Saint Pierre and Miquelon (, ), officially the Territorial Collectivity of Saint Pierre and Miquelon (; ), is a self-governing territorial overseas collectivity of France in the northwestern Atlantic Ocean, located off the Canadian island of Newfoundland. Saint Pierre and Miquelon is an archipelago of eight islands, covering of land. It had an estimated population of 5,513 in 2026 and its residents are French citizens; they elect their own deputy to the National Assembly and participate in senatorial and presidential elections.

Saint Pierre and Miquelon is an overseas country and territory (OCT) of the European Union, although not an integral part of it. It is neither part of the Schengen area, nor of the European customs territory. On the other hand, the euro is the official currency in Saint Pierre and Miquelon, and its inhabitants have European Union citizenship. The territory is also part of the Regional Joint Cooperation Commission (Atlantic Canada Cooperation), the Halifax Search and Rescue Region and the Northwest Atlantic Fisheries Organization.

The islands are in the Gulf of St. Lawrence near the entrance of Fortune Bay, which extends into the southwestern coast of Newfoundland, near the Grand Banks of Newfoundland. St. Pierre is from Point May on the Burin Peninsula of Newfoundland and from Brest, the nearest city in Metropolitan France. The tiny Canadian Green Island lies east of Saint Pierre, roughly halfway to Point May.

Etymology is French for Saint Peter, the patron saint of fishermen.

The present name of was first noted in the form of Micquetô, Miqueton, or Micquellon in the French Basque sailor Martin de Hoyarçabal's 1579 navigational pilot for Newfoundland, Les voyages aventureux du Capitaine Martin de Hoyarsabal, habitant du çubiburu:

It has been claimed that the name Miquelon is a Basque form of Michael; Mikel and Mikels are usually named Mikelon in the Basque Country. Therefore, from Mikelon, it may have been written in the French way with a qu instead of a k.

The Basque Country is divided between Spain and France, and most Basques live south of the border. As such, Miquelon may have been influenced by the Spanish name , an augmentative form of Miguel meaning "big Michael". The adjoined island's name of "Langlade" is said to be an adaptation of (Englishman's Island).

History

Before 1900

Archaeological evidence indicates that indigenous peoples of Canada visited Saint Pierre and Miquelon in several distinct waves from c. 3000 BCE to about 1500 CE, shortly before Europeans arrived. The earliest inhabitants are classified as the archaic maritime culture, while the most recent are believed to be associated with the Beothuk. These indigenous groups visited the islands as a seasonal hunting site and as a quarry for rhyolite stones used to make tools.Marchand, Grégor, Réginald Auger, Pierre Stéphan, et al. "Geoarcheology and Prehistory of the St Pierre and Miquelon Archipelago: Theoretical Issues, Methods and Preliminary Results". HAL-CNRS, 2023, cnrs.hal.science/hal-03908304.Marshall, Ingeborg (2020). "Precontact Beothuk Land Use". Newfoundland and Labrador Heritage. Memorial University of Newfoundland. However, there is no evidence or permanent or year-round indigenous settlement on the islands.Losier, Catherine; Marchand, Grégor; and Borthaire, Cédric (2024). "Archéologie, réseaux et saisonnalité dans l'archipel de Saint-Pierre-et-Miquelon sur le temps long". Bulletin de la Société préhistorique française, vol. 121, no. 3, 2024, pp. 573–602. HAL Open Science.

On 21 October 1520, the Portuguese explorer João Álvares Fagundes landed on the islands and named the island group the "Eleven Thousand Virgins", as the day marked the feast day of Saint Ursula and her virgin companions.Room< Adrian. In 1536, the French explorer Jacques Cartier claimed the islands as a possession of France. Though already frequented by the Mi'kmaq and by Basque and Breton fishermen, the islands were not permanently settled until the end of the 17th century: four permanent inhabitants were counted in 1670, and 22 in 1691.Aldrich, Robert; Connell, John.

In 1670, during Jean Talon's second tenure as Intendant of New France, a French officer annexed the islands after he discovered 12 French fishermen encamped there, naming them Saint Pierre and Miquelon. During King William's War and Queen Anne's War, English forces launched multiple attacks against French colonial settlements on the islands, and by the early 18th century French colonists had abandoned Saint Pierre and Miquelon altogether. In the 1713 Peace of Utrecht, which ended the War of the Spanish Succession, France ceded the islands to Britain. The British renamed the island of Saint Pierre to Saint Peter, and small numbers of colonists from Britain and British America began to settle on the islands.

The 1763 Treaty of Paris, which ended the Seven Years' War, resulted in the French ceding all of New France to Britain and Spain, though the British granted fishing rights to French fishermen along the Newfoundland coast and returned Saint Pierre and Miquelon to France.Prieur, Benoit. In 1778, after France joined the American Revolutionary War against Britain, British forces under Vice-admiral John Montagu occupied Saint Pierre and Miquelon, burning all French settlements on the islands and deporting their inhabitants back to France. In 1793, another British force under Captain William Affleck occupied the islands during the War of the First Coalition; in the following year, the island's French colonists were deported and a British colony was established on Saint Pierre.

