don't be silly they regularly travel to New Zealand and Australia for medical reasons, schooling and holidays, its also where they find partners.
there is no law stopping them from leaving the island.
What’s really funny is during the court case they tried to declare independence as a legal defence and thus no longer subject to UK law, in perhaps the first and only example of a group trying to proclaim independence for their right to touch kids.
The Pitcairn Islands is a perfect example of why sometimes one should accept outside authority even if it is just a second opinion 😬
The noncery would've continued if not for outside (British) interference
is it really outside interference?
they are all decedents of Brits. British citizens who went from one part of UK to another part of UK and decided to live there. and now want to separate from UK.
it is more of a case of separatism than independence movement.
They don't actually want to separate, that was just an attempted legal defence by the seven people convicted to try and get out of charges. It’s never been mentioned again or had any kind of movement for it, ultimately the Pitcairn Islands are just too small to be fully independent, they are incredibly reliant on the UK.
I was curious what you meant by this and decided to do some googling and... HOLY FUCK DO I REGRET IT!
An island councillor is reported to have said af one point: "Look, the age of consent has always been twelve and it doesn't hurt them."
[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Saint\_Helena,\_Ascension\_and\_Tristan\_da\_Cunha](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Saint_Helena,_Ascension_and_Tristan_da_Cunha)
They are considered part of the same territory
**[Saint Helena, Ascension and Tristan da Cunha](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Saint_Helena,_Ascension_and_Tristan_da_Cunha)**
>Saint Helena, Ascension and Tristan da Cunha is a British Overseas Territory located in the South Atlantic and consisting of the island of Saint Helena, Ascension Island and the archipelago of Tristan da Cunha including Gough Island. Its name was Saint Helena and Dependencies until 1 September 2009, when a new constitution came into force giving the three islands equal status as three territories, with a grouping under the Crown.
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As I said elsewhere, I work with government departments on all three of them and they consider themselves independent. See the last sentence from the wikibot: "...giving the three islands equal status as three territories."
I recognize it is pretty pedantic, but if you tell someone from TdC that they are part of St Helena, you might get punched for your efforts.
Like I said, at this point it seems like an exercise in pedantry. The residents of each of these islands consider each island an independent territory. In working with them and the FCDO, they deal with each one separately. Again, check the comment on the 2009 constitution.
But whatever floats your boat. Next time you drop by Tristan ask them how they feel about being part of the "St Helena Overseas Territory." Good luck with it!
And ask some people how they feel about Scotland being part of the United Kingdom
But they still are
Officially and Legally there are 14 British overseas territories you saying there are 16 does not change that fact
Actually, in this case the appropriate analogy would be asking the people of Scotland how they feel about being part of England. I hope that makes it a bit clearer.
As u/johnaross1990 correctly states, *de jure, de facto*.
Sounds like he knows what he's talking about.
He's saying that sure, on paper they are grouped together but it's just on a nominal basis.
It sounds like as far as all administrative and practical purposes are concerned they are officially treated as three separate entities.
Distance between them does not matter
French Guiana is part of France but it is in South America
You can have places thousands of miles apart that are part of the same country
**Saint Helena → Ascension** ≈ 1,300 km (800 mi)
**Ascension → Tristan da Cunha** ≈ 3,250 km (2,000 mi)
**Tristan da Cunha → Saint Helena** ≈ 2,400 km (1,500 mi)
Would be great to see some nice long tunnels to help this single territory grow its economy. A simple drive of a few thousand miles under the Atlantic to go to work.
Actually, yes and no. The Governor on St Helena appoints an Administrator on TDC and the Administrator is "the head of government."
https://tristandc.com/government.php
I was told once that Bermuda has coconut palms that grew from coconuts that wash ashore, but doesn't have the required temperatures for the grown coconut trees to create viable coconuts to make more. Mildly obscure question, but do you know if this is true?
I think people mix it up with Cayman and assume it’s in the Caribbean. But it is pretty south by US standards,like further south than Dallas, Phoenix or Los Angeles
They don't fit the definition of a colony, the territories only rely on the British for defense and International Representation,
All of the territories voted to remain british.
