L'île Clipperton – baptisée « île de la Passion » par les Français – est un atoll français situé dans l'océan Pacifique, à 1 280 kilomètres à l'ouest du Mexique (coordonnées de l'atoll : 10° 18’ N, 109° 13’ W). Bien qu'ayant été sous la juridiction des Établissements français d'Océanie de 1936 puis de la Polynésie française jusqu'au 18 mars 1986, l'île relève aujourd'hui du domaine public maritime et est inscrite au tableau des propriétés domaniales de l'État. Elle est, à ce titre, sous l'autorité du Ministre de l'Outre-Mer, autorité qu'il délègue au Haut-Commissaire de la République de Polynésie française, représentant de l'État, à qui il appartient d'accorder des autorisations aux particuliers désirant aborder l'atoll ou y obtenir des concessions d'exploitation. De fait, cette possession française ne fait pas formellement partie des TOM.
Clipperton Island is a nine-square-kilometer coral atoll in the North Pacific Ocean, south-west of ► Mexico and west of ► Costa Rica, at 10°18′N 109°13′W. It has no permanent inhabitants. It is an overseas possession of France administered from ► French Polynesia by its gubernatorial high commissioner of the Republic.
This section holds a short summary of the history of the area of present-day Clipperton Island, illustrated with maps, including historical maps of former countries and empires that included present-day Clipperton Island.
Clipperton Island was discovered by the pirate John Clipperton in the 18th century. It became French in 1855 and was seized by Mexico in 1897. After arbitration it was awarded to France, which took possesion of the island in 1935.
Satellite maps
Satellite map by Landsat 7.
Satellite map by Spot in 2006.
Notes and references
General remarks:
The WIKIMEDIA COMMONS Atlas of the World is an organized and commented collection of geographical, political and historical maps available at Wikimedia Commons. The main page is therefore the portal to maps and cartography on Wikimedia. That page contains links to entries by country, continent and by topic as well as general notes and references.
Every entry has an introduction section in English. If other languages are native and/or official in an entity, introductions in other languages are added in separate sections. The text of the introduction(s) is based on the content of the Wikipedia encyclopedia. For sources of the introduction see therefore the Wikipedia entries linked to. The same goes for the texts in the history sections.
Historical maps are included in the continent, country and dependency entries.
The status of various entities is disputed. See the content for the entities concerned.
The maps of former countries that are more or less continued by a present-day country or had a territory included in only one or two countries are included in the atlas of the present-day country. For example the Ottoman Empire can be found in the Atlas of Turkey.
