France Still Has An Empire

Summary

This video delves into France's overseas territories, which make up nearly 20% of its land and 97% of its ocean territory. It highlights France's longest border, surprisingly with Brazil, and its scattered colonies across the globe. The video explores regions like the Caribbean, Antarctica, and French Polynesia, revealing how France's colonial past still influences its military, scientific, and economic interests today. Despite decolonization efforts, many territories remain under French control, showing the complexity of maintaining such far-flung holdings in a modern globalized world.

Takeaways

• 🌍 France borders more than eight countries, with its longest border being with Brazil due to its overseas territories.
• 🇫🇷 France has both mainland (Metropolitan France) and Overseas France, with the latter accounting for 20% of France's land and 97% of its ocean territory.
• 🌊 Overseas France includes islands, atolls, and territories scattered around the world, giving France significant ocean territories and strategic locations.
• 🦀 Many of these overseas territories provide France with access to resources, such as lobster fishing and scientific research opportunities.
• 🗺 French Guiana in South America is part of France, uses the euro, and forms France's longest land border with Brazil.
• 🐧 Remote islands near Antarctica, such as those inhabited by king penguins, are also part of France’s overseas territories, providing a unique ecological and scientific landscape.
• 💣 French Polynesia and other remote territories have been used for nuclear testing, resulting in environmental damage and international controversy.
• ⚖️ New Caledonia, another French overseas territory, recently voted to remain part of France despite ongoing calls for independence.
• 🛡 France maintains military presence on its overseas territories, securing its geopolitical and strategic interests, especially in the Indian and Pacific Oceans.
• 💎 These overseas territories allow France to maintain vast ocean economic zones, controlling resources and keeping a presence in important global regions.

Q & A

What is France Metropole?

France Metropole, also known as L'Hexagone, refers to the mainland of France located in Europe. It is the version of France that most people think of, and it is distinct from France's overseas territories.

What is France d'outre-mer?

France d'outre-mer, or Overseas France, includes the French territories that are located outside of mainland Europe. It accounts for almost 20% of France's total land and 97% of its ocean territory, and nearly 3 million French citizens live in these areas.

Why is French Guiana significant?

French Guiana is a French territory in South America. It is part of the European Union and the eurozone, and it shares France's longest border with Brazil. It was also historically used as a prison colony.

What makes the France-Netherlands border unique?

The only place where France and the Netherlands share a border is on the island of Saint Martin in the Caribbean. The island is split between the two countries, and its inhabitants are French citizens.

Why does France retain so many overseas territories?

France holds on to its overseas territories for several reasons, including military presence, resource extraction, scientific research, and geopolitical influence. These territories provide strategic advantages, such as control over large ocean areas and access to valuable natural resources.

What are some of the remote French territories in the Indian Ocean?

France owns a group of islands near Antarctica in the Indian Ocean. These islands are home to military and scientific personnel, but the islands themselves are mostly inhabited by penguins and other wildlife. The islands provide France with a significant military presence in the region.

What is significant about French Polynesia?

French Polynesia consists of 118 islands in the Pacific Ocean and covers a vast water territory of 5 million square kilometers. The islands are known for their beauty and tourism, but they were also the site of French nuclear weapons testing from the 1960s to the 1990s.

What was the outcome of the New Caledonia independence referendum?

In a 2020 referendum, 53% of voters in New Caledonia chose to remain a part of France, while 47% supported independence. New Caledonia has valuable nickel resources, which France is keen to retain access to.

What challenges do the residents of France’s overseas territories face?

The people in France's overseas territories deal with the legacy of colonialism, including a complex relationship with France. While some want independence, others recognize the economic and political benefits of staying connected to France.

How does France benefit economically from its overseas territories?

France gains significant economic advantages from its overseas territories, including access to natural resources like fish, lobsters, nickel, and control over large ocean territories for military and economic purposes.

Outlines

00:00

🗺️ Discovering France's True Borders

The speaker opens the video by debunking the common belief that France borders only eight countries. Surprisingly, France's longest border isn't in Europe but with Brazil, due to its overseas territories. The speaker recounts learning this from Reddit, which led to a deep dive into France's global territories, resulting in a detailed mapping project. This exploration reveals how France's colonial legacy has left it with borders far beyond Europe.

