Republic of the French Southern Territories (1983: Doomsday)

Republic of the French Southern Territories
République des Terres Françaises Australes
Timeline: 1983: Doomsday


Flag	Coat of Arms
Location of RFA

Motto
Liberté, égalité, fraternité
("Liberty, Equality, Brotherhood")

Capital
(and largest city)

Papeete, Nouméa, Saint-Denis & Fort-de-France

Language
official

French

others

Tahitian, Wallisian, Futunan, Shimaore, Shimwali, Réunion & Antillean creoles, Kanak languages

President

Edouard Fritch

Prime Minister

Area

36,139 km²

Population

est. 2.000.000

Established

1999

Currency

Franc

The Republic of the French Southern Territories (in French: République des Terres Françaises Australes) is a collection of former French-administered territories outside of the European continent. It was formed after the union of French Polynesia and New Caledonia, and grew to include most of the former overseas France. Today, it is a driving force behind the movement to create a Seventh French Republic.

Territory[]

The RTA consists of five collectivities: constituent members that function in many ways as independent countries - while the Republic oversees affairs of joint concern and acts as the continuation of French sovereignty in the world community. For some purposes within the republic's institutions, the collectivities are grouped into three regions: the Antilles, the Indian Ocean, and the three Pacific states together. Four of the collectivities are themselves divided into federal units; these are termed departments in the Antilles and Indian Ocean, regions in New Caledonia, and kingdoms in Wallis and Futuna. The Republic also governs several uninhabited territories around the world, administered as special territories within their respective collectivities.

French Polynesia
- Clipperton Island
New Caledonia
- North Grande-Terre
- Central Grand-Terre
- South Grande-Terre
- Loyalty Islands
Wallis & Futuna
- Uvea (Wallis)
- Alo
- Sigave
French Antilles (AF)
- St. Barthélemy
- Martinique
- Guadeloupe
French Republic in the Indian Ocean (RFOI)
- Mayotte (Maore)
- Réunion
- Mohéli (Mwali)
- Scattered Islands (Europa, Glorioso, Juan de Nova, Tromelin & Bassas)
- French Antarctic Territories (the Crozet and Kerguelen Islands and Adélie Land in Antarctica)

Anjouan (formerly part of the Comoros) and Mauritius are not part of the RTA but are close allies, sometimes considered satellites of the RFOI. The island of Saint Martin similarly is associated with the French Antilles. Since its creation the RTA has demanded that Canada relinquish its protectorate over the North Atlantic islands of Saint Pierre and Miquelon.

History[]

Background[]

Overseas France in 1983
Place	Region	Population	Status
Fr. Polynesia	Pacific	167,000	Territory
N. Caledonia	Pacific	145,000	Territory
Wallis & Futuna	Pacific	12,000	Territory
Martinique	Caribbean	329,000	Department
Guadeloupe	Caribbean	317,000	Department
St. Barths	Caribbean	3,000	Part of Glp.
St. Martin	Caribbean	8,000	Part of Glp.
Guyane	Caribbean	73,000	Department
Réunion	Indian	515,000	Department
Mayotte	Indian	60,000	Territory
TAAF	Indian	0	Territory
St. Pierre	N. America	6,000	Department

By the 1980s, the once vast French colonial empire had been reduced to a few small possessions scattered around the world; the last to gain independence had been Djibouti in 1977 and Vanuatu, a condominium shared with the United Kingdom, in 1980. The French Republic jealously guarded its sovereignty over its remaining colonies despite their small size, viewing them as essential for maintaining the country's status as a world power. France invested in infrastructure, worked to discredit movements for independence, and resisted attempts by other countries to gain influence in France Outre-mer.

Since the end of World War II, Guiana, Martinique, Guadeloupe, and Réunion had been classified as overseas departments of France, considered part of the Republic's integral territory. Saint-Pierre and Miquelon had attained the same status in 1976. Mayotte, the Pacific islands, and the Antarctic lands were considered overseas territories. Their people were French citizens, but their lands were considered external. France's policy toward both the departments and the territories was managed by the Ministry of the Outre-mer.

All of the overseas departments and territories had a military presence, and some had substantial armed forces. But their strategic objective was to maintain French sovereignty, not to fight the next world war. This corresponded with France's ambivalent stance toward NATO: though it was a member, it had withdrawn from its unified command structure and no longer stationed troops along the inner German border. Soviet strategists predicted that in a nuclear war, these overseas troops would concentrate on shoring up French control of its own territories rather than join with France's allies to mount a counterattack.

