Lapérouse

This is an article related to the Commonwealth of New Duveland

Lapérouse Katoakoiarā Tātauhiahia (Māori)
Province
Flag Seal
Nickname:  La Frontière
Location of Lapérouse in New Duveland
Country	New Duveland
Established	25th March 1963
Seat	Espérance
Government
• Type	Provincial Legislature
• Premier	Élisabeth Dumas (Liberal Party)
Area
• Total	368,570 km2 (142,310 sq mi)
Population  (2023)
• Total	7,240,253
• Density	20/km2 (51/sq mi)
Demonym	Lapérousean
• Summer (DST)	UTC+11 (NDST)
ISO 3166 code	LPR
Website	www.Lapérouse.gov.nd

Lapérouse (abbreviated as LPR) is one of the eight provinces and territories of New Duveland. Located on the northernmost point of Motu Matua (New Duveland's 'mainland'), the province shares land borders with Tasman and Devereaux to the south, and has a coastal border with the Montmaneu Islands. Lapérouse is both the largest province by area, at 239,960 km2 (92,650 sq mi), and by population, with 7,240,253 people, but is the second least densely populated. Much of the population lives in urban areas along the east coast, between the border with Devereaux to the city of Valéry, taking up roughly 64% of the province's total population.

Lapérouse's official language is French, with 91.7% of the province's population reporting knowledge of the language. Lapérousean French is the local variety, which it shares with Devereaux, and there are several regional accents deriving from it, varying from the urban core on the east coast, to the valleys of the northern tasman ranges, to the rural and arid west coast. Among other things, Lapérouse is known for producing nearly 60% of the world's Nickle, for its comedy, and for making rugby one of the most popular sports in New Duveland. It is also renowned for its unique and vibrant culture; the province has its own celebrities, and produces its own literature, music/songs, films, TV shows, festivals, folklore, art, and more. Moreover, it has its own cuisine and national symbols.

Historically inhabited by the Maori since at least the early 1400s, it was colonised by the French in the early 19th century, first as a penal colony and then quickly became a free colony with the help of a gold rush that encouraged thousands to migrate to the new colony from across the world, mostly from France and other European nations. Up until the end of the penal transportations, France sent about 100,000+ criminals and political prisoners to Lapérouse. The Bulletin de la Société générale des prisons for 1888 indicates that 60,742 convicts, including 22,236 freed ones, were in the colony as of the 1 May 1888, by far the largest number of convicts detained in French overseas penitentiaries.

Originally organised as a French overseas region, the Lapérousean people voted to form a union with the English provinces of New Duveland in 1963, originally brought up by Laperousean government of the time, as public opinions of France began to plummet. The former nation known as the "Realm of Laperouse", was formally split into three, with the core urban areas and western coast of the Realm retained as the Province of Lapérouse, while the southern portion, east of the Northern Tasman Ranges and south of Lake Laval following the Devereaux River was separated to become it's own province, Devereaux. New Caledonia at the time rejected unification, and instead became a special collectivity of France, although this would reverse in 2015 when the island would finally join the Commonwealth.

Lapérouse's economy is diversified and post-industrial; sectors of the knowledge economy such as aerospace, information and communication technologies, biotechnology, and the pharmaceutical industry play leading roles. Lapérouse's substantial natural resources, notably exploited in hydroelectricity, forestry, and mining, have also long been a mainstay. The province's 2021 output was USD$256.3 billion, making it the second-largest New Duveland province or territory by GDP, and taking up just under a quarter of New Duveland's total economy.

Etymology

Lapérouse is named after the French Explorer, Jean-François de Galaup, comte de Lapérouse.

Lapérouse is named after the French explorer, Jean-François de Galaup, comte de Lapérouse who was one of the first Europeans to discover and document the northern portion of New Duveland, and claimed the region, alongside New Caledonia, for France. It is theorized that after leaving New South Wales on his final voyage bound for New Duveland, New Caledonia, Santa Cruz, the Solomons, the Louisiades, and the western and southern coasts of Australia. He was expected to be back in France by June 1789, but neither he nor any members of his expedition were seen again by Europeans. Louis XVI is recorded as having asked, on the morning of his execution in January 1793, "Any news of La Pérouse?"

It is speculated that after their ships had been wrecked on Vanikoro's reefs, a group of survivors, with Lapérouse himself among them, built a two-masted craft from the wreckage of Astrolabe and left in a westward direction, which may have ended up on the northern coast of Lapérouse which crashed along the rocky coastline north of Léandry, with rotten wood and human remains discovered and reported by local Maori inhabitants.

In Māori, Lapérouse is known as Katoakoiarā Tātauhiahia, that roughly translates to everything/all that we need/want / all that there is, which is in reference to the Province's bountiful resources and varied landscapes that offers everything from plentiful water and food sources, to strategic locations for Pā along the long coastlines and mountain ranges.

History

Early contact periods and European settlement

Convicts on a construction site in Espérance, for the leveling of the Butte Conneau, around 1900.

