There are several different terms for the French overseas territories. One of them is an overseas collectivity, such status is enjoyed by French Polynesia or Saint Pierre and Miquelon. Other French-dependent lands such as Martinique, for example, are called departments or regions. Different terms reflect the territory's formal political status. But what all overseas provinces really have in common is that they are administered and dependent on France.
French overseas collectivities are remnants of the 16th and 18th century French colonial empires in the Americas, the Caribbean, Asia, Africa and the Pacific. Overseas France today covers an area of land which makes up 18% of the territory of the French Republic. French-administered territories have their representation in the French Parliament.