For these reasons, the entirety of Overseas France suffered only one nuclear strike when war broke out on Doomsday, 25-26 September 1983. This target was Hao Atoll, a remote spot in the Tuamotu archipelago of French Polynesia. Hao hosted the Pacific Experimentation Center (CEP), a large air base and laboratory complex that served as the control center for France's controversial testing program for its nuclear weapons. At any given time, Hao was likely to have weapons on site, or at least nuclear components and materials, which Soviet planners wanted to deny to the West. The missile strike on Hao killed a thousand residents and some three thousand military and civilian personnel. It released fallout that affected nearby islands in the Tuamotus. Outside Hao, the bases and population centers of Overseas France were not damaged. This contrasts sharply with overseas territories of Britain and America, many of which had been integrated into the West's Cold War strategy and were obliterated by nuclear attacks.

Doomsday and World War III[]

As the Soviets had predicted, the armed forces sprang into action throughout France Outre-mer but did not immediately make any moves to attack the Soviets. In every territory, officers decided that France was in a state of war and took steps to assume control of local administration. They sent detachments to many of the smaller territories without a regular military presence (though the ship sent to Saint-Pierre was destroyed en route). Planes, ships and patrol boats spread out from each island territory to search for Soviet submarines. Soldiers and gendarmes enforced curfews and attempted to stockpile resources.

Overseas French officers were unwilling to commit their forces to places outside French territory, a pattern that had also caused tension in the alliance during the Second World War. The navies of Australia and New Zealand embarked on a hunt for Soviet ships and subs that spanned a significant part of the Southern Hemisphere, but when they asked for support from the navy stationed at New Caledonia and Réunion, they were declined. The French forces were fully engaged with defending their own territory and maintaining contact between distant islands. They could not join in any long-distance operations until the domestic situation was more secure. Ships in the Caribbean likewise refused to join both the American operations against Cuba and a smaller operation against an aggressive Grenada. In these early days, authorities in different parts of the Outre-mer demonstrated a focus on French sovereignty and distinctiveness above most other goals as well as a deep mistrust toward their larger Anglophone neighbors. These tendencies would shape Overseas French policy for decades, and echoes of them can be detected up to the present day.

Guyane and Saint-Pierre: Foreign interference[]

Two territories of the Western Hemisphere came under the power of foreign nations soon after the collapse of France. Tiny St. Pierre, though more devotedly French than perhaps any other part of the Outre-mer, inevitably came to depend on its neighbors in Canada. In Guyane, the Guiana Space Centre drew the attention of the Federative Republic of Brazil.

The Space Centre was a major facility with potential military applications, and had it been located in any other Western nation, the Soviet Union would almost certainly have made sure to destroy it. But, consistent with France's overall strategic approach, the Republic had not placed any military rockets here. Its Force de dissuasion was located entirely in Europe (and Polynesia), and the only military in Guiana were there to defend the facility itself. The nearest nuclear weapons were a continent away.

When Brazilian aircraft confirmed that the facility had survived, strategists in Brasilia argued that it could still become a flashpoint in the coming war. It was not in Brazil's interests to have a neighbor be occupied either by Americans or Russians, and it would be worse still if the two sides were to engage in combat on South American soil. Besides, the spaceport could be an asset in the long term. President João Figueiredo authorized an operation to secure the facility and, if necessary, the entire department.

A detachment of the Special Forces Battalion arrived on November 2nd, 1983, with air and naval support. They were expecting a quick occupation, but the French defenders, led by a regiment of the Foreign Legion, were prepared to fight back. Surprised by the intensity of the resistance, the Brazilians called for reinforcements to encircle the spaceport. After three days of fighting, the two sides opened negotiations.

The departmental prefect, Claude Silberzahn, flew to Brasilia to meet with Figueiredo. Silberzahn, Ambassador Robert Richard, and a small delegation from the Antilles represented the French state. The Brazilian position was that its own national security required it to station troops in Guyane. Furthermore, Figueiredo wanted Brazilian scientists eventually to have access to the spaceport. The French were in no position to refuse. The men of the Legion had fought well, but they could not hold out forever. Guyane accordingly became a Brazilian protectorate in all but name.

In Saint-Pierre, contact was lost with all other parts of France. The islands could feed themselves with their fishing fleet, but for all other supplies they had to look to their neighbors in Canada. In 1984, four surviving Canadian provinces formed their new confederation. Soon after, the government unilaterally asserted its responsibility for defending and supplying the French islands. A formal arrangement of protection was confirmed the following year, but the Saint-pierrais did not give up on their French identity or the hope of reuniting with the republic someday.