Ruins of the penal colony on Île de L'Espérance.

Second World War

The explosion of the MV Neptuna, hit during the first Japanese air raid on Valéry. The city suffered heavily during the war.

Geography

Typical landscape of Lapérouse's west coast.

Norfolk Pines are common throughout coastal regions of eastern Lapérouse.

Mont Baker/Kaihanga Taro in the south-west of the province, is the tallest mountain in Lapérouse at 3,186m.

Lapérouse is home to New Duveland's only true desert, Le Petit Désert Côtier (The Little Coastal Desert) along the arid west coast.

Climate

Köppen climate types in Lapérouse.

Demographics

Espérance, the province capital, is home to roughly three in four Lapérouseans.

At June 2021 Lapérouse had a population of 4,680,253. The New Duveland Bureau of Statistics estimates that the population may well reach 7 million by 2050.

Lapérouse's founding French population has been supplemented by successive waves of migrants from Western, Southern and Eastern Europe, Asia and, most recently, Africa and the Middle East. Lapérouse's population is ageing in proportion with the average of the remainder of the New Duveland's population.

About 72% of Lapérouseans are New Duveland-born. This figure falls to around 66% in Espérance but rises to higher than 95% in some rural areas in the west of the Province. Roughly 20% of Lapérouseans identify themselves as Māori.

More than 70% of Lapérouseans live in Espérance, located in the province's central east. The greater Espérance metropolitan area is home to an estimated 3,436,495 people. Urban centres outside Espérance include Loisieux, Valéry, Chanais, Évrard, Madré, Thouarcé, Barnave and Pontault.

Urban Areas

Lapérouse is New Duveland's most urbanised province: nearly 95% of residents live in cities and towns. Provincal Government efforts to decentralise population have included an official campaign run since 2003 to encourage Lapérouseans to settle in regional areas, however Espérance continues to rapidly outpace these areas in terms of population growth.

Largest cities or towns in Lapérouse New Duveland National Statistics
	Rank	Name	Region	Pop.	Rank	Name	Region	Pop.
Espérance Loisieux	1	Espérance	Grand Espérance	3,636,495	11	Motupipi	Sud Ouest	60,783	Chanais Valéry
	2	Loisieux	Grand Loisieux	674,795	12	Saint-Xandre	Côte de Bourcefranc	60,273
	3	Chanais	Grand Chanais	323,533	13	Kauaeranga	Vallée de Saraméa	53,233
	4	Valéry	Valéry	259,895	14	Pongakawa	Baie de Gleizé	50,104
	5	Évrard	Extrème nord	170,889	15	Tirohanga	Vallée de Montloué	44,350
	6	Madré	Grande Vallée	163,244	16	Pégomas	Vallée de Saraméa	42,151
	7	Pontault	Baie de Gleizé	115,982	17	Monmains	Sud Ouest	41,419
	8	Hinuera	Sud Ouest	71,232	18	Eysines	Grande Vallée	41,014
	9	Rochelle	Grande Vallée	62,387	19	Saint-Hilaire	Vallée de Saraméa	38,939
	10	Thouarcé	Côte de Bourcefranc	60,942	20	Semussac	Grande Vallée	37,490

Ethnic groups

Rodeos (here at the annual fair of St Martins) are part of rural Lapérousean culture.

The vast majority of Lapérouseans of European descent are people are of French origin. Notable French immigration waves include those who fled Alsace and Lorraine following the Franco-Prussian War in 1870, Creole people from Réunion who fled during the sugar crisis of the 1860s and 1870s, merchants and ship owners from Bordeaux and Nantes drawn to the region at the end of the 19th and beginning of the 20th centuries by economic opportunities related to the discovery of nickel reserves, and colonists from the Nord and Picardy regions. Other French people who settled the area included sailors and adventurers from Normandy and Brittany, as well as settlers from the poorest regions of France in what is now the Empty diagonal. However, there were also a large number of Paddon and Cheval colonists of British and Irish origin (many of the latter having fled Ireland during the Great Famine) who came to the region via Australia, as well as a sizeable number of Italians, Germans (particularly from the Rhineland), Belgians, Swiss, Spaniards, Croatians and Poles.

Economy

Agriculture

A bulk sugar terminal at Évrard.

Tourism

Loisiuex, Lapérouse's second-largest city and a major tourist destination.

Labarde Beach in Valéry, Lapérouse's third largest city and a major tourist destination.

Mining

A Nickle mine in the northern region of the province. Mining is one of the provinces's major industries.

Transport

Railways

Espérance, Loisieux and Valéry are connected by a single metro network made up of a fleet of double-decker trains.

Trams

Espérance has a fleet of historic trams that loop around the central business district.

Loisieux's tram network opened recently in 2014.

Espérance's tramway is the second largest in New Duveland.

Ferries

There are dozens of ferry services conecting Île de L'Espérance to the mainland, which splits the Espérance metro area in two.