Clipperton Island

Started by eurocoin, April 17, 2016, 05:45:48 PM

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Clipperton Island is an uninhabited nine-square-kilometer coral atoll in the eastern Pacific Ocean, southwest of Mexico and west of Central America. It is an overseas possession of France under direct authority of the Minister of Overseas France.

Clipperton Island is low-lying and largely barren, save for scattered grasses and a few clumps of coconut palms. A small volcanic outcrop rising to 29 meters on its southeast side is referred to as "Clipperton Rock".

Clipperton's name comes from John Clipperton, an English pirate and privateer who fought the Spanish during the early 18th century, and who is said to have passed by the island. Some sources say he used it as a base for his raids on shipping, yet there is no documentary evidence for this assertion. The name Île de la Passion (English: Passion Island) was officially given to Clipperton in 1711 by French discoverers Martin de Chassiron and Michel Du Bocage, commanding the French ships La Princesse and La Découverte. They drew up the first map of the island and annexed it to France.

The atoll has been occupied at various times by guano miners, would-be settlers or military personnel, mostly from Mexico, which formerly claimed it until international arbitration awarded it to France in 1931. In the late 1930s, Clipperton Island was visited twice by U.S. President Franklin D. Roosevelt, who wanted it to become an American possession for use as an airbase for Pacific Ocean operations. In 1944, he ordered the US Navy to occupy the island (until 1945) in one of the most secret U.S. operations of World War II.

The island was abandoned at the end of World War II. Since then it has only been visited by sport fishermen, film crews, shipwreck survivors, regularly scheduled patrols of the French Navy, and by Mexican tuna and shark fishermen.

Fantasies Clipperton Island series 2011.jpg

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In 1906, a guano mining business jointly operated by British and Mexican interest groups made the only good-faith attempt at colonizing the island in its long history. One hundred men and women were deposited on the island, knowing full-well that they would depend on shipments of sustenance sent from mainland Mexico for their survival. Everything went as planned until the Mexican Civil War diverted the suppliers' attention... for years.

Slowly but surely, all the men died from either malnutrition or failed escape attempts, save one: Victoriano Álvarez. As the last living male, he proclaimed himself "king" and took to enslaving, murdering and raping the remaining women and children. Ultimately the women conspired and successfully gave him a dose of his own medicine before the final handful of survivors were rescued by a passing ship.

No attempts at permanently colonizing Clipperton have been made since.

Alex Island

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