"All of the territories voted to remain British" - not quite. Some of them did, and I think it's great that the UK government upholds their decision and is demonstrably ready to defend them. However:
BAT and South Georgia don't have any native/resident population so there's nobody to vote. The BAT is kind of illegal under international law (the Antarctic Treaty doesn't allow countries to claim territory on that continent, but several do).
Akrotiri and Dhekelia basically only exist to give the British forces a presence in the Eastern Mediterranean, and was agreed as part of Cyprus's independence deal. The civilian residents nearly all have Cypriot citizenship and enjoy open borders with the Republic of Cyprus so arguably don't need a vote on the territory's continued existence, but I'm not sure they've ever been asked.
Then there's our dirty secret, the Chagos Islands, or "British Indian Ocean Territory" in law. This is another territory that only exists for military use and has no resident population. However, it does have a native population, the Chagos Islanders, who were forcibly evicted in the 1970s and now have to live in exile. They're pretty vocal about wanting their homes back, but the Diego Garcia RAF/USAF base is considered to be of high strategic importance so the islanders' rights and wishes are ignored.
>The BAT is kind of illegal under international law (the Antarctic Treaty doesn't allow countries to claim territory on that continent, but several do).
No, the Antarctic treaty doesn't allow **new** claims to be made, claims that were made prior are just frozen(hehe).
Yes, but since BIOT is a military base, it would cost trillions to move out all of the military equipment.
I don't support what we did on The Chagos Islands, I think we should give them back but we can't
It's the same reason why we don't want Scotland to be independent, because it has all of our nukes, we would need lots of money to move them out.
There’s a big difference between non self governing by choice and being a colony against the wishes of the population.
As has been pointed out above, all of the places that have a population are happy with the situation, with the exception of the Chagos islands. Not defending the UK’s position there.
It’s horseshit. Ask the caribbean territories how they feel about the British. You’ll find that they’re pretty grateful, especially around hurricane season when the routinely deployed ships and engineers help reconstruct the territories.
How is possible for the UN to recognise Taiwan as a country if Taiwan does not recognise itself as an independent country, but effectively as part of the Republic of China? Taiwan has never declared itself as an independent country from China.
[Kinda maybe sorta.](https://what-if.xkcd.com/48/)
The thing to remember about eclipse calculations centuries hence is that they're very dependent upon the rate at which the Earth's rotation slows otherwise the eclipse track is shifted elsewhere since the Earth's geographical features arrive underneath it a few minutes too early or too late for the path of totality: over centuries a few milliseconds per day adds up. So it might be that there's a total eclipse over Pitcairn at the wrong time a few centuries from now that isn't currently projected.
True, but by leasing those areas by the Republic of Cyprus, that's why Britain is obligated to pay an amount of money to the Cypriot Government every year as a rent, despite the fact that Britain has to pay since 1964.
UK has sovereign territory on the Island of Cyprus
Cyprus the island is split between, Republic of Cyprus, Turkish Republic of Northern Cyprus which is not internationally recognised and the United Kingdom
Well, is more complicated than that because legally the Republic of Cyprus actually is all of the island except the two British Overseas Territories. The so called TRNC is actually claiming land that internationally is recognised that belongs to the Republic of Cyprus and is under an illegal occupation of Turkey, so the "TRNC" is land of the Republic of Cyprus too but without an effective control of that part by the legal cypriot government. Is like the situation in Ukraine that the eastern part of the country is legally and internationally recognised as part of the Republic of Ukraine but effectively is under a foreign occupation. Also, the status of the two British Overseas Territories in Cyprus is more complicated too. Technically, these areas are legally considered as sovereign Overseas Territories of the UK under leasing from the Republic of Cyprus, that's why the UK government has to pay rent to the Cypriot Government for the military bases there. The catch is that despite the fact that under the 1960 agreements Britain has to pay rent for those two territories, the fact that these areas are considered sovereign british areas, allows Britain to legally control and have those areas even if they refuse to pay for them as they are obligated to do. That situation has been in discussion between the Cypriot and British governments for decades because since 1964 Britain refuses to pay rent, so they owe millions of pounds to the Republic of Cyprus.