The Indian Ocean and Caribbean: Regional coordination[]

The French islands of Martinique and Guadeloupe in the Caribbean, and Réunion in the Indian Ocean, had large populations and developed economies and political systems. They furthermore had spent decades as overseas departments - fully integrated pieces of France that happened to be located across an ocean. French identity on these islands was never in question, and during the 80s and 90s they formed regional governments that would later become building blocks of the RTFA.

Réunion would have been a valuable strategic point in the world war. It had a substantial commercial port and one of the largest air and naval bases in the western Indian Ocean. As ships from Australia and New Zealand fanned out to hunt Soviet submarines, their captains assumed that Réunion would be a friendly base. But both the civil and the military leaders on the island were unenthusiastic allies. The island's people had suffered in the Doomsday attacks - hundreds of children had been in France, and now they were lost forever. (Their parents believed that they were studying, but most of them were working on farms in deplorable conditions.) Now, the Réunionese feared that if Western war fleets were to anchor there, it might draw a nuclear attack that would wipe out the port, the capital, or both. Réunion-based ships were willing to coordinate their patrols with those from Oceania, but their zones of operation remained separate until local commanders were confident that the threat of nuclear attack was past.

The island of Mayotte was also a cause of concern. When the four islands of the Comoros had voted for independence, France held on to Mayotte, justifying it through a separate referendum on the island that the Federal Republic of the Comoros did not recognize. A detachment from Réunion now went to reinforce Mayotte in case the Comorians should try to take advantage of the global crisis to take over the disputed island. Hostilities never broke out; and in fact, the ruling regime of the Comoros, dominated by a rogue French mercenary ruling through a tiny clique on Grande Comore, was soon in very serious trouble, unable to pose any threat.

In the Caribbean, such fears were less acute because the French islands were not as militarily useful. Still, the French and surviving American forces were at cross purposes and found very little grounds for cooperation. The American military had exactly one goal: knocking out the communist regime of Cuba, which they saw as a necessary step toward securing the American mainland. The French refused to take part in these attacks. In November 1983, their focus shifted entirely to the Brazilian threat in French Guiana. Ships from both French islands rushed southward to contribute to the department's defense; but they could not hope to take on the superior Brazilian numbers. Antilleans formed part of the French delegation in Brasilia that negotiated the terms under which Brazil would use and defend the territory. The Brazilians tried to frame it as a cooperative arrangement; the French in the Caribbean continued to see it as a humiliation.

In Réunion and Mayotte, the rest of the 1980s were defined by hunger and hardship. The islands' agriculture had been devoted to vanilla and sugarcane; transitioning to basic foodstuffs was difficult because of unpredictable changes in the climate. Nearby Madagascar produced rice, but the French had little to trade for it. A lack of fuel made fishing difficult. Many died in these conditions, and many more decided to try their luck in Madagascar. Despite all this, the strength of French institutions on Réunion were a source of political stability. Its regional council was brand new, created only in 1982, but it could serve well as a replacement for the national legislature. It acted in the name of the French Republic. From 1989, it seated delegates from Mayotte and called the combined state the French Republic in the Indian Ocean (RFOI), the official name to this day.

The Antilles faced a similar situation: institutional strength together with an insecure food supply. Most of the small islands of the Caribbean faced famine conditions during the years after Doomsday. Both crop yields and fish stocks were affected. Many went to the mainland as refugees; it became especially popular to resettle in Brazil by way of French Guiana, facilitated by freedom-of-movement clauses in the agreement with Brazil. The tiny northern island territories of Saint-Barth and Saint Martin saw their populations fall preciptiously.

Still, the islands banded together. The East Caribbean Federation formed in 1987, and the French Antilles responded by creating joint institutions of their own. Better to starve on our own, went the reasoning, then to starve while being ordered around by Jamaicans. The Antilles federation covered all four French islands in the Caribbean. Saint-Barth was formally separated from Guadeloupe, its much-reduced populace adopting a form of direct democracy to govern themselves within the federation. The two halves of Saint Martin, French and Dutch, had cooperated closely since Doomsday and were now functioning as a combined unit, complicating the island's relationship with the remnant of the French Republic.

In this way, both the French Antilles and the French Republic in the Indian Ocean survived the 1980s, mourning those lost but determined to face what was ahead. Both adopted basically federal structures and remained an important presence in their respective regions. By the mid-90s, the climate had stabilized and communities around the world were learning to adjust to the new patterns of agriculture necessary to sustain themselves. The islands stopped their steady decline, but in both regions, high rates of immigration and emigration would continue to add to the instability and precariousness of everyday life.

