Kanak people
The earliest history of Europeans arriving on these islands is when Captain Cook of the United Kingdom landed in these islands in 1775 at a time when there were reportedly 70,000 Kanaks living in the archipelago. Cook gave the name "New Caledonia" to these islands, after Caledonia, his Scottish highlands.
Kanak people
After World War II, the Kanak independence movement again picked up momentum when the United Nations placed New Caledonia on its Decolonisation List of Non-Self-Governing Territories in 1946. A major progression occurred when Kanaks and French settlers in the country obtained voting rights in 1951, shortly before it became an overseas territory of France in 1956. The Kanaks were then also allowed to move out of their reserve areas. This was followed by the establishment of the Territorial Assembly in 1957, but this was short-lived; Charles de Gaulle abolished it after he became the President of France, in 1958.