Place:French Polynesia

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Name	French Polynesia
Alt names	Frans Polynesië	source: Engels Woordenboek (1987) p 617
	Französisch-Polynesien	source: Rand McNally Atlas (1994) p 320
	Polinesia Francesa	source: Cassell's Spanish Dictionary (1978) p 929
	Polinésia Francesa	source: Times Atlas of World History (1993) p 320
	Polynésie française	source: Getty Vocabulary Program
	Polynésie française	source: Wikipedia
	Porinetia Farani	source: Wikipedia
	Territoire de la Polynésia Française	source: CIA, World Fact Book (1995)
	Territory of French Polynesia	source: Cambridge World Gazetteer (1990) p 214; NIMA, GEOnet Names Server (1996-1998)
	Établissements français de l'Océanie	source: Webster's Geographical Dictionary (1988) p 419
Type	Country
Coordinates	15°S 140°W

source: Getty Thesaurus of Geographic Names

source: Family History Library Catalog

the text in this section is copied from an article in Wikipedia

French Polynesia is an overseas collectivity of France and its sole overseas country. It comprises 121 geographically dispersed islands and atolls stretching over more than in the South Pacific Ocean. The total land area of French Polynesia is ,^[1] with a population of 299,356 (2022 estimate).^[2]

French Polynesia is divided into five groups of islands:

1. the Society Islands archipelago, comprising the Windward Islands and the Leeward Islands
2. the Tuamotu Archipelago
3. the Gambier Islands
4. the Marquesas Islands
5. the Austral Islands.

Among its 121 islands and atolls, 75 were inhabited at the 2017 census.^[3] Tahiti, which is in the Society Islands group, is the most populous island, being home to nearly 69% of the population of French Polynesia . Papeete, located on Tahiti, is the capital of French Polynesia. Although not an integral part of its territory, Clipperton Island was administered from French Polynesia until 2007.

Hundreds of years after the Great Polynesian Migration, European explorers began traveling through the region, visiting the islands of French Polynesia on several occasions. Traders and whaling ships also visited. In 1842, the French took over the islands and established a French protectorate that they called (French Establishments/Settlements of Oceania).

In 1946, the became an overseas territory under the constitution of the French Fourth Republic, and Polynesians were granted the right to vote through citizenship. In 1957, the were renamed French Polynesia. In 1983 French Polynesia became a member of the Pacific Community, a regional development organization. Since 28 March 2003, French Polynesia has been an overseas collectivity of the French Republic under the constitutional revision of article 74, and later gained, with law 2004-192 of 27 February 2004, an administrative autonomy, two symbolic manifestations of which are the title of the President of French Polynesia and its additional designation as an overseas country.

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Further information on historical place organization in French Polynesia

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