The Pacific: New identities[]

When the Third World War broke out, the French Pacific was a region on the brink. In New Caledonia, growing demands for independence from the indigenous Kanak people were met by a rapidly increasing immigration from the Metropole, such that Kanaks no longer formed a majority in their own country. Moderate parties of the past had split up or faded into irrelevance as the territory's political scene became ever more polarized. Changes of government in Paris had resulted in inconsistent approaches to the problem. Large-scale violence had not broken out, but violent political and ethnic incidents were on the rise. In French Polynesia, the main issue was France's ongoing nuclear tests. These were reasonably popular among the people and their political leaders in particular because of the economic benefits that they brought; in fact, Polynesian politicians had become adept at using the issue to extract investment from France well beyond what was necessary to conduct the tests. But the tests were universally unpopular around the Pacific. The issue hurt France's standing in the South Pacific Forum and put France at odds with both Australia and New Zealand, putting a strain on the Western alliance.

The world war completely changed the contours of all these issues. Interference from Paris, immigration from Europe, and nuclear testing suddenly were no longer factors. The sense of being at war also at least temporarily brought people together. The people of New Caledonia sent a small shipment to help with relief of the few survivors from Hao, together with messages and tokens of mourning.

The most urgent need was the production of food. French Polynesia had within a generation shifted from subsistence farming and fishing to a service economy that had to import more than three-quarters of what it ate. In the long term, it seemed clear enough that most people in the capital would have to return to their former villages and fields; but in the meantime, there simply was not enough. The territory enacted price controls and ration cards; then, it directly took charge of food distribution. A black market thrived. People lost weight and got sick.

New Caledonia had more available food, including traditional farms, farms for local sale, and cattle ranches. The end of imports had the greatest effect on residents of the capital, and it caused a shift in the power dynamics of the island. Many in the capital had to find work in the countryside in both white- and indigenous-owned farms. Some Kanak people came in to train city dwellers in local methods of horticulture. Tension grew over money, prices and distribution. The mainstay of the islands' economy was not faming but nickel mining. The two largest neighbors, Australia and Indonesia, were major producers themselves and had no need to buy New Caledonian nickel. Australia did agree to purchase some chromium, also mined on the island, but this could not come close to making up for the lost income.

The territory had to shift to a planned economy based on food production. Ranch owners in 1984 banded together to resist price controls on beef and milk. The response was a coordinated spree of murders targeting the most vocal owners. The killers instilled terror up and down the countryside for months. The territory had to tighten martial law, which was enough to deter the violence. But the killing campaign mostly got what it wanted: the ranchers' movement was broken, the price controls remained in place, and the perpetrators, though widely assumed to be Kanak, were never found.

In early 1985, the French military commanders agreed, in the spirit of fulfilling their obligations as a NATO ally, to contribute to a US- and Australian-led naval operation to liberate Alaska from Soviet occupiers. The islands could contribute no more than a token force. A battalion of volunteers signed up in Tahiti, motivated by the prospect of regular meals. They participated in the occupation of the Kenai Peninsula. Patrol boats from New Caledonia guarded the western flank of the expedition, watching for any vessels coming from Russia. All French forces returned home before the onset of the Alaskan winter that year, having seen minimal action.

While fighting between Americans and Soviets would continue for another two years, it was clear enough that French involvement in the world war was at an end. All three parts of the French Pacific ended military rule over the next few months. For Wallis and Futuna, a traditional society directed largely by the three royal lineages and the Catholic Church, this was a simple matter of asking the military to sail back to New Caledonia and leave things as they were. In Tahiti, the leading politician was the charismatic (some would say demagogic) president Gaston Fosse; he negotiated a return to elected government in 1986, confident that he would win reelection.

This matter was far more delicate in New Caledonia. All sides feared that holding an election could unleash the violent forces that had been kept simmering throughout the emergency. During the (Southern Hemisphere) winter of 1985, while the expedition to Alaska was still underway, the military handed power to a council of unity, numbering nine: three from the French state and military, three representing the independentist FLNKS, and three from the anti-independntist RPCR. The leaders committed to consulting with their constituencies and with one another, hoping that ongoing dialogue could stave off the looming threat of more ethnic violence. For the top position chairing the council, the leaders of each faction rotated every few months: Jean-Marie Tjibaou for the Kanaks, Jacques Lafleur for the Caldoches, and High Commissioner Jacques Roynette for the French Republic. The three members of this improvised triumvirate still had their differing end goals, but they believed that in the short term, their survival depended on keeping the peace.