05:01

🌍 Exploring Overseas France

The speaker introduces 'France d'outre-mer,' or Overseas France, explaining that this version of France covers nearly 20% of the country's land and 97% of its ocean territories. These distant lands house around 3 million French citizens and include a variety of unique islands and regions, from tropical paradises to uninhabited atolls. The speaker marvels at how these territories have kept France's colonial past alive, questioning why France still maintains such far-flung areas.

10:03

🏝️ France's Unique Caribbean Borders

The speaker delves into France's borders with the Netherlands on the Caribbean island of Saint Martin, a rare instance where these two countries meet. This island is populated by French citizens, although there was an unsuccessful push for semi-independence. The speaker also touches on other French territories in the region, highlighting how they are treated as integral parts of France, much like mainland regions. French Guiana, a key overseas territory in South America, is also discussed as a region that uses the Euro and is part of the EU.

❄️ French Territories Near Antarctica

France's southern territories, including islands near Antarctica, are introduced. These remote, sparsely populated lands are home to king penguins and unique wildlife. The speaker humorously notes the appeal of these far-flung islands, drawn by their isolation and rugged beauty. France's claim to a slice of Antarctica, which dates back to the 1800s, is also mentioned, further illustrating the extent of France's unusual territorial claims.

🐧 France's Military and Economic Interests

The video highlights France's strategic reasons for holding on to its territories, especially the islands in the Indian Ocean. These provide military bases and are vital for fishery and lobster harvesting. The speaker humorously resists diving too deeply into military topics but acknowledges the geopolitical importance of these territories. There's also a mention of a dark chapter in history where France forcibly relocated children from one of its territories.

🌊 French Polynesia and Massive Ocean Territories

The video turns to French Polynesia, located in the Pacific Ocean. This collection of 118 islands, far from France, boasts an enormous ocean territory, larger than the entire European Union. Despite its beauty, this region was a site for France's nuclear testing, raising concerns about environmental and human impacts. The speaker reflects on the region's appeal as a travel destination, balancing this with the somber history of nuclear tests.

⛏️ New Caledonia and Its Independence Struggle

New Caledonia is presented as a territory that recently voted against independence from France. Although nearly half the population wanted to break away, the island remains part of France, in part due to its valuable nickel resources. The video uses this example to explore the broader tension within France's remaining colonial territories, where benefits like economic stability are weighed against the legacy of brutal colonialism.

⚖️ Colonial Legacy and Modern France

The video wraps up by acknowledging the complex legacy of French colonialism. France's overseas territories, though remnants of its imperial past, provide significant military, economic, and geopolitical advantages. Yet, the people living in these territories face a difficult choice: the potential benefits of staying with France versus the desire for independence and self-determination. The video concludes by emphasizing the unlikely prospect of major changes in the status quo, noting that France will likely continue to hold on to its far-reaching territories for the foreseeable future.

🎬 The Technical Side of Storytelling

In the final segment, the speaker gives a shout-out to Storyblocks, the sponsor of the video. They explain how Storyblocks helps in finding high-quality footage to enhance the storytelling experience. The speaker expresses appreciation for the platform’s affordability and accessibility, emphasizing how it has become an essential tool for their video production. They thank their patrons for their support and offer them exclusive behind-the-scenes content.

Keywords

💡Metropolitan France

Metropolitan France, also referred to as 'L'Hexagone,' represents the mainland of France located in Europe. It is the core region of the country that people typically think of when considering France, distinct from its overseas territories. The video contrasts this with 'Overseas France,' highlighting the significant geographical and political differences.

💡Overseas France

Overseas France, or 'France d'outre-mer,' encompasses the various territories and regions that France controls outside of its mainland. These regions account for almost 20% of France’s total land area and 97% of its ocean territory. Examples from the video include French Guiana, islands in the Caribbean, and remote territories near Antarctica. This concept is key to understanding the global nature of France’s influence.

💡French Guiana

French Guiana is a region of France located in South America, which also forms part of the European Union. It shares France's longest border with Brazil and uses the euro as its currency. Historically, French Guiana was used as a penal colony. The video emphasizes its current role in the larger French and EU geopolitical framework.

💡Colonialism

Colonialism refers to the practice of acquiring and maintaining colonies by a country for economic, political, and cultural dominance. The video touches upon how France's colonial history led to its control over far-flung territories, some of which continue to be under French rule today. It raises questions about the legacy of colonialism and its implications for modern geopolitics.