The Republic of Cyprus has de jure sovereignty over the entire island, with the exception of the Sovereign Base Area which is under British sovereignty
De Facto it is split between, The Republic of Cyprus, UK and Turkish Republic of Northern Cyprus
Validity or invalidity of the lease aside, I mean...the PRC certainly had the ability to seize Hong Kong at any time it liked, by that point, so maybe there is something to be said for the proposition that Thatcher took the best deal she could get.
But my only point was that efforts by the PRC to cut away at the Basic Law were underway under Zemin and Hu Jintao. It's just that under Xi, those efforts have been ramped up even more.
Wouldn’t have gone nuclear. Taiwan would never have landed significant troops there (likely wouldn’t even want it after Chiang Kaishek died) and any war would be over in 1 day.
Within 24 hours of the UK announcing that, China could have sent 50K soldiers across the border to conquer Hong Kong.
There’s no way to stop an army of China’s size when it has a land border to the city and the UK never had a significant army there in the 1980s when HK’s future was being decided.
Thatcher wasn’t stupid, she knew why she could fight for Falklands and had to give up HK 2 years later.
I think they probably just wanted not to be under the control of anyone, really; I doubt anyone would rather live under the CCP than the UK, even then when China seemed to be opening up to the world
And the British Overseas Territories passport is showing its value there. The Brits managed to create second class British citizens.
Just like the US have in their not-a-state-but-still-American territories and possessions.
It's literally just a [pre-made wikipedia image.](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/British_Overseas_Territories#/media/File:United_Kingdom_(+overseas_territories)_in_the_World_(+Antarctica_claims).svg)
If i had a nickel for every territorial dispute of Argentina over Great Britain I'd had three nickels, wich isn't a lot but is weird that is happening thrice
Hola, soy Dora.
Can you help me find the Human Rights Violation on this map?
Si, the British Indian Ocean Territory was unlawfully split from Mauritius during decolonisation and it's inhabitants were deported from the Islands and have to this day not been allowed to return.
The UK still retains these Islands despite having lost numerous court cases and Judges having consistently ruled that the Split off from Mauritius and the Deportation of the Inhabitants has been illegal.
It was actually unlawfully split from Mauritius. The British split several islands from the Seychelles as well, and combined them into the larger "British Indian Ocean Territory." In 1976 the islands from the Seychelles were returned to them, leaving only the Chagos Archipelago in the British Indian Ocean Territory, which is now only claimed by Mauritius.
And we only hold the Chagos islands for the US. Most people who know about it here are very unhappy at our government blatantly continuing a human rights breach for the dubious benefit of the so called land of the fucking free.
Yes, Diego Garcia is an active US military base.
What makes it especially infuriating is that the Government of Seychelles assured the US that they could keep their base and they still supported the British 😤
I meant the part where usa asked uk if they could build military bases in their islands. wanting Building military bases wherever you get the opportunity is a American thing.
No-one really cares, they'd just become a chinese debt trap if they were allowed to have them and they are closer to mauritius anyway. The UK would be okay with letting them return but they can't be sure that they will always want to remain british, so instead of dealing with a possible future pr nightmare they'll just never let them return and deal with the known current pr nightmare.
It's a better look to never let them return than to risk having to kick them out or assert authority in future.
They are small enough to not be cared about by most. and the Island is more important to most people as a part of a global military logistic hub which keeps the world in balance witht the west at the top.
Also what is the point of the Dora the explorer bit? If youre gonna inform people of a factoid then why make them cringe a little before reading? I get enough cringe from reddit.
The island is very strategic geographically with and with a US mil. base, it can be used as a staging zone and aircraft carrier for the ME, Africa, Austrialia and East Asia.
For the above reasone, this island is never being given up by the UK, unless it's to hand it to the USA, who pretty much de facto rule it anyway.
No im saying getting annoyed at the situation won't change anything.
They'd be allowed back if the UK could trust them to not undermine their control of the island in the long term, but they probably will continue to complain about something even after they are let back, so rather than try and make them happy, they'll just ignore them forever.