Not long after, a larger congress of unity was seated to represent a wider range of interest groups: smaller parties, local leaders from different regions, Protestant and Catholic clergy, and representatives of mining companies, labor unions, and students. It made for a system of consultative, consensus-based government, which Tjibaou would describe as "democracy without elections." This system would govern New Caledonia for more than a decade, during which it averted other major outbreaks of political violence.

New Caledonia's system was put to the test in 1989. The council instituted a system of regional governments, a longtime demand of the Kanaks. Of the four new regions, one (South Grand-Terre) was designed to be European-dominated, while the other three (Central Grand-Terre, North Grand-Terre and the Loyalty Islands) had substantial indigenous majorities. Elections were held, there being less risk of violence in these more homogenous constituencies. The Loyalty Islands returned a council that declared independence from New Caledonia and from France. Tjibaou, though always the leading activist for Kanak independence, also believed that the territory could not survive in pieces, and he feared violence that might erupt. He adamantly opposed any attempt to send troops to the islands and led the effort to bring them back through dialogue. The talks lasted more than a year, led almost entirely by Kanak leaders from the Loyalties and the Grand-Terre. The council of unity enacted reforms that addressed many of the islanders' demands: more local control of economic planning, official recognition of local languages, and a reduced role for the gendarmerie. After just under two years of independence, the Loyalty Islands agreed to again be part of New Caledonia.

In all three Pacific territories, French identity underwent a transformation. The Metropole was gone and could no longer interfere in local affairs; what remained was a less well-defined idea that could provide unity at home and connections to far-flung neighbors. Even in New Caledonia, the ideals of Liberty, Equality and Fraternity were becoming the basis of a new order inclusive of both white and indigenous people. In French Polynesia and Wallis-Futuna, the same ideals would become a tool for resisting the ever-growing influence of the larger Anglophone nations.

The French and Comorians[]

In the 90s, Réunion had to confront both the ongoing collapse of the Comoros and growing connections with Australia. The Comoros had broken apart in 1989; the largest island of Grande Comore came under the rule of the populist and islamist Red Sand movement, while the two other islands, Anjouan and Mohéli, fell under a military government led by Bob Denard, the rogue French mercenary who had spent years as the power behind the throne in the Comoros. But he had little interest or ability to control Mohéli, the smaller island. Independent by default, Mohéli looked to Mayotte and Réunion for economic and political support. When Denard was killed on Anjouan, some on both islands now suggested that they rejoin the French Republic. The council voted to annex both islands pending a decision by their citizens. Anjouan voted no by a comfortable margin; Mohéli voted yes and became the third member of the Indian Ocean republic.

Meanwhile, communication and movement became easier between Réunion and the Pacific. One consequence was emigration; some islanders sought work in the more wealthy and stable countries. Western Australia in particular became the home of a substantial Rúnionese community. Another consequence was that France in the Indian Ocean could now have more frequent contact with the French territories in Oceania. It was the first step toward restoring a French community that spanned the globe.

To the Declaration of Mata-Utu[]

Before Doomsday, French sovereignty was nowhere so precarious as in the Pacific territories, yet those territories became the cradle of the new republic. Over the course of the 1990s, they discovered a way to use the French idea as a source of liberty and unity, and in so doing they completely reinvented what it meant to be French. It was this form of the republic that then spread throughout most of the former Outre-mer at the turn of the millennium, and this idea would eventually bring France back onto the world stage and profoundly shape reunification efforts in the Metropole itself.

Beginning in 1986, when leaders from around the Pacific met to establish the South Pacific Commission and Forum, each island group represented itself separately. The high commissioners may have wanted to maintain some kind of unified French diplomatic presence, but it was too difficult in the circumstances of the time. As time went on, leaders of the three territories sought ways to coordinate their policies both within the SPCF and at home. The usual meeting place was at Mata-Utu, the capital of Wallis and Futuna, due to its central location.

A turning point for the relations between the French islands and Australia-New Zealand occurred in 1994. An Australian patrol chased off an Argentine fishing expedition between Pitcairn and the Gambier Islands, part of French Polynesia. The territory had tolerated Australian patrols under the security provisions of the 1986 Commission and Forum agreements, but now Australia was provoking conflicts with other nations in French waters. The citizens of Outre-mer took an instinctive offense at this violation of French sovereignty and dignity by their larger neighbors. The following year, the Commonwealth of Australia and New Zealand was declared, and before too long it was signing treaties of free association with one island nation after another. More than ever before, the Pacific was becoming an Anglo-Saxon lake.

