Matthew Patay's
Note of the Month

 April 2006

(Note:  The above flag is specific to French Polynesia, New Caledonia flys the French flag.)

Map and flag images provided by Graphic Maps

This month's featured note is from the French Pacific Territories.
The denomination is 5,000 Francs and the Standard Catalog of World Paper Money (SCWPM) Number is P-3. 

The note is not dated but was issued in (1996).

(front)

The banknote is dark blue and brown-orange on multi-colored underprint.  Louis Antoine de Bougainville, Comte de Bougainville (November 12, 1729 – August 20, 1811), a French navigator and military commander is at left and his ships of exploration are at center.

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The following information was obtained from:
Wikipedia the Free Encyclopedia

Louis Antoine de Bougainville, Comte de Bougainville
(1729 - 1811)
 

Early career

Bougainville was born in Paris, France, the son of a notary. In early life, he studied law, but soon abandoned the profession, and in 1753 entered the army in the corps of musketeers. At the age of twenty-five he published a treatise on the integral calculus, as a supplement to De l'Hôpital's treatise, Des infiniment petits.

In 1755 he was sent to London as secretary to the French embassy, and was made a member of the Royal Society.

Circumnavigation

In 1766 Bougainville received from Louis XV the mission to circumnavigate the globe. He would become the 14th navigator in western history, and the first Frenchman, to sail around the world, and the completion of his mission would bolster the prestige of France following its defeats during the Seven Years War. Bougainville left Nantes on 15 November 1766 with two ships: La Boudeuse and L'Étoile. On board was the botanist Philibert Commerçon and his valet, later unmasked by the ship's surgeon as Jeanne Baré, Commerçon's mistress.

Tahiti

He saw islands of the Tuamotu group on the following March 22, on April 2 saw the peak of Mehetea and famously visited the island of Otaheite shortly after and narrowly missed becoming their discoverer, unaware of a previous visit, and claim, by Samuel Wallis in HMS Dolphin less than a year previously. He claimed the island for France and named it New Cythera.

They left westward to southern Samoa and the New Hebrides, then on sighting Espiritu Santo turned west still looking for the Southern Continent. On June 4 he almost ran into heavy breakers and had to change course to the north and east. He had almost found the Great Barrier Reef. He sailed through what is now know as the Solomon Islands that, due of the hostility of the people there, he avoided. He named Bougainville Island for himself. The expedition was attacked by people from New Ireland so they made for the Moluccas. At Batavia they received news of Wallis and Carteret who had preceded Bouganville.

Return to France

On 16 March 1769 the expedition completed its circumnavigation and arrived at St Malo, with the loss of only seven out of upwards of 200 men, an extremely low level of casualty, and a credit to the enlightened management of the expedition by Bougainville. His voyage of circumnavigation was also notable for being the first to include a woman, Jeanne Baré.

The legend begins

Describing Tahiti in his 1771 book Voyage autour du monde, Bougainville offered a vision of an earthly paradise where men and women live happily in innocence, away from the corruption of civilisation. He powerfully illustrated the concept of the noble savage, and influenced the utopian thoughts of philosophers such as Jean-Jacques Rousseau before the advent of the French Revolution. Denis Diderot's book, Supplément au voyage de Bougainville, retells the story of Bougainville's landing on Tahiti, narrated by an anonymous reader to one of his friends: this fictional approach to Bougainville's expedition, along with the description of the Tahitians as noble savages, is meant to criticise Western ways of living and thinking.

A new command

After an interval of several years, he again accepted a naval command and saw much active service between 1779 and 1782, including participating in the Battle of the Chesapeake. In the memorable engagement of the Battle of the Saintes, in which Admiral George Rodney defeated the Comte de Grasse, Bougainville, who commanded the Auguste, succeeded in rallying eight ships of his own division, and bringing them safely into Saint Eustace. He was promoted to chef d'escadre and, on reentering the army, was given the rank of maréchal de camp.

After the peace he returned to Paris, and obtained the place of associate of the Academy. He projected a voyage of discovery towards the North Pole but this did not meet with support from the French government.

Promotion and Retirement

Bougainville obtained the rank of vice-admiral in 1791; and in 1792, having escaped almost miraculously from the massacres of Paris, he retired to his estate in Normandy. He was chosen a member of the Institute at its formation and, returning to Paris, became a member of the Board of Longitude. In his old age Napoleon I made him a senator, count of the empire and member of the Legion of Honour. He died in Paris on the August 31, 1811. He was married and had three sons, who served in the French army.

  The following information was obtained from:
www.nzaid.govt.nz

French Pacific Territories
 (For the full article, please refer to the link above.)

Overview

The French Pacific territories include New Caledonia, French Polynesia and Wallis and Futuna. New Caledonia is northeast of Australia. French Polynesia is situated in the Eastern Pacific. Wallis and Futuna are two small groups of volcanic islands 600km northeast of Fiji.

New Caledonia became an Overseas Territory of France in 1946. Following the signing of the Noumea Accord in 1998 and the passage of the organic law in 1999, New Caledonia gained an enhanced and unique self-governing status within the French Constitution. It has an estimated population of more than 230,000 people, of which nearly 50% are Kanaks.

French Polynesia became an Overseas Territory of France in 1946 and has increased self-governing status since 1984. Its new autonomy statute approved in February 2004 further increased its autonomy from France in some additional areas. As in the case of New Caledonia, it can now conduct its own economic negotiations. In both territories, however, France continues to manage defence, justice, public order, finance and foreign affairs. French Polynesia has a population of over 250,000.

The islands of Wallis and Futuna were declared a French protectorate in 1888 and following a referendum in 1959, the islands became an overseas territory of France in 1961. The resident population of the islands is about 14,000, of which 50% is under 20 years. Many Wallisians and Futunians live and work in New Caledonia (over 17, 500 in 1996).

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Admiral Auguste Febvrier-Despointes (1796 - 1855), first commandant of New Caledonia (24 September 1853 - 1 January 1854) is at right.  A Polynesian sailing vessel is at center.

The following information was obtained from:
FastBook Holidays

New Caledonia
 (For the full article, please refer to the link above.)

James Cook discovered a large island he named 'New Caledonia' in homage to Scotland. In 1853, under the rule of Napoleon III, the island was officially declared French by Admiral Febvrier-Despointes. At the time, the population was estimated at 50,000 Melanesians and a few hundred Europeans. At about the same time, the discovery of large mineral resources and subsequent mining of copper, cobalt and nickel were at the origin of the New Caledonian economy.

For more information about the French Pacific Territories visit:

TThe CIA World Fact Book

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