The Last True Paradise is an Old Remnant of the British Empire
By: Sajjad Choudhury
Tags: Indian Ocean, Geography, Politics, History, Ecology

The History of the Overseas Territory

The British Indian Ocean Territory is just a fancy term for an archipelago called the Chagos Islands. Located halfway between Africa and India, it’s made up of 55 tiny islands and surrounded by 60,000km² of coral reefs.

Due to its isolation, it has some of the cleanest seawater in the world and contains a huge abundance of marine species, including fish, sharks, rays and dolphins.

First discovered in the early sixteenth century by the Portuguese, it became a pit stop for merchants travelling to Indonesia. However, the islands remained uninhabited until the late 18th century as they were too far from the Maldives or Mauritius to make settling there worth it.

But in 1793, the French lay claim and established the first colony on the main island, Diego Garcia. Coconut plantations were set up, and slaves from Mozambique and Madagascar were sent to work them. These slaves formed a unique society using French and East African traditions and spoke a hybrid Creole language.

In 1814, with the end of the Napoleonic wars, France ceded the Chagos islands along with Mauritius and Seychelles to Great Britain through the Paris treaty. For convenience, the islands were administered from Mauritius, which in turn was administered by Great Britain.

When slavery was abolished in 1835, labourers from India were brought to work on the plantations, and they integrated with the burgeoning Chagossian society.

By the mid-twentieth century, there were villages, schools, a hospital, and the Chagossians lived a peaceful, undisturbed life on the islands. But all of that would change in the 1960s.

In 1968, Mauritius was granted independence and given £3 million in recognition of the detachment of the Chagos Archipelago, which essentially allowed the UK to continue administering the islands. However, Mauritius argued that it was forced to accept these terms, or it wouldn’t have become independent at all.

The UK had always maintained that it would return the islands when they were no longer needed for security purposes. The problem is, between 1968 and 1974, Britain removed the entire population, which included thousands of people, from their homes and resettled them in Mauritius and Seychelles.

Although the UK government has repeatedly apologised for the forced evictions, it has made no effort to bring these people back. Coconut plantations were already in decline, so when the final ones were closed in 1971, the UK made it unlawful for anyone to reenter the islands without a permit.

In a secret agreement, the UK and US jointly developed a site for operations in the Middle East at the cost of $3 billion, and for the last few decades, the main island of Diego Garcia has been used as a key US military base.

Today, the islands are still difficult to access without a permit, but the main island is home to 5,000 service members and civilian contractors.

The UK has an agreement where it leases the island, and in 2016, the lease was extended until the end of 2036, making it difficult for any return of the former Chagossians.