More Sponsored Links For:
French GuianaFrench Guiana has two districts (arrondissements): Cayenne, the coastal region, where more than 90% of the population is concentrated; and the larger interior district of Saint Laurent-du-Maroni. The population is largely of mixed African and European descent, but there are also minorities of blacks, whites, indigenous peoples, Chinese, and South Asians. French is the official language, but Creole and other languages and dialects are spoken as well. The population is predominantly Roman Catholic.
French Guiana is largely dependent on subsidies and imports from the mother country. Fishing and forestry are the prime industries, and timber, shrimp, and rum made from local sugarcane are the chief exports. Rice, corn, bananas and other fruits, vegetables, and manioc are grown for subsistence. There are gold (discovered in 1855), petroleum, and other mineral deposits; exploitation, however, has been hindered by inadequate transportation and scarcity of labor. The Plan Vert (Green Plan), adopted in the late 1970s to increase production in agriculture and forestry, met with only partial success.
The department (also one of 26 official regions of France) is represented in the French National Assembly and Senate. It is governed by a prefect and an elected council.
HistoryFrench settlement dates from 1604. In the Dutch wars of Louis XIV, Cayenne was captured (1676) by the Dutch but was later retaken. The Portuguese and British occupied it during the Napoleonic Wars, but the Congress of Vienna (1815) restored French authority. French Guiana was used as a penal colony and place of exile during the French Revolution, and under Napoleon III permanent penal camps were established. Devils Island, one of the Îles du Salut, off the coast, became notorious. The penal colonies were evacuated after World War II.
In 1947, French Guiana became an overseas department of France, and in 1974 it also became an administrative region. A rocket-launching base at Kourou, established in 1968, is used by the European Space Agency for communication satellites. Economic problems and divisions between the white European elite and the Creole majority persisted into the 1990s, accompanied by increasing local demands for autonomy.
The Columbia Encyclopedia. Copyright © 2001-09 Columbia University Press. All rights reserved.
- Guiana
Guiana, region, NE South America. It faces the Atlantic Ocean on the north and east and is enclosed on the west and south within a vast semicircle formed by the linked river systems of the Ori...
- Guiana Highlands
Guiana Highlands, mountainous tableland, c.1,200 mi (1,930 km) long and from 200 to 600 mi (322–966 km) wide, N South America, bounded by the Orinoco and Amazon river basins, and by the coasta...
- French Community
French Community, established in 1958 by the constitution of the Fifth French Republic to replace the French Union. Its members consisted of the French Republic, which included metropolitan Fr...
- Îles du Salut
Îles du Salut or Safety Islands, small archipelago, off French Guiana in the Caribbean. The best-known of the islands is Devils Island.
- Devils Island
Devils Island, Fr. Île du Diable, the smallest and southernmost of the Îles du Salut, in the Caribbean Sea off French Guiana. A penal colony founded in 1852, it was used largely for political ...
- Damas, Léon
Damas, Léon (Léon-Gentran Damas), 1912–78, French poet, b. French Guiana. With Léopold Senghor and Aimé Césaire he was one of the first adherents of négritude, a cultural movement emphasizing ...
- Amapá
Amapá, state (1991 pop. 373,994), 53,013 sq mi (137,304 sq km), extreme N Brazil, bounded on the N by French Guiana and the Atlantic Ocean. Macapá is the capital. Fishing is an important activ...
- Cayenne
Cayenne, city and district (1990 pop. 41,659), capital of French Guiana, on Cayenne island at the mouth of the Cayenne River. The city has a shallow harbor, and deep-draft ships must anchor so...
- Barthélemy, François, marquis de
Barthélemy, François, marquis de, 1747?–1830, French statesman. While minister to Switzerland, he negotiated the Treaties of Basel (1795), which took Prussia and Spain out of the French Revolu...
- Billaud-Varenne, Jean Nicolas
Billaud-Varenne, Jean Nicolas, 1756–1819, French revolutionary. A violent antimonarchist in the Convention, the revolutionary national assembly, he and Jean Marie Collot d'Herbois were the two...
