DOM-TOM - Beyond the Hexagone

What is DOM - TOM?

DOM - TOM is an acronym for “Départements d'outre-mer - Territoires d'outre-mer”, prior naming of DROM - COM : “Départements et régions d'outre-mer - Collectivités d'outre-mer” since 2003 or commonly known as French overseas regions and territorial collectivities.

In France, there are 18 administrative regions, 13 of which are located in metropolitan France, the rest are overseas/semi-autonomous territories.

Origin of DOM - TOM:

Dom-Tom and Drom-Com mean the same thing. They all refer to the overseas departments which include a total of 12 territories including Reunion, Saint Barthélemy, Mayotte, French Polynesia, Saint Pierre and Miquelon, Wallis and Futuna, New Caledonia, Martinique, the Antarctic and Ancestral Lands and Guadeloupe. These are former colonies of France. Today, they are an integral part of the French Republic. As proof, they participate in the presidential election which takes place in the hexagon. The DOM or overseas departments have belonged to France since 1946. They are part of the European Union and their citizens live under the French regime. Today, the use of the name DOM-TOM is no longer relevant. Now we speak of DOM, COM and ROM.

Some examples:

Guadeloupe:

The map of Guadeloupe

Guadeloupe is one of the French overseas departments. It is located in the eastern West Indies with a surface area of 1,628 sq km, a population of 371,600 and the capital is Basse-Terre city. It consists of the twin islands of Basse-Terre and Grande-Terre, separated by the Salée River, a narrow channel. Until 2007 Guadeloupe also included the dependencies of Saint-Barthélemy and Saint-Martin (the northern two-thirds of the island of Saint Martin), located 150 mi (240 km) to the northwest. Basse-Terre city was founded in 1643. The largest urban area, chief port, and economic hub are Pointe-à-Pitre on Grande-Terre. Forests and tree crops such as coffee abound in the mountains of Basse-Terre, while sugarcane is cultivated on the generally low-lying Grande-Terre. The Carib Indians held off the Spanish and French for a number of years before the islands became part of France in 1674. The British occupied Guadeloupe for short periods in the 18th–19th century; the islands became officially French in 1816. In 1946 they were made a department of France. The people of Saint-Barthélemy and Saint-Martin voted to secede from Guadeloupe in 2003, and in 2007 those territories became overseas collectivities of France. Tourism is a major part of Guadeloupe’s economy.

Guadeloupe summary | Britannica

Guiana:

The map of Guiana

French Guiana is one of the overseas territories of France. Situated on the northeastern coast of South America, French Guiana is bounded by Brazil to the south and east, Suriname to the west, and the Atlantic Ocean to the northeast. The capital is Cayenne.

Réunion:

The map of Réunion

Réunion is an island of the Mascarene Islands, the western Indian Ocean with a surface area of 2,512 sq km, a population of 874,400 and its capital is Saint-Denis. Located 684 km east of Madagascar, Réunion is about 65 km long and 50 km wide. It consists mainly of rugged mountains dissected by torrential rivers. Most of the population is of mixed ancestry, with African descent predominant. Réunion was settled in the 17th century by the French, who brought slaves from eastern Africa to work on coffee and sugar plantations. It was a French colony until 1946 when it became an overseas department of France. Its economy is based largely on the export of sugar. Other products include meat and milk products, rum, molasses, tobacco, geranium essence, and vanilla.

Réunion summary | Britannica

Martinique:

The map of Martinique

Martinique is the Island of the Windward Islands, West Indies. It has a surface area of 1,128 sq km, a population of 348,200 and Fort-de-France is its capital. It is 80 km long and 35 km wide and is largely mountainous with its highest point, Mount Pelée, an active volcano. Tourism is the basis of its economy. Carib Indians, who had ousted earlier Arawak inhabitants, resided on the island when Christopher Columbus visited it in 1502. In 1635 a Frenchman established a colony there, and in 1674 it passed to the French crown. The British captured and held the island from 1762 to 1763 and occupied it again during the Napoleonic Wars, but each time it was returned to France. Made a department of France in 1946, and it remained under French administration despite a communist-led independence movement in the 1970s. In the last decades of the 20th century, Martinique and other French overseas possessions achieved greater autonomy but stopped short of independence.

Martinique summary | Britannica

Mayotte:

A tourist map of Mayotte

Mayotte is an island in the Indian Ocean off the coast of East Africa. The southeasternmost island of the Comoros archipelago, it is located northwest of Madagascar. It has a surface area of 375 sq km, a population of 304,700 and its capital is Mamoudzou. Most of its people are of Malagasy origin. Originally inhabited by descendants of Bantu and Malayo-Indonesian peoples, it was converted to Islam by Arab invaders in the 15th century. Taken by Malagasy people from Madagascar at the end of the 18th century, it came under French control in 1843. Together with the other Comoros islands and Madagascar, it became part of a single French overseas territory in the early 20th century. It has been administered separately since 1975 when the three northernmost islands of Comoros declared independence. Mayotte’s status was changed to departmental collectivity in 2001. A local referendum in 2009 approved the change of Mayotte’s status to an overseas department, effective in 2011.

Mayotte summary | Britannica