The need to hold together in the face of ANZ's expanding influence changed the meaning both of independence and of French identity. More than a decade after the nuclear war, independence was no longer something that the islands had to gain; they already had their independence, and they did not wish to lose it. The name of France now became a powerful tool for maintaining this de facto independence. The islands were not looking to completely turn their backs on Australia and New Zealand - as economic partners, they were more important than ever - but they wanted to band together as a counterweight to their growing power.

Furthermore, by now the Pacific islands had more regular contact with the self-declared French republics in the Caribbean and the Indian Ocean. French migrants in Australia and New Zealand were also expressing a desire for a restored national presence. France in Europe may have been completely devastated, but French civilization was surviving in all parts of the Outre-mer.

Jean-Marie Tjibaou and other moderate independentists in both New Caledonia and Tahiti pushed their parties to draft new manifestos embracing this new, looser idea of the French state, one that linked together indigenous cultures rather than dominating them. In New Caledonia, Tjibaou's party split over this issue; many independentists were unwilling to embrace French identity in any form. This made it impossible for New Caledonia's delicate provisional political system to keep running the island, and it was now necessary to hold elections. The campaign in 1997 was contentious, but the territory again avoided violence. New Caledonia seated a president, parliament, and prime minister - the full apparatus of an independent republic - led by parties promising to remain loyal to some form of French Republic.

At another summit in Mata-Utu in 1998, the chief executives of all three territories met once again, this time joined by visiting delegates from the Indian Ocean. The group formed a plan to declare a re-establishment of the French Republic. It would be a new kind of Republic: not a centralized government, but an identity to be shared by autonomous states with distinct indigenous and creole cultures. To have legitimacy, such a move would have to come directly from the people, so French Polynesia, New Caledonia, and Wallis and Futuna all held the same referendum the following year. Though the outcome was far from certain, all three returned a vote of yes.

Delegations from the Pacific territories convened again to draft the republic's formal declaration and begin to shape its institutions. The Declaration of Mata-Utu defined, for the first time, what the new republic was to be:

The political expression of the will of the French nations (the declaration pointedly used the plural);
A subject of international law that is the inheritor of the sovereignty of the French State;
A collective effort striving to maintain and develop the French civilization; and
An institution to work for the unity of the French peoples around the world.

The Republic of the French Southern Territories was now a reality. It caught the world's attention, nowhere more than in the Antilles and the Indian Ocean.

A global republic[]

The Mata-Utu Declaration was an open-ended framework intended to expand to take in the other territories around the world, perhaps even European France someday. The French Republic in the Indian Ocean, which had a hand in drafting the declaration, voted its support not long after, pending its own referendum. The RFOI became a constituent of the Republic in mid-2000.

The Antilles had had very little contact so far with the other parts of Overseas France. But simultaneous with the development of the RTFA, Colombia and some other South American nations had been repairing the Panama Canal. Suddenly, direct communication between the Pacific and the Caribbean would be much easier. Furthermore, the ANZ Commonwealth had embroiled itself with disputes over the canal, insisting that it had inherited special rights over the Canal Zone from the old United States. There had been more than one confrontation that nearly led to military conflict. Foreign ministers in the French territories saw an opportunity to simultaneously improve links with the Caribbean and assert their independence from Australia and New Zealand. Envoys from Réunion and the Pacific went to the Antilles to plan the next diplomatic move.

In 2001, the Canal was opened to commercial traffic. Not long after, the council of the French Antilles voted to pursue membership in the RTFA as soon as it was feasible. They approached the Colombian government to make a deal over canal rights. They obtained a treaty favorable to all sides. The RTFA got the special privileges it sought: French ships would be able to use the canal for practically nothing, though the Republic would have to observe strict rules for registration so that foreign ships could not avoid tolls by flying the French flag. In return, Colombia obtained favorable trade terms throughout the RTFA's territories. This suited the islands just fine, because Colombia could be a counterweight to Australia and New Zealand.

The French Antilles accordingly held their own referendums. This time, Saint-Martin voted no. It was now a unified island and wanted to pursue an independent existence apart from France. The other three islands became part of the RTFA in 2002. Guyane, meanwhile, had undergone such demographic shifts that its identity as a French territory was no longer secure. Many of its European French had left for Brazil, while Brazilians, Surinamese and Guyanese had moved in. Its government had already declared itself an independent republic in 2000 (effective 1 January 2001) and considered no plan to rejoin France. For the Antilleans, this was yet another humiliation, but there was nothing to be done about it.

