 This 1983: Doomsday page is a Proposal.
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Liberté, égalité, fraternité | ||||||
| Capital (and largest city) |
Saint-Denis | |||||
| Language Official |
French | |||||
| Others | Shimaore, Shimwali, Réunion creole | |||||
| Established | 1989 | |||||
| Admission | 2000 | |||||
| Currency | Franc | |||||
The French Republic in the Indian Ocean is a member collectivity of the Republic of the French Southern Territories. Functioning in many ways as an independent federal republic, the RFOI consists of three departments (the islands of Réunion, Mayotte, and Mwali) and two uninhabited territories (the Scattered Islands and French Antarctic Territories).
History[]
La Réunion had been an overseas department of France since the end of World War II, meaning that it was considered an integral part of the territory of the republic. During these interwar years, France invested in a sizable naval and air base in order to defend its sovereign presence in the Indian Ocean. The Comoros voted for independence from France in 1974, but the Comorian island of Mayotte remained a French territory, justified by a second, separate referendum that the rest of the Comoros did not recognize. In 1982 a regional council was created with devolved powers for La Réunion.
The nuclear attacks of 1983 destroyed in an instant most of Metropolitan France. The troops stationed on Réunion took charge of the defense of both islands, as well as the Scattered Islands located around the circumference of Madagascar. The need for joint defense, and the islands' mutual recognition that they comprised the local remnant of the French nation, led to closer administrative and civic links. A joint council first met in 1989, and the name French Republic in the Indian Ocean dates to the same period. Throughout these years, the population of both islands declined as hunger and emigration took their toll; neither Mayotte nor Réunion had a stable food supply before the 1990s. Citizens of the island of Mohéli (Mwali) voted to join the French republic after the Comoros collapsed and its military rulers overthrown.
In 1999, representatives from the Indian Ocean met in Mata-Utu, Wallis & Futuna with leaders from the French Pacific territories. They drafted a declaration creating the Sixth French Republic, or the Republic of the French Southern Territories. The Indian Ocean held referenda on its three islands in 2000, after which it became part of the globe-spanning republic. Joining forces with the Pacific, and the French Antilles three years later, boosted the soft power and diplomatic influence of the RFOI, and it took an active role in the international politics of southern Africa and the Indian Ocean region.
Government[]
The French Indian Ocean is a federation of three island departments: Réunion, Mayotte, and Mwali. The Scattered Islands and the Antarctic are governed as federal territories. The RFOI, in turn, is itself part of the world-spanning Republic of the French Southern Territories.
The RFOI is governed by an assembly in Saint-Denis. Each island department has its own council. Chief executives are directly elected for both the republic and each department. Voters also directly elect members of the National Assembly of the Republic of the French Southern Territories, while the Indian Ocean's assembly names members of the national Senate.
Réunion is the home of the restored Academy of Belles-lettres, one of the restored Instituts de France. It is an institute of historians throughout the French-speaking world; areas of focus include histories of colonialism, creolization, the World Wars and Cold War, and postwar diasporic and peripheral studies.
Military[]
Le Port de la Réunion is the largest naval base in all of the former Overseas France, and it makes the Indian Ocean a key component of the united French armed forces around the world.
Symbols[]
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