New Caledonia

group of islands in the Pacific Ocean

New Caledonia (French: Nouvelle-Calédonie; popular names: Kanaky, Le caillou), is a "sui generis collectivity" (in practice an overseas territory) of France, made up of a main island (Grande Terre), the Loyalty Islands, and several smaller islands. It is located in the region of Melanesia in the southwest Pacific. At about half the size of Taiwan, it has a land area of 18,575.5 square kilometres (7,172 sq mi). The population was 240,400 inhabitants as of January 2007 official estimates. It has an Internet country code top-level domain (ccTLD) of .nc. The capital and largest city of the territory is Nouméa. The currency is the CFP franc.
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Noun
1. an island east of Australia and north of New Zealand
(hypernym) island
(part-holonym) Melanesia

Flag of New Caledonia
Background Settled by both Britain and France during the first half of the 19th century, the island was made a French possession in 1853. It served as a penal colony for four decades after 1864. Agitation for independence during the 1980s and early 1990s has dissipated. Map of New Caledonia More about New Caledonia: Geography People Government Economy Communications Transportation Military Transnational Issues

NC