In 2003, the new Republic seated its first world-spanning parliament, which gathered in Tahiti. The deputies enacted laws to help give shape to the RTFA's identity as a global organization. It was limited to setting broad foreign policy goals; each member still required the autonomy necessary to deal with issues arising in its own region. They did agree on one goal: the "liberation" of Saint-Pierre and Miquelon and its restoration to French sovereignty. The bill was intentionally provocative, meant to take an assertive and unbowed stance on issues where sovereignty was concerned.

The second parliament in 2004 enacted bills to sort out the uninhabited French territories. The Southern and Antarctic Lands were confirmed as part of the Indian Ocean republic. Clipperton Island was annexed to French Polynesia; Mexico, which had conducted occasional patrols of Clipperton since 1983, subsequently recognized its annexation without objection. Funds were allocated to begin more regular patrols of the territories and refurbish prewar monuments declaring them to be French, work that was completed slowly over the following decade.

Determined to stand on its own apart from any regional alliance, the RTFA established a diplomatic reputation for neutrality. The French helped facilitate the talks establishing the League of Nations in 2008. The RTFA decided to pursue a single seat so that it could speak with a single voice; its constituent states would represent themselves separately in the League's regional High Commissions. Nouméa was made the seat of the High Commission for Oceania. In 2010, this also became the League's world headquarters.

Approaching Europe[]

As a diplomatic project, the RTFA showed extraordinary success. In just a few years, these widely-scattered island territories numbering no more than two million people had managed to join together to claim the mantle of France. They had positioned themselves as a key member of the world community and engaged with much larger powers as equals. This caught the attention of the surviving people of European France, who had so far failed to rebuild the nation from the destruction of the nuclear war.

The Clermont Accords of 2010 were the first definitive step toward the reunification of the Outre-mer with the Metropole. It took place on the initiative of the Republic of Auvergne. There, near the center of the French mainland, delegates gathered from the major ex-French fragments. The accords aimed at diplomatic rapprochement and closer economic links, not any kind of new political structure, but they demonstrated the enduring strength of French identity.

Over the course of the 2010s, it became clear that in the bulk of France, the political will to reunite did not yet exist. Of the many little republics to have emerged within the Hexagon, only two demonstrated a commitment to form permanent links with the RTFA: Auvergne itself and its neighbor to the west, Poitou.

Military[]

Due to a large number of immigrants who joined the French Foreign Legion after Doomsday on 26 September 1983, and because most of the Legion was overseas at the time, the defense of the RTA is mainly the responsibility of the Legion, with central headquarters based in New Caledonia.

The present-day French military utilizes a mixture of the remaining 1980s "homegrown" equipment and those bought from the ANZC and the SAC. Dassualt remains a major designing firm, although producing the aircraft they design is contracted to other firms such as CAC in the ANZC, Pilatus in the Alpine Confederation and Embraer in Brazil.

Symbols of the Republic[]

The Emblem[]

The emblem for the RTFA attmepts to bring together the modern Island cultures of her people yet retain a strong identity of the French Republic that came before. The pelte shield is symbolic of the land of the French, manned on each end by a lion and and eagle. Reminiscent of the former diplomatic emblem of France, they represent the motto of French society and are the each in turn a manifestation of liberté and egalité. Together they form the fraternité of the RTFA. The shield lays atop a bay laurel, symbolic of triumph and an oak branch, symbolising endurance. the assortment is affixed to a Kanak flèche faîtière establishing that the power of the RTFA is borne out of the grande case of New Caledonia. Carved into the spire is the Cross of Lorraine, there to remind the French republic to recover what is lost. At the base is the Sun, her rays cast wide over the vastness of the RTFA's global reaches.

Flags[]

The old French Republic very strictly maintained that the Tricolore was the sole national flag and that every local flag had a purely unofficial status. But in the postwar environment it became necessary to distinguish which splinter of France a particular ship or installation belonged to, and laws of the Sixth Republic require each collectivity to adopt a particular design. Most parts of Overseas France adopted flags in the postwar years that combined the Tricolore with local symbols. The Antilles alone had not adopted any particular flag before becoming part of the RTFA; upon joining it adopted a very slight modification of the flag of France. In general, the flags of the French Pacific have become popular symbols, while those of the Antilles and Indian Ocean don't see much use outside the government. Individual people there are more likely to fly the flag of France or that of their particular island.

For the same reasons, the Republic as a whole adopted a flag with its emblem. This serves to distinguish the RTFA from other former French territories, many of which also still make use of the Tricolore. As a popular symbol, the Republic's flag has slowly grown as more people have come to identify with it; but the plain, unadorned flag of France remains an important expression of patriotism and is sanctioned by law.