💡Economic Waters

Economic waters refer to maritime zones that a country controls for resource extraction, fishing, and other economic activities. The video shows how France's overseas territories allow it to claim vast stretches of ocean, such as the 5 million square kilometers around French Polynesia, which exceeds the area of the European Union. These waters are a significant source of economic benefit for France.

💡Antarctica

Antarctica is mentioned in the context of French territorial claims. France controls a section of Antarctica as part of its overseas territories, highlighting the historical period when countries staked claims on this remote region. The video's playful tone contrasts the serious geopolitical and environmental implications of such claims.

💡Military Presence

Military presence refers to the strategic use of overseas territories for defense and geopolitical influence. The video explains how France maintains military bases in its remote islands, such as those near Antarctica and in the Indian Ocean, enabling France to project power globally. This is a key reason why France retains control of its overseas regions.

💡New Caledonia

New Caledonia is an island in the Pacific Ocean that remains a French territory despite a recent referendum in which 53% of its population voted to remain part of France. The video explains the tension between local desires for independence and the benefits of remaining tied to France, particularly regarding access to resources like nickel.

💡French Polynesia

French Polynesia is a group of islands in the Pacific Ocean that forms part of France’s overseas territories. Known for its vast economic waters and beautiful islands like Bora Bora, it also served as a site for French nuclear testing. The video contrasts the idyllic image of the islands with the darker history of nuclear exploitation.

💡Decolonization

Decolonization refers to the process through which former colonies achieve independence from colonial powers. The video questions why France still holds on to many of its overseas territories, even though most other European nations have decolonized. It examines the complex motivations—ranging from military to economic interests—that explain France’s retention of these regions.

Highlights

France borders eight countries, but it also has overseas territories that extend this number significantly.

France’s longest border is not with Spain or Belgium but with Brazil, due to French Guiana in South America.

France has a vast overseas empire, accounting for 20% of its land and 97% of its ocean territory.

Almost 3 million French citizens live in these overseas territories, including tropical islands and remote regions.

The Caribbean island of Saint Martin is split between France and the Netherlands, marking the only border they share.

French Guiana in South America is a full part of France, part of the European Union, and uses the euro.

France holds Saint Pierre and Miquelon, small islands off Canada’s coast, where it negotiated a small key-shaped slice of maritime territory.

In the Antarctic region, France holds several islands with more king penguins than anywhere else on earth.

French Antarctic territories are inhabited primarily by military and scientific personnel.

French presence in the Indian Ocean, with islands like the Kerguelen Islands, gives them military dominance and significant fishing rights.

New Caledonia recently voted to remain part of France, despite being on a pathway toward potential independence.

France tested nearly 200 nuclear weapons in French Polynesia between the 1960s and 1990s, impacting local populations and environments.

French Polynesia encompasses 118 islands and a massive 5 million square kilometers of ocean, making it a significant strategic region for France.

Despite France’s brutal colonial past, some regions like New Caledonia choose to remain under French rule due to economic and social benefits.

France’s sprawling global presence means that the European Union also has territories across the globe.

Transcripts

(gentle music)

- France borders eight countries.

Well, actually, no, it doesn't,

it borders way more than eight countries.

And in fact, its longest border

isn't even this one with Belgium or this one with Spain,

it's this one way over here with Brazil.

What is going on here?

I learned this on Reddit,

and it quickly flung me down a giant rabbit hole

of some very strange information.

I then put a call out on Instagram,

and asked all of you to tell me what is going on with France

and its giant overseas empire looking thing.

I got a bunch of responses.

So then I did what I always do,

which is spent the entire day mapping this,

every single island, every single administrative boundary,

every single ocean border.

I made an entire behind the scenes,

by the way, for my patrons.

Thank you, patrons, you guys rock.

Yeah, it was a lot.

But now I'm on the other side of it

and I have some stuff to share with you.

(upbeat instrumental music)

By the way, this video is sponsored by Storyblocks,

where I get a lot of amazing footage.

More on that later.

(upbeat instrumental music continues)

Okay, so this is France,

but really this is only one version of France.

They call this version of France,

L'Hexagone, or the hexagon.

It's also called La France Metropole,

or the Metropolitan France.

It's the mainland, it's the motherland of France.

It's the France you probably think of

when you think of France here in Europe.

But there's another France,

it's called France d'outre-mer, or the Overseas France.

And that one looks like this.

This France accounts for almost 20% of all of France's land,

and a whopping 97% of its ocean territory,

nearly 3 million French citizens live here.

This France is peculiar.

