve their lost loot and colleagues.
The flight time from Cayenne to Paris is 8 hours and 25 minutes, and from Paris to Cayenne it is 9 hours and 10 minutes. Built in , it replaced the old harbour of Cayenne which was congested and could not cope with modern traffic. It is now possible to drive on a fully paved road from Saint-Laurent-du-Maroni on the Surinamese border to Saint-Georges de l'Oyapock on the Brazilian border.
Following a treaty between France and Brazil signed in July , the Oyapock River Bridge over the Oyapock River was built and completed in , becoming the first land crossing ever between French Guiana and the rest of the world there exists no other bridge crossing the Oyapock River, and no bridge crossing the Maroni River marking the border with Suriname, although there is a ferry crossing to Albina, Suriname.
The bridge was officially opened on March 18, However, since the Brazilian government is yet to complete its border posts, only passenger vehicles will be allowed through the bridge for the time being. Population figures are those recorded in the census. The military there is currently 1, strong, expected to increase enrollment in — Exports of sugar, hardwood, Cayenne pepper and other spices brought a certain prosperity to the colony for the first time.
Cayenne, the capital, was surrounded by plantations, some of which had several thousand slaves. However, with the signing of the Treaty of Paris in the region was handed back to the French, though a Portuguese presence remained until In France abolished slavery and the ex-slaves fled [ dubious — discuss ] into the rainforest, setting up communities similar to the ones they had come from in Africa. Subsequently called Maroons , they formed a sort of buffer zone between the Europeans who settled along the coast and main rivers and the unconquered and often hostile Native American tribes of the inland regions.
Deprived of slave labour the plantations were soon taken over by the jungle, and the planters ruined. In several shiploads of Indians, Malays and Chinese were brought out [ by whom? In the first shiploads of chained convicts arrived from France. However, this experiment failed dismally. The ex-prisoners, unable to make a living off the land found themselves forced to revert to crime or to eke out a hand-to-mouth existence until they died.
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The prisoners would arrive at St Laurent du Maroni before being transported to various camps throughout the country. The Iles du Salut were used to house political prisoners and for solitary confinement. The islands became notorious for the brutality of life there, centering on the notorious Devil's Island. In , gold was discovered in the interior, precipitating border disputes with Brazil and Suriname these were later settled in , and , although a small region of the border with Suriname remains in dispute.
The territory of Inini , consisting of most of the interior of French Guiana, was created in It was abolished in During World War II the local government declared its allegiance to the Vichy government, despite widespread support for Charles de Gaulle. This government was removed on 22 March The infamous penal colonies, including Devil's Island, were gradually phased out and then formally closed in At first, only those freed prisoners who could raise the fare for their return passage to France were able to go home, so French Guiana was haunted after the official closing of the prisons by numerous freed convicts leading an aimless existence in the colony.
Visitors to the site in December reported being deeply shocked by the conditions and the constant screams from the cell-block still in use for convicts who had gone insane and which had only tiny ventilation slots at the tops of the walls under the roof.
French Guiana - Wikipedia
Food was pushed in and bodies removed once a day. In Kourou was chosen to be launch site for rockets, largely due to its favourable location near the equator. The Guiana Space Centre was built and became operational in This has provided some local employment and the mainly foreign technicians, and hundreds of troops stationed in the region to prevent sabotage, bring a little income to the local economy.
The s saw the settlement of Hmong refugees from Laos in the county, primarily to the towns of Javouhey and Cacao. A movement for increased autonomy from France gained momentum in the 70s and 80s, along with the increasing success of the Parti Socialiste Guyanais. Protests by those calling for more autonomy from France have become increasingly vocal.
Protests in , and all ended in violence. While many Guianese wish to see more autonomy, support for complete independence is low. In a referendum, French Guianans voted against autonomy. On March 20, , French Guianans began going on strike and demonstrating for more resources and infrastructure. From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia. This article includes a list of references , but its sources remain unclear because it has insufficient inline citations.