Government[]

The political institutions of the RTFA evolved with the growth of the republic. Their ultimate purpose was always the reestablishment of the French Republic in its entirety.

In 1999, the French territories in the Pacific declared the re-installation of the French Republic, or the Sixth Republic. The declaration was made in Mata-Utu, but the permanent co-capitals were to be located in Papeete, Tahiti and Nouméa, New Caledonia. The declared territory of the republic consisted of the three territories along with the uninhabited French possessions: Crozet, Kerguelen, Clipperton Island, and France's claim in continental Antarcitca. At the time the republic had no permanent bases in the uninhabited territories, but they were considered valuable due to recent changes in the climate.

The Declaration of Mata-Utu laid out a plan for a government that could coordinate the activities of essentially independent territories scattered across the world. It drew influence from the French Fifth Republic and the Commonwealth of Australia and New Zealand. It would be governed by a Parliament of two chambers: a directly elected National Assembly and a Senate that functioned as an intergovernmental commission. Each member territory was to be represented equally in the Senate. The President would also be elected directly by the voters; he was to serve as the head of state for all of the French Southern Territories.

The addition of members in the Caribbean and Indian Ocean required a much larger Parliament and an adjustment to how the Senate voted. Now, while each member had equal representation, the votes of the Pacific members would be aggregated into one. When the Senate had to vote (and could not make a decision by consensus), then each region would count as one vote: the Pacific, the Caribbean, and the Indian Ocean.

In 2008 the President of the RTFA was given the responsibility of representing the French community in the League of Nations. Cedric Wairafea, formerly the President, became the Secretary General of the League of Nations in November of 2011 and was replaced as President by Edouard Fritch.

The restoration of regular contact with the French mainland raised hopes of bringing the entirety of the French people once again under one banner, both in the RTA and the European survivor states. The RTA opened an embassy in Clermont, Auvergne in January 2010, inviting a team from the WCRB to observe and prepare a report on the political situation in France. The RTA called for a more comprehensive survey of post-Doomsday France, aiming to foster unity among the peoples. The diplomatic mission in Clermont led a summit of leaders from several French states the following May. This was the first step of the process by which the RTFA transformed into the Seventh Republic.

Other institutions[]

The RTFA took some steps toward restoring historical French institutions. The community of writers on Martinique, the most vibrant literary scene in Overseas France, began to discuss a restored Académie française not long after the island joined the Republic. An overseas form of the Académie would need to be very different indeed from its predecessor, concerned with recognizing the great diversity of French literature in all its creolizing varieties rather than maintaining the purity of the language. The idea bounced around for many years. Questions about the new society's purpose, functioning, and membership were controversial, especially in Metropolitan France, with which the RTFA was in active dialogue from 2010. Parliament created the institution on paper only in 2015, approving a list of twenty recognized men and women of letters to comprise the first of the "Immortals". The other half of the traditional forty seats was reserved for mainlanders at a future date.

It was two more years before the academicians could meet on Martinique to inaugurate the body, and budgetary constraints prevented them from doing very much besides draft some founding statements. After its founding, the new Académie initiated literary prizes and began to publish an annual journal. It admitted a few willing members from the mainland, but also from Haiti, Canada, and Africa, depriving Metropolitan writers of their intended twenty seats.

Following the Académie, the RTFS began to consider recreating the other four divisions of the Institut de France. The academies of belles-lettres and beaux-artes were inaugurated around 2020 respectively in la Réunion and Tahiti. The academies of the sciences and of the moral and political sciences have yet to be restored.

Likewise, discussions of a combined national system of higher education never came to fruition. New Caledonia and Tahiti both founded universities before the creation of the RTFA, but as local branches of the University of the South Pacific, headquartered in nonaligned Fiji. Each part of the RTFA maintains its education system independently of the others.

The French National Olympic Committee was reestablished in preparation for the 2012 Summer Olympics in Auckland, New Zealand. This decision has also not been universally popular. The Games' host city meant that the first RTFA team was dominated by athletes from the Pacific territories. The scattered nature of the Republic has made it impractical to compete in the team sports, most prominently football. But all of the proposals to create separate Olympic teams in the Antilles or Indian Ocean have faltered, and the RTFA has competed in every Summer Games since 2012. For most non-Olympic international sports, the territories each compete separately.

Sources[]

Fisher, Denise (2013). France in the South Pacific: Power and Politics. ANU Press. [1]
Shariff, Ahmed (1998). Re-Colonization: A Response to Failure of Democratization; the Case of Comoro Islands. Paper presented to the University of Pennsylvania - African Studies Center. [2]