how did new caledonia became a french colony
New Caledonia On 24 September 1853, under orders from Napoleon III, Admiral Febvrier Despointes took formal possession of New Caledonia and Port-de-France (Nouméa) was founded on 25 June 1854.[9] A few dozen free settlers settled on the west coast in the following years.[9] New Caledonia became a penal colony, and from the 1860s until the end of the transportations in 1897, about 22,000 criminals and political prisoners were sent to New Caledonia. The Bulletin de la Société générale des prisons for 1888 indicates that 10,428 convicts, including 2,329 freed ones, were on the island as of 1 May 1888, by far the largest number of convicts detained in overseas penitentiaries.[16] Among the convicts were many Communards arrested after the failed Paris Commune, including Henri de Rochefort and Louise Michel.[17] Between 1873 and 1876, 4,200 political prisoners were "relegated" in New Caledonia.[9] Only 40 of them settled in the colony; the rest returned to France after being granted amnesty in 1879 and 1880.[9]