User:Mscoree/Port-aux-Français (Great White South)

The city of Port-aux-Français is the capital city and largest metropolitan area for the French overseas territory of the Kerguelen Islands (Îles Kerguelen). Port-aux-Français is also the capital of the Kerguelen state of the same name, encompassing Port-aux-Français and surrounding area. As capital of Kerguelen, the city houses an unicameral General Council with ten seats, and a unicameral Regional Council of seven seats. The members of each Council elect their Council President; and the President of the General Council acts as the Kerguelaine Head of Government.

Port-aux-Français is the oldest European settlement in Antarctica, beginning in 1772 when it was first founded by French settlers under the command of Yves-Joseph de Kerguelen de Trémarec, who discovered the Kerguelen archipelago, following the expedition of Marc-Joseph Marion du Fresne, who discovered the Crozet Islands (which he named for his First Mate Jules Crozet) earlier that year.

History

 * See: History of Kerguelen

Early History
The Kerguelaine islands, the future sight of the city, was first sighted in 1522 by the Spanish explorer Juan Sebastián Elcano. Portuguese sailors sighted Saint-Paul Island in 1559, but there were no actual landings until 1633, when Dutch explorer Anthonie van Diemen visited and named Amsterdam Island. Willem de Vlamingh, another Dutchman, made the first landing on Saint-Paul in 1696.

All of the islands remained unclaimed until January 1772, when Marc-Joseph Marion du Fresne discovered the Crozet Islands (which he named for his First Mate Jules Crozet), where he made landfall, and claimed them for France. This marked the beginning of French dominance in the area. Just one month later, in February 1772, Yves-Joseph de Kerguelen de Trémarec discovered the Kerguelen archipelago, correctly believing it to be the most significant landmass in the southern Indian Ocean. Upon his return to France, he was given a Royal Charter to further explore and colonize the islands, and he took a second expedition later that year. This expedition proved immensely successful, and founded the future capital city of Port-aux-Français. It survived its first Winter, and supplies began to arrive from France in early 1773.

The Kerguelen and Crozet islands soon became populated with French settlers, attracted by the islands’ wealth of natural resources, as well as becoming a base for fishing, sealing, and whaling operations. Port-aux-Français grew to become the most prosperous city of the region, becoming the center of trade among island inhabitants.

Battle of Kerguelen
Following the successful British seizure in 1810 the islands became placed under occupation from 1810 to 1815. There was no British settlement of the islands during this period, simply a military occupation consisting of a few hundred sailors and Royal Marines.

After the conclusion of the Napoleonic Wars the islands would be returned to France through the Congress of Vienna, which ended the conflict and create new boundaries for the belligerents in Europe. Shortly after the Congress of Vienna, the Kerguelen and Crozet islands would be combined into the Colony of Kerguelen, and separated from Réunion to the north.

French Antarctica
Beginning in 1820, with Kerguelen restored to France, its ports would become a center for operations into the mainland, to what would later become known as French Antarctica. In 1828 French Antarctica, would become a Dependency of Kerguelen, governed from Port-aux-Français.