The Hoorn Islands (also Futuna Islands) are one of the two island groups of which the

French overseas collectivity The French overseas collectivities (''collectivité d'outre-mer'' or ''COM'') are first-order administrative divisions of France, like the French regions, but have a semi-autonomous status. The COMs include some former French overseas colonies ...

(''

collectivité d'outre-mer The French overseas collectivities ('' collectivité d'outre-mer'' or ''COM'') are first-order administrative divisions of France, like the French regions, but have a semi-autonomous status. The COMs include some former French overseas colon ...

'', or ''COM'') of

Wallis and Futuna Wallis and Futuna, officially the Territory of the Wallis and Futuna Islands (; french: Wallis-et-Futuna or ', Fakauvea and Fakafutuna: '), is a French island collectivity in the South Pacific, situated between Tuvalu to the northwest, Fiji ...

is geographically composed. The aggregate area is 115 km², and the population 4,873 (

census A census is the procedure of systematically acquiring, recording and calculating information about the members of a given population. This term is used mostly in connection with national population and housing censuses; other common censuses incl ...

of 2003).

History

The archipelago was named by the Dutch navigators

Willem Schouten Willem Cornelisz Schouten ( – 1625) was a Dutch navigator for the Dutch East India Company. He was the first to sail the Cape Horn route to the Pacific Ocean. Biography Willem Cornelisz Schouten was born in c. 1567 in Hoorn, Holland, Seven ...

and

Jacob Le Maire Jacob Le Maire (c. 1585 – 22 December 1616) was a Dutch mariner who circumnavigated the earth in 1615 and 1616. The strait between Tierra del Fuego and Isla de los Estados was named the Le Maire Strait in his honour, though not without controvers ...

, who, in 1616, became the first Europeans to visit the islands. They named it after the Dutch city of

Hoorn Hoorn () is a city and municipality in the northwest of the Netherlands, in the province of North Holland. It is the largest town and the traditional capital of the region of West Friesland. Hoorn is located on the Markermeer, 20 kilometers ( ...

, from which their expedition had started. They had previously rounded and named

Cape Horn Cape Horn ( es, Cabo de Hornos, ) is the southernmost headland of the Tierra del Fuego archipelago of southern Chile, and is located on the small Hornos Island. Although not the most southerly point of South America (which are the Diego Ramírez ...

on the same voyage; Schouten had been born in Hoorn.

Geography

Geographically, there are two islands: * Futuna Island (in the northwest) (83 km², pop. 4871) * Alofi Island (in the southeast) (32 km², pop. 2) Administratively, the Hoorn Islands encompass two of Wallis and Futuna’s three royal chiefdoms, namely: * Tu`a (Alo), which comprises Alofi Island and the eastern part of Futuna Island (area 85 km², pop. 2993) *

Sigave Sigavé (also Singave or Sigave) is one of the three official chiefdoms of the French territory of Wallis and Futuna in Oceania in the South Pacific Ocean. (The other two chiefdoms are Uvea and Alo.) Geography Overview Sigave encompasses the wes ...

(Singave), which comprises the western third of Futuna Island (area 30 km², pop. 1880) (The third royal chiefdom is

Uvea The uvea (; Lat. ''uva'', "grape"), also called the ''uveal layer'', ''uveal coat'', ''uveal tract'', ''vascular tunic'' or ''vascular layer'' is the pigmented middle of the three concentric layers that make up an eye. History and etymolog ...

References

Islands of Wallis and Futuna Archipelagoes of the Pacific Ocean 1616 in the Dutch Empire Maritime history of the Dutch Republic {{WallisFutuna-geo-stub

History

Geography

See also

References