French Southern Territories Districts (original) (raw)

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Updates:

G�rard Lang informs me that an arr�t� (order), dated 2007-02-23 and published on 2007-03-15, created a district of the French Southern Territories named "district des �les �parses de l'oc�an Indien" (district of the Scattered Islands of the Indian Ocean). Its seat of government is the same as the territory's.

On 2005-01-03, administration of the �les �parses was transferred from Reunion to French Southern Territories.

The official French Southern Territories website includes the following comments, which I have translated from French:

"Although it permanently holds around 200 people who stay from six months to one year, it has no indigenous population. Therefore, it has neither voters nor elected officials nor territorial assembly nor territorial government. The head administrator is both the representative of the state [France] and the executive of the territorial collectivity. He or she is represented in each of the four administrative circumscriptions by a district chief....

"This is also the only overseas territory whose administrative seat, originally sited in Paris, was transferred to an overseas department (Reunion, by a decree of 1996-03-14), and more precisely to the commune of Saint-Pierre by an order of 1997-02-27.

"France exercises its sovereignty over this territory in two different contexts:

"1. In the Southern Lands (Crozet, Kerguelen, Saint-Paul, and Amsterdam), this sovereignty has never been questioned by any country. Even though it is not threatened, it must be fully supported, both by permanent bases and by surveillance of its huge economic zone within the 200-mile limit.

"2. In Antarctica, French sovereignty over Ad�lie Land is exercised under the international treaty of Washington (1959), which froze all territorial claims and affirmed freedom of scientific research throughout the continent. This sovereignty must therefore be compatible with the requirements of the treaty..."

Because of the Antarctic treaty, I have assigned Ad�lie Land to Antarctica for purposes of classification. These are the four districts of French Southern and Antarctic Territories. The INSEE code for all of the French Southern and Antarctic Territories is 98404. Postal codes are apparently not used.

Country overview:

On 1955-08-06, several island dependencies of Madagascar in the Indian Ocean, along with the French Antarctic claim of Ad�lie Land, were united to form an overseas territory of France, called French Southern and Antarctic Lands.

Other names of country:

1. Dutch: Zuidelijke en Antarctische Franse Gebieden
2. English: Territory of the French Southern and Antarctic Lands (formal)
3. French: Terres fp australes et antartiques fran�aises, Terres australes fran�aises, TAAF (abbreviated)
4. German: Franz�sische S�d- und Antarktisgebiete
5. Italian: Territori mp Australi e Antartici
6. Norwegian: S�r- og antarktiske territorier
7. Portuguese: Terras fp Austrais e Ant�rticas Francesas
8. Russian: Французские Южные и Антарктические Территории
9. Spanish: Tierras fp Australes y Ant�rticas Francesas
10. Turkish: Fransa'nın G�ney B�lgeleri (formal)

Origin of name:

Descriptive.

Primary subdivisions:

French Southern Territories is divided into five districts.

Territorial extent:

1. Ad�lie Land is the slice of Antarctica lying between the longitudes 136� E. and 142� E.
2. Crozet Archipelago includes �le de la Possession (site of Alfred-Faure base), �le de l'Est, the �les des Pingouins, �le aux Cochons and the �les des Ap�tres.
3. Kerguelen includes �le Kerguelen (Grande Terre), �le Sainte Lanne-Geamont, �le du Port, �le Longue, �le Howe, �les de la baie du Morbihan, �les Nuageuses, �le de l'Ouest, �le Gaby, �les du Prince de Monaco, �les Swain, and �le Violetta. The base of Port-aux-Fran�ais is located on the main island, �le Kerguelen.
4. Amsterdam and Saint-Paul consists of two islands, Amsterdam (or Nouvelle-Amsterdam, site of the main base) and Saint-Paul, and surrounding islets.
5. The �les �parses (scattered islands) are five remote Indian Ocean islands or island groups that belong to France. They are not part of any arrondissement. Oddly, FIPS 10-4 has assigned each of them a separate country code. The Geopolitical Entities, Names, and Codes standard also gives them country codes, but different ones.

The UN LOCODE page for French Southern Lands lists locations in the country, some of them with their latitudes and longitudes, some with their ISO 3166-2 codes for their subdivisions. This information can be put together to approximate the territorial extent of subdivisions.

Origins of names:

1. Juan de Nova Island: named for the ship captain who discovered it

Change history:

2005-01-03: Administration of �les �parses transferred from Reunion to French Southern Territories.

2007-03-15: Status of �les �parses changed from private domain of the state to district.

Other names of subdivisions:

1. Ad�lie Land: Terre Ad�lie (French)
2. Crozet Archipelago: Archipel des Crozet (French)
3. Kerguelen: �les de la D�solation (French-obsolete); �les Kerguelen (French)
4. Amsterdam and Saint-Paul: �les Amsterdam et Saint-Paul (French)