Saint Pierre and Miquelon

Saint Pierre and Miquelon

Saint Pierre and Miquelon is a self-governing territorial overseas collectivity of France in the northwestern Atlantic Ocean. It is the only remaining part of New France in North America to retain French sovereignty, appellate jurisdiction and mineral rights. The islands are in the Gulf of St. Lawrence near the entrance of Fortune Bay, which extends into the southwestern coast of Newfoundland.

About Saint Pierre and Miquelon in brief

Summary Saint Pierre and MiquelonSaint Pierre and Miquelon is a self-governing territorial overseas collectivity of France in the northwestern Atlantic Ocean. It is the only remaining part of New France in North America to retain French sovereignty, appellate jurisdiction and mineral rights. The islands are in the Gulf of St. Lawrence near the entrance of Fortune Bay, which extends into the southwestern coast of Newfoundland, near the Grand Banks of Newfoundland. They are 25 kilometres from the Burin Peninsula of Newfoundland and 3,819 kilometres from Brest, the nearest city in Metropolitan France. It covers 242 square kilometres of land and shores and has a population of 6,008 as of the March 2016 census. Saint-Pierre is French for Saint Peter, the patron saint of fishermen. The present name of Miqualon was first noted in the form of Micquelle in the French Basque sailor Martin de Hoyarçabal’s navigational pilot for Newfoundland. It has been claimed that the name is a Basque form of Michael; Mikel and Mikels are usually named Mikelon in the Basque Country. The adjoined island’s name of Langlade is said to be an adaptation of l’île à l’Anglais. The Portuguese explorer João Álvares Fagundes is thought to be have been the first European to have landed on the islands on 21 October 1520. They were made a French possession in 1536 by Jacques Cartier on behalf of the King of France. Four permanent inhabitants were counted in 1670, and 22 in 1691.

By the early 1700s, the islands were again uninhabited, and were ceded to the British by the Treaty of Utrecht which ended the War of the Spanish Succession in 1713. The British renamed St Pierre to ‘St Peter’, and small numbers of British and American settlers began arriving. In 1903 the colony toyed with the idea of joining the United States, but in nothing of the idea came to fruition. During the early 1910s the colony suffered severely as a result of unprofitable fisheries, and large numbers of people emigrated to Nova Scotia and Nova Scotia. In the end, the colony came to an end in the end of the early 20th century, with the people of Nova Scotia emigrating to the U.S. The islanders were mostly Basques, Normans and Normans who were joined by various other peoples, including other peoples from the nearby island of  Newfoundland. The French colony was in turn sacked by French troops in 1796. The Treaty of Amiens of 1802 returned the islands to France, but Britain reoccupied them when hostilities recommenced the next year. In 1793 the British landed in Saint- Pierre and, the following year, again expelled the French population, and tried to install British settlers. France then reclaimed the islands back to France in 1816, though Britain reclaimed the now disrepair days in which all buildings had been destroyed or fallen into disrepair.