In the northeast of South America, on the border between Brazil and Suriname, there is a tropical country famous for its natural ecological paradise - "French Guiana", you should have guessed this name, yes, this country is actually a "province" belonging to France.
Coincidentally, there is also a nearby country called Guyana, which is an independent country, and French Guiana (Guyane française), the largest overseas department in France, and if you go back in history, you will find that they were originally one family.
But how did France in the northern hemisphere have such a long hand that it could reach the heads of South American countries in the southern hemisphere? It starts with Guyana's colonial history.
Guyana – a piece of "fragrant food" contested by Britain, France and the Netherlands
Guyana has the name of "the world's largest gold reserves", fishery resources, wood resources are rich, naturally become a piece of sweet potato for resource-poor European colonists.
After Columbus discovered Guyana in 1498, it ushered in a period of turmoil, first the Dutch began to colonize the area, and later Indian and European immigrants came to occupy the land.
In 1604, France invaded the eastern part of Guiana (now French Guiana), but because France had a large number of overseas colonies in North America and India, it did not pay attention to the use of this small country in South America.
At the beginning of the 19th century, Britain, France and the Netherlands signed a boundary treaty, and the western part of Guyana was colonized by the British and renamed British Guiana, and it was not until 1966 that British Guiana successfully became independent, which is now Guyana.
Why did the enemies of the sea of blood become lifesavers?
Do the natives of French Guiana not hate France? Of course hate, then why is British Guiana next door independent long ago, but French Guiana has not moved?
First, let's take a look at the difficult history of France's development of this wild land.
Although French Guiana is a tourist paradise, with 90% forest cover and rich ecological resources, it was originally an undeveloped wilderness, initially inhabited by only a few scattered indigenous Indians.
After the first French settlers came to Guyana, they carried out mass murder and enslavement of local indigenous peoples, according to statistics, before Europeans settled in Guyana, the local Indian population was about 30,000, and 200 years later only 1,200 remained.
After the outbreak of the Seven Years' War in 1763, France lost a large number of overseas colonies, and it was then that France suddenly remembered that it still had a colony in North America.
But how to develop this land is a headache for France. In the early days, only some of the poor highlands were cultivated for crops, so in 1763, the French government sent 12,000 farmers to French Guiana to cultivate the land. However, due to insufficient management experience, soil and water incompatibility, epidemics and other reasons, most of the colonists sent were hanging.
Since development is so difficult and the conditions are so difficult, isn't it just enough to be used as a penal land?
The big clever of the French government thought that this idea was very good, and immediately executed it with a pat on the thigh.
In 1852, the French began using French Guiana as a prisoner in exile, and between 1852 and 1939, more than 70,000 French criminals were deported to French Guiana, most of whom would never return.
The infamous "Devil's Island" – Île du Diable
You may think that the seaside life on the beach with a sea breeze coconut tree is not very good, this is some kind of exile, in fact, it is hell in the eyes of the prisoners.
Captain Alfred was sentenced to life in prison for espionage and exiled by the French government to a prison built in Cayenne, French Guiana, which he later recalled as a mass grave hell.
The rainy season is seven months a year, and humidity levels are as high as 95%. The prison is made of rudimentary stone, with only a window with iron railings and a wooden door, and when the rainy season comes, insects and ants are numerous, the most terrifying of which is crab spiders, the size of a man's palm, and also highly poisonous, they crawl in through the gaps in the cell and kill many prisoners.
The prison where Alfred lives
Food was distributed every three days, and prisoners could only shave their heads once a month by sticking their heads out through a small opening. In the dungeon, in total darkness, prisoners are tied up and sentenced to immobility, a life that makes everyone's mental state begin to have problems day after day.
The humid heat and poor hygiene also brought various diseases to the prisoners: fever, stomach pain, syphilis and tuberculosis, plus various tropical parasites, each convict can only live on the island for about 5 years on average.
The mass death of peasants and prisoners posed a problem for France, and since French Guia was not a good place to live, what was it to do?
Establishment of a space center - economic revitalization
In 1962, France established the Centre for Space Research (CNES) and began preparations for site selection for the establishment of the space center.
Due to its proximity to the equator, large site and low population density, French Guiana was the perfect choice for the European Space Agency's Space Centre, where the Centre national d'études spatiales (CNES) established the Space Centre (GSC) as an important base for European space missions and now one of the region's top tourist attractions.
The establishment of the Guyana Space Center has brought an annual revenue of 1 billion US dollars (about 7 billion yuan), accounting for about 25% of the total GDP, which has also revived the local economy to some extent.
How else to say that Guyana has been reluctant to become independent from France, and the basic survival and economic development of the French Guiana people can be said to be closely linked to France.
The basic guarantee of survival depends on France
First of all, French Guiana adopts the French social security system, in the past the main diseases that caused local deaths were circulatory diseases, cancer, infectious diseases and parasitic diseases, so Paris set up a tropical endemic disease research institute in Cayenne, French Guiana, and now statistics show that the average life expectancy of local men is 76 years old, women 83 years old, France is indispensable.
France also offers free and compulsory education for children between the ages of 6 and 16, as well as university education.
According to EU data, the unemployment rate of local residents is as high as 20%, so CNES invested 40 million euros (about 300 million yuan) in economic and social projects in French Guiana between 2014 and 2017, and signed an agreement with the University of French Guiana to invest in laboratory infrastructure and cooperate with the local education bureau to carry out scholarships and education programs.
In 2018, CNES allocated an additional 10 million euros (about 73.63 million yuan) to promote local economic development.
The people do not have the will to become independent
In 2010, a referendum on autonomy for French Guiana was held, with 48 percent of citizens voting and nearly 70 percent of voters not supporting independence for fear of losing French subsidies and aid.
Data from 2016 shows that French Guiana's GDP is twice that of neighboring Guyana and Suriname combined, everyone is obviously the same starting point, the same colonial experience, have the title of "Guyana", since the result of striving for independence does not seem to be so good, then it is better to continue to live beautifully with the assistance of France, what is autonomy? And you can't eat it.
Since we talked about Guyana, there is another place that must be mentioned, which is the Hawaiian Islands, an overseas state of the United States
The history of the colonization of the Hawaiian Islands can be said to be almost a direct copy of French Guiana.
Hawaii, known for its beautiful island scenery and resort resorts, is located in Oceania, less than 3,000 kilometers from the mainland, but nearly 3,700 kilometers from the United States.
Hawaii was also originally discovered by a European navigator, Cook, who first discovered the island in 1776. Between 1843 and 1849, Hawaii was publicly claimed by Britain and France, respectively. After the United States took a fancy to this piece of fragrant food and intervened, in 1894, after the pro-American leader Duchen came to power as Hawaii's first president, he expressed his desire to be incorporated into the United States.
In 1898, Hawaii officially became the 50th state of the United States.
In this way, it seems that it is indeed not easy for small countries to survive, and being colonized seems to be their destiny, and they can only survive by relying on the protection of large countries, but as long as the colonists are generous enough, willing to invest and do not oppress the local natives, it seems that losing autonomy is not a loss, but a better choice, do you think?
Author: Ara Neko Manuscript: Kawakawa
Resources:
Michel Pierre 《Alfred Dreyfus on Devil's Island The prison alone》 www.herodote.net
《Mythical places Devil's Island in isolation》 www.liberation.fr
Caleb Henry-《French space agency pledges 10-million-euro boost to French Guiana economy》2018-7-27
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