where did france colonise?
Réunion Saint Barthélemy Mayotte French Southern and Antarctic Lands New Caledonia Saint Pierre and Miquelon Collectivity of Saint Martin French Polynesia Martinique Guadeloupe
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 Fifty years later , the Protestants of London Missionary Society came to New Caledonia , which was followed by entry of the French Catholics to the island , in 1843 . This resulted in a conflict between the two religious factions and eventually the French Catholics ' control of the islands prevailed . The island nation was thereafter annexed by France , in 1853 . 

neutral
 The colony of French Dahomey was created as a part of French West Africa in 1904 . The colony was constructed of two coastal kingdoms with a long history of antagonism with one another ( Dahomey and Porto @-@ Novo ) with a large area to the north controlled by a variety of mostly Mahi and Bariba peoples . 

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 The French Revolutionary Wars , which began in 1792 following the French Revolution , expanded in January 1793 when the French Republic declared war on the Dutch Republic and the Kingdom of Great Britain . This brought the war to the Indian Ocean , where both Britain and the Netherlands maintained lucrative empires . Trade from these empires was menaced by French privateers and warships operating from Île de France , ( now Mauritius ) but it was protected in the waters off Southern Africa by the presence of the Dutch Cape Colony . Situated at the Cape of Good Hope , the Cape Colony had been established in the seventeenth century to offer a harbour for shipping traveling between Europe and the East Indies , and in the 1790s it remained the only such station between Rio de Janeiro and British India . 

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 The French modeled their colonial system on their predecessors , the Ottomans , by co @-@ opting local tribes . In 1843 the colonists began supervising through Bureaux Arabes operated by military officials with authority over particular domains . This system lasted until the 1880s and the rise of the French Third Republic , when colonization intensified . Large @-@ scale regrouping of lands began when land @-@ speculation companies took advantage of government policy that allowed massive sale of native property . By the 20th century Europeans held 1 @,@ 700 @,@ 000 hectares ; by 1940 , 2 @,@ 700 @,@ 000 hectares , about 35 to 40 percent ; and by 1962 it was 2 @,@ 726 @,@ 700 hectares representing 27 percent of the arable land of Algeria . " Settlers came from all over the western Mediterranean region , particularly Italy , France , Spain , and Malta . 

entailment
 1802 : Previous annexations by France confirmed following its victory in the War of the Second Coalition . 