During the 1796 Newfoundland expedition, the nascent British colony was evacuated after the appearance of a French Navy squadron under Counter-admiral Joseph de Richery, which proceeded to burn the abandoned settlement. The 1802 Treaty of Amiens brought the islands back under French control, only for Britain to retake them after the Napoleonic Wars began the following year. They were returned to France once more under the 1814 Treaty of Paris, though the British briefly occupied the islands during the Hundred Days in 1815. When the French returned to the islands in 1816, they found that all of its colonial settlements had been destroyed or fallen into ruin. The islands were gradually resettled by Breton, Norman and Basque settlers, joined by various other peoples, particularly from Newfoundland. The colony's economy did not recover for another 35 years.

1900–1945

In 1903, the colony toyed with the idea of joining the United States, but nothing came of the idea. During the early 1910s, the colony suffered economic hardship as a result of unprofitable fisheries, and large numbers of its inhabitants emigrated to Nova Scotia and Quebec.

After the outbreak of World War I in 1914, the draft imposed by French authorities on all male inhabitants of conscription age crippled the fisheries, because their catch could not be processed by the older men or the women and children. About 400 men from the colony served in the French Armed Forces during the war, 100 of whom died. The increase in the adoption of steam fishing trawlers in the fisheries also contributed to the reduction in employment opportunities.

Smuggling had always been an important economic activity in the islands, but it became especially prominent with the institution of prohibition in the United States in January 1920.Bourrie, Mark. In 1931, The New York Times reported that the archipelago had imported of whisky from Canada in 12 months, most of which was smuggled into the United States. The end of prohibition in 1933 plunged the islands once more into economic depression.

During World War II, despite opposition from Canada, Britain, and the United States, Free French Forces seized the islands from Vichy France, to which the colony's administrator, Gilbert de Bournat, had pledged allegiance, on 24 December 1941. In referendums on both islands, the population endorsed Free France's takeover by over 98%.Baptiste, Fitzroy André.

After 1945

The colony became a French overseas territory in 1946. After the 1958 French constitutional referendum, the territory of Saint Pierre and Miquelon was asked to choose one of three options: becoming fully integrated with France, becoming a self-governing state within the French Community, or preserving the status of an overseas territory; it decided to remain a territory. The archipelago became an overseas department on 19 July 1976, before acquiring the status of territorial collectivity on 11 June 1985, thus withdrawing from the European Communities.

Geography

Located off the western end of the Newfoundland's Burin Peninsula, the archipelago of Saint Pierre and Miquelon comprises eight islands, totalling , of which only two are inhabited. The islands are bare and rocky, with steep coasts, and only a thin layer of peat to soften the hard landscape. The islands, like Newfoundland, are geologically part of the northeastern end of the Appalachian Mountains.

, the largest island, is in fact composed of two islands; Miquelon Island (also called , ) is connected to Langlade Island (, ) by the (also known as the ), a sandy tombolo. A storm severed them in the 18th century, separating the two islands for several decades, before currents reconstructed the isthmus. , the tallest point in the territory at 240 meters high, is located on Grande Miquelon. The waters between Langlade and Saint-Pierre were called "the Mouth of Hell" () until about 1900, as more than 600 shipwrecks have been recorded in that point since 1800. In the north of Miquelon Island is the village of Miquelon-Langlade (710 inhabitants), while Langlade Island is almost deserted (only one inhabitant in the 1999 census).

, whose area is smaller, , is the most populous and the commercial and administrative center of the archipelago. Saint-Pierre Airport has been in operation since 1999 and is capable of accommodating long-haul flights from France.

A third, formerly inhabited island, , was known as until 1931. It is located a short distance from the port of Saint-Pierre, and has been uninhabited since 1963. The other main islands are , , and .

Environment

Seabirds are the most common fauna. Seals and other wildlife can be found in the Grand Barachois Lagoon of Miquelon. Every spring, whales migrating to Greenland are visible off the coasts of Saint-Pierre and Miquelon. Trilobite fossils have been found on Langlade. The stone pillars off the island coasts called "L'anse aux Soldats" eroded away and disappeared in the 1970s. The rocky islands are barren, except for scrubby yews and junipers and thin volcanic soil. The forest cover of the hills, except in parts of Langlade, had been removed for fuel long ago.

Climate

In spite of being located at a similar latitude to the Bay of Biscay, the archipelago is characterized by a cold borderline humid continental/subarctic climate, under the influence of polar air masses and the cold Labrador Current. The mild winters for being a subarctic climate also means it has influences of subpolar oceanic climate, thus being at the confluence of three climatic types. The February mean is just below the isotherm for that classification. Due to just three months being above 10 °C (50 °F) in mean temperatures and winter lows being so mild, Saint Pierre and Miquelon has a Köppen Climate Classification of Dfc, if bordering on Cfc due to the mildness of the winter and either Dfb or Cfb due to the closeness of the fourth-and fifth-warmest months to having mean temperatures at or above 10 °C (50 °F).