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Saint Pierre and Miquelon

 

Contents

Flag

unofficial Flag

Meaning/Origin of the Flag

Coat of Arms

Meaning/Origin of the Coat of Arms

Map

Numbers and Facts

History

Origin of the Country's Name



Flag

Flagge Fahne flag drapeau pavillon Frankreich France
Flag of France,
ratio = 2:3,
Source, by: Corel Draw 4



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unofficial Flag

Flagge Fahne flag drapeau pavillon St. Pierre Miquelon Collectivité d’outre-mer de Saint-Pierre et Miquelon
since 1982,
unofficial flag,
ratio = 2:3,
Source, by: Wikipedia (DE), World Statesmen



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Meaning/Origin of the Flag

All French colonies had no own flag over a long period. It had to be hoisted the French tricolor. This in principle usual until today. The status of the colonies changed over the years. Some of them are now overseas departments, and thus a ultraperipheric part of France and of the EU; others are overseas communities, autonomous, and not a part of France or the EU. Overseas departments belong – in contrast to the departments of the motherland – to no administrative region of France, they are a separate region. The territorial entity has therefore officially to use the flag of France. However, the General Council as the highest elected collegial body of a French Department and the Regional Council as the highest elected collegial body of a French Region can have their own flags. These flags of departments and regions, however, have oftenly the appearance of company flags with logos or even stylized images, appear carelessly, ahistorical, technocratic and modernist, because in the strictly centralist France is avoided any regionalism or even a historical subscription. Because of that these logo flags of regions are unpopular and are rarely used.

But, in St. Pierre and Miquelon the General Council has not an own flag. There is exclusively the French flag in use. However, there exist, for local and tourist purposes – usual in almost all French possessions - the famous and popular crest flags, where the image of the Coat of Arms of the country is transferred to a bunting. That flag shows a golden ship on blue ground, to remeber the transoceanic descent of its inhabitants. In a vertical stripe near the pole are placed the flags of the countries, where the inhabitants descent from: From up to down: Basque Country, Bretagne and Normandy.

Source: Wikipedia (DE)

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Coat of Arms


Wappen coat of arms blason armoriaux St. Pierre Miquelon Collectivité d’outre-mer de Saint-Pierre et Miquelon
since 2010,
Coat of arms of Saint Pierre and Miquelon,
Source, by: Wikipedia (DE)

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Meaning/Origin of the Coat of Arms

The Coat of arms of Saint Pierre and Miquelon shows an on two crossed anchors lying divided blazon whose shield-head is splited twice. The shield is blue and shows a golden carrack under full sail on waves. The head of the shield shows in the first red field a green St. Andrew's cross and on it a silver (white) Latin Cross, the second field is silver (white), sprinkled with ermine, the third field is red with two golden lions passant gardant; on the crest a ship-crown, and below a silver banner with the slogan "a mare labor". The carrack is the "Grande Hermine", the ship of the navigator Jacques Cartier, who reached the islands on 15 June 1535 and opened them up for France. The Fields in the shield-head show the heraldry of the Basque Country, Brittany and Normandy. They stand for the origin of most of the inhabitants of the islands. The motto can be translated with "The work from the sea".

Source: Wikipedia (FR)

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Map

Location:

Source: CIA World Factbook

Map of the country:

Source: CIA World Factbook

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Numbers and Facts

Area: 93 square miles, thereof Grande Miquelon and Petite Miquelon (79 sq.mi., 594 inh.), St. Pierre (10 sq.mi., 5.400 inh.)

Inhabitants: 5.985 (2018)

Density of Population: 64 inh./sq.mi.

Capital: St.-Pierre, 5.400 inh. (2018)

official Language: French

Currency: 1 Euro (€) = 100 Cent

Time Zone: GMT – 3 h

Source: Wikipedia (DE)

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History

ancient times · sporadically inhabited by Indians

1497 · the Italian seafarer in English service Giovanni Caboto (John Cabot) is traveling through the area, if he has seen the islands is not known

1521 · the Portugese seafarer João Álvares Fagundes discovers the islands and gives them the name Ilhas das Onze Mil Virgens (Islands of the Eleven Thousand Virgins, following the legend of Saint Ursula

1535 · the French seafarer Jacques Cartier visits the islands and gives them a name to the Apostle Peter: Les Îles de Saint-Pierre, in the following centuries the islands are visited and sporadically inhabited by fishermen from Europe (Normandy, Brittany, Portugal, Basque Country)

1670 · first mention of a small French village

1689-1697 · French-English War, the islands are attacked repeatedly by Englishmen

1702, 1703 · troops Britain attack the islands again

1713 · the French become expelled by the British

1756-1763 · Seven Years' War, France loses all his possessions on the North American continent (Canada), however, Saint Pierre and Miquelon may keep

1778 · in the US War of Independence, the islands are attacked again by United Kingdom, the French become expelled again by the British

1783 · the French allowed to return

1789 · French Revolution

1790 · the population holds its first general assembly

1793 · Revolution wars, the French become expelled again by the British

1814 · Peace Treaty of Paris, France gets Saint Pierre and Miquelon back

1816 · the islands are passed from Britain to France, the French return

1940-1941 · Second World War, Saint Pierre and Miquelon is part of Vichy France

1941 · Second World War, Saint Pierre and Miquelon goes over to Free France

1946 · the islands become an overseas territory

1976 · the islands become an overseas department

1985 · the islands become a "collectivité territoriale"

1997 · agreement between France and Canada in fishing regulations and other economic questions

2003 · the islands become a "collectivité d’outre-mer" (overseas collectivity), a separate overseas community, an autonomous overseas territory which is not part of France

Source: Wikipedia (DE), World Statesmen

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Origin of the Country's Name

When the Portuguese navigator João Álvares Fagundes discovered the islands in 1521, he gave them the name "Ilhas das Onze Mil Virgens" (Islands of the Eleven Thousand Virgins), following the legend of Saint Ursula. The French navigator Jacques Cartier visited the islands in 1535 and gave them a name to the Apostle Peter: "Les Îles de Saint-Pierre". In the following centuries lived always and again French people on the islands, and the islands were almost owned by France, so that the French name received.

Source: Wikipedia (D)

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