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New Caledonia
A French Pacific archipelago whose status is still being negotiated
New Caledonia, called Kanaky by much of the independence movement, is a French special collectivity in the southwest Pacific whose future status is the most unsettled question in France's overseas holdings. Between 2018 and 2021 its long-term residents voted three times on independence, and each time the majority chose to remain with France, though most pro-independence parties boycotted the third vote and dispute its legitimacy. Deadly unrest in 2024 was followed in July 2025 by the Bougival agreement, a compromise proposing a "State of New Caledonia" within the French Republic, but the plan has since stalled. The archipelago also holds a large share of the world's known nickel reserves, which ties its politics to global steel and battery markets.
The main island, Grande Terre, runs about 400 kilometers from northwest to southeast, a mountainous spine rising to Mont Panié at 1,628 meters, its rocks rich in the nickel-bearing ores that open-cast mines have cut from many ridges. One of the largest lagoons on Earth surrounds it, parts of which were inscribed as a UNESCO World Heritage Site in 2008, and the Loyalty Islands lie to the east. The 2025 census counted 264,596 residents, down from about 271,000 in 2019. At the 2019 census about 41 percent identified as Kanak and about a quarter as European. France holds sovereignty and retains defense, justice, currency, and public order through a high commissioner, while a local Congress and government, drawn from three provincial assemblies, run most other affairs. The currency is the CFP franc.
France annexed the islands in 1853, ran a penal colony there, and took Kanak land for settlers and mines. Violent clashes in the 1980s led to the 1988 Matignon Accords and the 1998 Nouméa Accord, which transferred powers and allowed up to three independence votes. The "No" side won with about 57 percent in 2018, 53 percent in 2020, and over 96 percent amid the 2021 boycott. In May 2024 a plan to widen the restricted local electoral roll set off riots in which more than a dozen people died. The FLNKS independence front opposed the Bougival text, and in April 2026 the French National Assembly rejected the bill meant to enact it. Provincial elections in June 2026 gave no bloc a majority. Loyalists favor remaining in France, the FLNKS seeks full sovereignty, and the territory's lasting status is unresolved.