New Caledonia is a French collectivity located in the Pacific Ocean. It consists of the main island, Grand Terre, and several other islands and archipelagos. The original inhabitants, the Kanak people, live primarily in the North Province and the Loyalty Islands Province. The South Province is populated primarily by people or European ancestry, Southeast Asian people, and Polynesian people. Captain James Cook was the first European to see New Caledonia and named it such in 1774. The French took control in 1853 under orders from Emperor Napoleon III. In 1946, New Caledonia became a French territory, and French citizenship was given to all people (regardless of ethnicity) by 1953. In the 1970s and 1980s, the Kanak Independence Movement clashed with the French government. An agreement in 1998 set out a plan for a transfer of control to local government, though by the end of 2018, independence had been rejected.