Nouméa is the Oceanian capital founded in 1854 as Port-de-France.
Nouméa is the capital of New Caledonia, a French overseas territory in the southwest Pacific. French naval officer Louis-Marie-François Tardy de Montravel selected the site because its deep, naturally protected harbour offered a strong location for a military and administrative settlement.
The new settlement was established on 25 June 1854 under the name Port-de-France. Its early population was centred on Fort Constantine, while later development turned the harbour settlement into New Caledonia’s principal town and colonial headquarters.
The name changed to Nouméa in 1866. The change helped prevent confusion with Fort-de-France, the capital of Martinique, and used the local Melanesian name associated with the area. Nouméa is therefore not an alternative answer or a later unrelated city: it is the same settlement that began as Port-de-France.