Europe’s Last Continental America Colony: French Guiana’s Subjugation Struggles

This article is an exploration of the history and socio-legal evolution of the relations between the people of French Guiana (an overseas department of France), and France. As French citizens and part of the European Union, French Guiana is the sole remaining colony within South America to have yet obtain its independence. In this paper we shall see how the French Guianese represent a long forgotten people of the Amazon rainforest, and while they may be a study of curiosity or fantasy, they are a people who continue to struggle to gain their place in the world and fulfill their right to self-determination under half a millennial of oppressive colonization.