Forgotten World (185): Wallis and Futuna
Although the Dutch and the British were the European discoverers of the islands of Wallis and Futuna in the 17th and 18th centuries, it was the French who were the first Europeans to settle in the territory, with the arrival of French missionaries in 1837, and it remains a French overseas collectivity to this day. Located in the South Pacific between Fiji and Samoa, the territory is made up of three main volcanic tropical islands and a number of tiny islets.
The total population of the territory at the 2008 census was 13,484 (68.4% on the island of Wallis, 31.6% on the island of Futuna). The vast majority of the population are of Polynesian ethnicity, with a small minority of Metropolitan French descent and/or native-born whites of French descent. More than 16,000 Wallisians and Futunians live as expatriates in New Caledonia, which is more than the total population of Wallis and Futuna.