Abstract
Soon after the difficult French withdrawal from Vanuatu, problems increased in New Caledonia. The two developments were not unconnected, as Melanesian nationalists in New Caledonia were buoyed by the successful struggle for independence in the New Hebrides, and the new government in Port Vila encouraged their aspirations; yet the lack of dexterity displayed by Paris in handling the accession of the Condominium to independence, even amounting to outright opposition, gave a clear indication of what France’s attitude towards a similar effort in New Caledonia might be. The 1980s witnessed extraordinary confrontations in New Caledonia, marked by hostage-taking, blockades and assassinations which seemed more reminiscent of the colonial wars in Indochina and Algeria in the 1950s than of the ‘Pacific way of life’ and peaceful cutting of ties between Oceanic colonies and their administering powers in the 1960s and 1970s. Almost a decade of political turmoil ensued before a truce was called and a moratorium on struggles for or against independence was declared.
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Notes and References
In English, the most comprehensive account of events down to 1987 is John Connell, New Caledonia or Kanaky? (Canberra, 1987)
See also Helen Fraser, New Caledonia: Anti-Colonialism in a Pacific Territory (Canberra, 1988)
A useful chronology of events down until 1983 is Association pour la Fondation d’un Institut Kanak d’Histoire Moderne, Contribution à l’histoire du pays kanak (Nouméa, 1983).
See the long polemical dossier, Gérard Lacourrège, Qui a tué Pierre Declercq? (Nouméa, 1986).
The declaration is reprinted in Claude Gabriel and Vincent Kermel, Nouvelle-Calédonie: La Révolte Kanake (Paris, 1985), p. 130.
See, for example, Bernard Brou, Peuplement et population de la Nouvelle-Calédonie: La Société pluriethnique (Nouméa, n.d.).
Alan Clark, ‘Mitterrand, Matignon and the Role of the Republican State in New Caledonia’, in Robert Aldrich (ed.), France, Oceania and Australia: Past and Present (Sydney, 1991), pp. 137–42.
Maurice Satineau, Le Miroir de Nouméa (Paris, 1987).
Frédéric Bobin, ‘Kanak Activism and Political Cycles in New Caledonia’, in Aldrich (ed.), France, Oceania and Australia, pp. 127–35.
J.M. Kohler, ‘Colonie ou Démocratie’, Le Monde Diplomatique, July 1987
published in English as ‘Colony or Democracy: The New Caledonian Dilemma, Australian Journal of Politics and History 33 (1987), pp. 47–59;
Jean Guiart, La Terre est le sang des morts: La Confrontation entre blancs et noirs dans le Pacifique sud français (Paris, 1983);
‘What immediate future for New Caledonia?’, Pacific Perspective 8 (1979), pp. 21–25;
‘One of the Last Colonies: New Caledonia’, Journal of International Affairs 36 (1982), pp. 105–112;
‘Nouvelle-Calédonie 1985: Commentaires’, Les Temps modernes May 1985, pp. 2126–2140;
For the Latham-Guiart exchange, see the insert to Bulletin de la Société des Etudes Historiques de la Nouvelle-Calédonie 14 (1979)
A. Saussol, L’Héritage: Essai sur le problème foncier mélanésien en Nouvelle-Calédonie (Paris, 1979).
Jean Chesneaux, Transpacifiques (Paris, 1987).
Marie-France Pisier, Le Bal du Gouverneur (Paris, 1984)
Jacqueline Sénès, Terre violente (Paris, 1987)
and her non-fiction La Vie quotidienne en Nouvelle-Calédonie de 1850 à nos jours (Paris, 1985)
Richard Hall, Noumea (Sydney, 1990)
On earlier works, see Anne-Marie Nisbet, Littérature néo-calédonienne (Montréal, 1985)
See Isabelle Merle, ‘Les Australiens et la Nouvelle-Calédonie. Bilan des recherches en sciences sociales’, Revue française d’histoire d’outre-mer 76 (1989), pp. 583–596.
John Connell, ‘Trouble in Paradise: the perception of New Caledonia in the Australian Press’, Australian Geographical Studies 25 (1987), pp. 54–65.
Helen Fraser, New Caledonia: Anti-Colonialism in a Pacific Territory (Canberra, 1988)
and Your Flag’s Blocking Our Sun (Sydney, 1990)
David Robie, Blood on Their Banner: Nationalist Struggles in the South Pacific (London, 1989).
Gérard Lacourrège, Les Heures noires de la Calédonie (Nouméa, 1985)
‘Isabelle Doisy’, Chronique des années de cendres (Paris, 1988)
Maurice Delarge, ‘La France Australe’: Nouvelle-Calédonie: ‘Ile de Lumière’ (Nouméa, 1985)
For example, Antoine Sanguinetti, et al., Enquête sur Ouvéa (Paris, 1989).
Alain Rollat, Tjibaou le Kanak (Lyon, 1989)
and, with Edwy Plenel, Mourir à Ouvéa. Le Tournant Calédonien (Paris, 1988)
Gilbert Picard, L’Affaire d’Ouvéa (Paris, 1988).
Claude Gabriel and Vincent Kermel, Nouvelle-Calédonie: La Révolte Kanake (Paris, 1985);
Claude Gabriel and Vincent Kermel, Nouvelle-Calédonie: Les Sentiers de l’Espoir (Montreuil, 1988);
Thierry Desjardins, Nouvelle-Calédonie: Iles veulent rester Français (Paris, 1985)
Antonio Raluy, La Nouvelle-Calédonie (Paris, 1990).
Among others are Marc Coulon, L’Irruption Kanak: De Calédonie à Kanaky (Paris, 1985);
Marc Weitzmann, Nouvelle-Calédonie: Un Siècle de Balles Perdues (Paris, 1985);
Daniel Veill, Opération Victor (Paris, 1989);
and Patrick Forestier, Les Mystères d’Ouvéa (Paris, 1988)
Cf. R. Aldrich, ‘New Caledonia: The Current Crisis in Historical Perspective’, Contemporary French Civilization 10 (1986), pp. 175–209
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© 1993 Robert Aldrich
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Aldrich, R. (1993). The Crisis in New Caledonia in the 1980s. In: France and the South Pacific since 1940. Palgrave Macmillan, London. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-349-10828-2_7
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