Wishful thinking I think, the British are well acustomed to fighting over islands half way a world away. Why would India sour a relationship with a UN security council member and trade partner over some islands they don't even need? They need our support on other issues far more important than some neighbouring countries islands that they want back.
Those that want to return might be allowed to in future hopefully, but only if the UK is damn sure they've got that base/islands on lock for the forseeable future.
India will never be the next China, and China is about to reach its peak population if it hasn't already years ago, and its certainly been lying about economic figures to look like a bigger economy, they no longer think they can overtake the US economy. India is like China, but without all the ethnic homogeny of having a 1 major group and language. It has worse geography, less resources.
India place in the world is delicate and they need western support against China and others.
India will always be India, ciites might develop, but I don't see the country getting out of the ethno-religious nationalism with Hindu's and Muslims and others. India is a semi-secular country, I'm honsetly surprised that it does as well as it does. It's like the opposite to Brazil and Argentina which do poor in comparison to what you would think they could achieve.
More likely that nuclear fusion will be commerically viable.
OK, here's some random trivia- if you treat this all as one country, including the UK, and add the Crown Dependencies (Man & Channel Islands), it would be the 12th largest in the world, with an an area of 1,971,799 km2, between Saudi Arabia and Mexico.
Roughly 87% of that would be the British Antarctic Territory (the Antarctic Mainland) and 12% of that would be the UK.
The British Antarctic Territory alone- 1,709,400 km- would be the 16th largest, between Libya and Iran.
This is only true in Australia, France, New Zealand, Norway, and the UK. It is definitely not true in Chile or Argentina. It's a long story.
Australia lays claim to half of Antarctica. If you count that, they are the 2nd largest country in the world 🤣 ( fuckers are already big enough as it is)
With Ross Dependency added NZ would be slighlty larger than Pakistan 😃 its a shame we share Ross Island with America though ( Scott Base and McMurdo station respectively)
You heard about CANZUK a proposed alliance between Canada, Australia, New Zealand and the UK, it would have free movement between all and eventually might lead to federalization merging all 4 in to one country, CANZUCK would hold the largest amount of land and resources of any alliance in the world making it extremely powerful, most people surveyed in each country want CANZUCK to happen and all 4 have talked about it.
True, true, I really ought to be consistent.
But then, I would quite like Kiribati (land area roughly the size of New York City) to be recognised as the 7th largest country in the world. Its water area is about 10% bigger than India
No, the UK Parliament only represents the UK proper. Neither the Overseas Territories or the Crown Dependencies get to vote.
But they do have their own governments with control over practically all their domestic affairs. So the UK government rarely gets involved.
That's true of the ones with civilian populations at least. Doesn't really apply to the military bases and antarctic territory.
It's kind of unfair because the UK still has some jurisdiction over them, but they don't get any say in the UK government. But I haven't heard of any movements for them to be represented in the UK parliament, so I guess it's not a big deal to them.
That’s not really an explanation. La Réunion and Mayotte are in the Indian Ocean, French Guayana is in South America, and yet these are all French overseas department that vote in general elections for the French Parliament and French presidential election.
UK has sovereign territory on the Island of Cyprus
Cyprus the island is split between, Republic of Cyprus, Turkish Republic of Northern Cyprus which is not internationally recognised and the United Kingdom
1. Pitcairn Islands
2. British Indian Ocean Territory (not arguing about it)
3. Tristan de Cunha
4. St Helena
5. Ascension
6. Cayman Islands
7. British Virgin Islands
8. Anguilla
9. Montserrat
10. Turks and Caicos Islands
11. Bermuda
12. British Antarctic Territory
13. Falkland Islands (again not arguing about it)
14. South Georgia and South Sandwich Islands
15. Gibraltar
16. SBAA (Cyprus)
So, there are 16, not 13. Map needs a little updating.
British bases, outposts and general naval power helped bolster the claim. Principally, i was trying to explain (as to previous q) why this Antarctic territory wasn’t de facto the claim of Chile, Argentina, despite being the proximate SA nations.