It includes far-flung tropical islands,

remote archipelagos with penguins,

and weird looking, uninhabited atolls all around the world.

There's lobster fishing, and scientific research,

and nuclear weapons testing, and military exercises.

And the mind blowing fact here

is that because France actually looks like this,

that means that the European Union actually looks like this.

I wanna show you France's weirdest borders

and pieces of land to try to understand why this country,

that should have decolonized six centuries ago,

has territory all around the world.

(upbeat instrumental music)

All right, so let's go over to the Netherlands.

No, no, no, not that Netherlands.

Let's go this way over to the Caribbean.

This is a little island that is split in half

between the Netherlands and France.

It's the only place where these two countries

share a border.

The population here, they're French citizens.

A few years back, they did vote

to become semi-independent from France,

but even still they're French citizens, this is France.

Zoom out and you'll see that France isn't alone.

This whole neighborhood

is full of European colonial holdovers.

France has three other island groups in this chain.

Two of which are basically the exact same as mainland France

in their administrative status.

And then you get down here to France's longest border,

which is in French Guiana,

which is a proper part of France,

and the European Union, and the eurozone.

They use the euro here.

But remember where we are, we're in South America.

This place was used as a prison colony

for France most of the time.

A lot of people were sent here

for grueling prison sentences, many died.

That's a whole other history, we're not going into it.

Okay, so this is French Guiana in the Caribbean,

key part of France.

Honestly, people just like to vacation here,

because they speak French

and it looks like this.

(mellow instrumental music)

Anyway, let's zoom up North to a teeny, tiny island

that is a holdover from the old days

when France was colonizing North America.

This little piece of France is 4,000 kilometers

from France Metropole,

but it is a few kilometers off the coast of Canada.

And it's right smack dab

in the middle of Canadian economic waters.

France wanted to hold on to this

and have it as their own little enclave away from France.

And so a few years ago,

they fought with Canada in the international courts

to try to carve out a little bit of economic waters

for themselves that looked like this.

It turns out they ended up only getting

this little key-shaped slice of economic waters,

so that they could have a little passage way

into their country from international waters

to their little France enclave.

And that's what it looks like today.

It's a super weird situation.

Here on this island,

they use the euro and they speak French.

Like France French, not Quebec French.

It is a very French place,

even though it is right smack dab

in the middle of Canadian waters.

Okay, so the Caribbean

and this weird set of islands off of Canada.

(upbeat instrumental music)

Now let's get to the wild ones.

The ones that were actually the hardest for me

to get my head around as I was mapping them.

(mellow instrumental music)

If you zoom all the way down here, close to Antarctica,

all of these islands are owned by France.

There are people who live on these islands

who are French citizens.

We'll get to those in a second.

But first look at this weird looking block.

I know it's a little bit awkward.

Thanks Mercator.

Let's look at it a little bit differently here

from like an actual bottom up view.

This slice of land is claimed by France.

The Frenchmen arrived here in the 1800s

and claimed it for France,

and they've had people there ever since.

That's a literal ice wall.

Even in the 1800s, they knew that there was an ice wall.

The world is flat.

Okay, so France claims this little bit of Antarctica.

Zoom up just a little bit,

and you'll get to all these French islands

that have a ton of inhabitants,

but they're just not humans.

(mellow instrumental music)

There are more king penguins on these islands

than anywhere else in the world.

And honestly, looking at photos of these islands

makes me feel like this is the part of France

I want to visit more than any part of France.

I mean, look at this place.

And the crest for this group of islands,

the official crest, is like really cool looking.

I mean, it's got lobsters,

and seals that are like yelling,

and king penguins.

I mean, this place is just a wild, freaking dreamland.

The only actual people who live on these islands

are French military and science personnel.

So why did France hold on to these remote islands

near Antarctica and these ones here in the Indian Ocean?

Well, other than the fact that France is,

as our friend CGP Grey notes.

- [CGP Grey] The queen of not letting go.

- These islands provide France

with a major presence in the Indian Ocean.

Military presence, where they can put bases,

they can run patrols,

they can just have a presence

in this important geopolitical part of the world.

- [Narrator] Here are the French military activities

in the region between 2016 and 2019.

You can see how these islands give France

immense military presence in the region.

- Okay, wait, I'm just trying to do

like a fun geography explainer.

I don't need to get into like the military stuff.

Can we just chill out for just one video?

Can I just not explain the geopolitics?

- [Narrator] Sure, but don't forget that these islands

are also used to harvest over 16 million euros

worth of fish and lobster.

