French Southern and Antarctic

Territories
territory, Indian Ocean
Alternate titles: Terres Australes et Antarctiques Françaises

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French Southern and Antarctic Territories, French Terres

Australes et Antarctiques Françaises, French overseas territory
consisting of the islands of Saint-Paul and Nouvelle Amsterdam (q.v.)
and the island groups of Kerguelen and Crozet (qq.v.) in the
south Indian Ocean, as well as the Adélie Coast (q.v.) on the Antarctic
continent. The barren and for the most part uninhabited lands were
linked for administrative purposes with Madagascar from 1924 until
1955, when they became a French territory governed under a special
statute by a senior administrator who is partially resident in Paris. It
was not until the arrival of scientific personnel in 1949–50 that they
were effectively occupied. French scientists use weather and other
research stations on the islands.