For centuries, French Guiana has had a peculiar relationship with its distant metropole in Paris. After several failed attempts by France to colonize the area in the 16th and 17th centuries, French Guiana was eventually established as a slave colony in 1643. After the abolishment of slavery, it was transformed under Napoleon III's rule into a penal colony — home to the infamous Devil’s Island prison — before this function was gradually phased out by the middle of the 20th century. By this time, French Guiana's status had fundamentally changed, transforming from a colony to a formal overseas department fully integrated with the newly formed French Fourth Republic in 1946. As most other French territorial possessions in Africa and Asia moved toward independence following World War II, French Guiana remained tightly in the fold, in large part because of its strategic value.