- Okay, stop, I get it.

Military dominance, resource extraction,

science stuff, I get it.

- [Narrator] But wait, while we're here,

I also wanna mention that during the '60s and '70s,

France literally stole hundreds of children

from this island, one of their territories,

to bring back to France

to help boost the declining rural population.

- Okay, that's actually pretty effed up, yeah.

Okay, so zoom to another really remote part of the ocean,

this time the Pacific Ocean,

so the most remote ocean in the world,

and you will see a bunch

of teeny tiny islands that are France.

They're 14,000 kilometers from France Metropole,

which is like a half a planet away.

Like they are so remote.

And to understand why France

wants to hold on to these islands,

just look at the water boundaries.

The water boundaries of these 118 islands

of French Polynesia are 5 million square kilometers.

For context, the entire European Union,

like the landmass, the area of the whole EU,

is 4.4 million square kilometers.

So the water boundaries around French Polynesia are huge.

It is a lot of water that belongs to France.

This place is home to Bora Bora and Tahiti,

and just a bunch of really beautiful islands.

So maybe I take back my previous statement,

this is the part of France I want to visit the most.

- [Narrator] But wait, aren't you forgetting something?

- Yes, I'm sure I'm forgetting something.

- [Narrator] French Polynesia is where France

tested its nuclear weapons,

almost 200 of them between the 1960s and 1990s,

damaging local populations and natural environments,

and violating international law.

- Yes, of course.

Nukes in the Pacific Ocean,

damaging irreparably populations and natural resources.

I get it, yes, I should've known.

I should've known, sorry.

I'm just trying to do a geography explainer, that's all.

All right, let's look at one last piece of Overseas France,

which is right next to French Polynesia,

but let's zoom to the other side of the map

so we can see it better.

This is New Caledonia.

And they were actually on their way

out of being a part of France.

They were on a 20 year plan to transfer power

completely to the people of New Caledonia.

But just last month,

just like literally a few weeks ago, they voted on this.

The people voted and 53% of them

said they wanted to stay with France,

while 47% wanted independence.

- [Reporter] Voters on the Pacific islands of New Caledonia

have, once again, rejected independence from France.

- France secretly loved this decision,

because New Caledonia is full of nickel,

something that they could mine.

- The result was welcomed

by France's President Emmanuel Macron.

- There you go with your natural resources again.

And honestly, this vote of New Caledonia

wanting to stay with France

gets to the heart of the tension

in all of these colonial holdovers.

All of these islands are the product of French colonialism,

brutal, greedy, racist colonialism.

The people in these countries were conquered and ruled

by this ruthless power,

who forced them to adopt their language,

their government, and their economic structures.

And yet here we are centuries later in a globalized economy,

where the world governmental order and system

was invented by these big colonizing powers,

the Frances, the Britains of the world.

France holds on to all of these islands,

because of what we just talked about,

military interests, expanding their economic waters,

scientific research, exploiting natural resources.

And so now you have many locals

who live under France's rule and many want independence,

but others realize that there are benefits

to being attached to the people who invented the rules

and who still have the power.

That is not an easy tension to resolve.

For now, things likely won't change.

This is France and will probably be France for a long time.

They will keep their sprawling,

low key empire around the world.

And France's longest border will continue to be

not with Belgium or Spain, but with Brazil.

(midtempo instrumental music)

Telling stories like this is a visual puzzle,

because obviously the mapping and the technical part,

but also just being able to bring you to these places

and bring myself to these places I'm researching is hard.

I lean on a lot of different resources.

And one of the major resources I lean on is Storyblocks,

who is the sponsor of today's video.

Some of the footage that you saw in this piece,

like this clip, and this clip, and this clip,

those were all downloaded from Storyblocks.

I didn't pay any extra to get these clips.

I pay one subscription and I have unlimited access

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I can download as much of this as I want

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It is a tool in my toolkit

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I've been using Storyblocks for years,

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And I can't recommend them enough

if you are someone who is trying to tell stories,

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Honestly, I use this for all of my projects

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Like compared to all other stock footage,

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with Storyblocks you pay one price

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So thank you, Storyblocks.

Thank you all for being here.

Thank you, patrons, for supporting this channel as well.

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I'm also outputting a high-res version

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So go check that out.

Thank you all for being here,

and I hope you're having a great end of your 2020.

And I will see you in 2021, bye.

(mellow instrumental music)