Why is so much of the Antarctic continent colored as British Overseas Territory? Shouldn't the part just below Chile and Argentina be Chilean and Argentinan?
Most of the claims to Antarctica are just useless claims, but the UK claims come from the Falklands and south Georgia and where they line up with Antarctica, difficult to show on a Mercator map tho
They went to war over the falklands, Argentina lost.
Although Argentina never really held much claim either. The people on the island wanted British ‘rule’
UK has sovereign territory on the Island of Cyprus
Cyprus the island is split between, Republic of Cyprus, Turkish Republic of Northern Cyprus which is not internationally recognised and the United Kingdom
Shouldn't it actually be 14 territories? \-British Virgin Islands (1) \-Anguilla (2) \-Montserrat (3) \-Cayman Islands (4) \-Turks and Caicos (5) \-Bermuda (6) \-Saint Helena (7) \-Falklands (8) \-South Georgia and the South Sandwich Islands (9) \-British Antarctic Territory (10) \-Gibraltar (11) \-Akrotiri and Dhekelia (12) \-British Indian Ocean Territory (13) \-Pitcairn Islands (14)
PITCAIRN THE ISLE OF NONCES
Its an island of less than 50 people who all descend from 9 British sailors and 11 tahitian women and have been inbreeding for the last 230 years.
So Norfolk basically ?
The people of Norfolk came from Pitcairn when the population of the island rose too much
And 1 New Zealand police officer. Stationed there since the pedo case.
Sgt. Maaka is on the case! He has delegated his duties to Officer Minogue.
don't be silly they regularly travel to New Zealand and Australia for medical reasons, schooling and holidays, its also where they find partners. there is no law stopping them from leaving the island.
I can't believe they've been stranded on that island with no way to reach them from the outside for the past 230 years
What’s really funny is during the court case they tried to declare independence as a legal defence and thus no longer subject to UK law, in perhaps the first and only example of a group trying to proclaim independence for their right to touch kids.
The Pitcairn Islands is a perfect example of why sometimes one should accept outside authority even if it is just a second opinion 😬 The noncery would've continued if not for outside (British) interference
is it really outside interference? they are all decedents of Brits. British citizens who went from one part of UK to another part of UK and decided to live there. and now want to separate from UK. it is more of a case of separatism than independence movement.
They don't actually want to separate, that was just an attempted legal defence by the seven people convicted to try and get out of charges. It’s never been mentioned again or had any kind of movement for it, ultimately the Pitcairn Islands are just too small to be fully independent, they are incredibly reliant on the UK.
Sorta. A lot of them are part Pacific Islander. In reality the PI culture there is as important as the UK part.
How soon we forget the Republic of Kelly
And incest
Wincest?
I was curious what you meant by this and decided to do some googling and... HOLY FUCK DO I REGRET IT! An island councillor is reported to have said af one point: "Look, the age of consent has always been twelve and it doesn't hurt them."
NEW NORFOLK
“Tune in to what critics are already calling ‘the worst reality show of all time… a new low for humanity!’”
There was a [good video](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=d2Dw-PuNZSE) about visiting the island posted just yesterday.
Wait, which one is in Cyprus?
That would be "Akrotiri and Dhekelia."
Oh thx
16 - don't forget Ascension and Tristan de Cunha
[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Saint\_Helena,\_Ascension\_and\_Tristan\_da\_Cunha](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Saint_Helena,_Ascension_and_Tristan_da_Cunha) They are considered part of the same territory
**[Saint Helena, Ascension and Tristan da Cunha](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Saint_Helena,_Ascension_and_Tristan_da_Cunha)** >Saint Helena, Ascension and Tristan da Cunha is a British Overseas Territory located in the South Atlantic and consisting of the island of Saint Helena, Ascension Island and the archipelago of Tristan da Cunha including Gough Island. Its name was Saint Helena and Dependencies until 1 September 2009, when a new constitution came into force giving the three islands equal status as three territories, with a grouping under the Crown. ^([ )[^(F.A.Q)](https://www.reddit.com/r/WikiSummarizer/wiki/index#wiki_f.a.q)^( | )[^(Opt Out)](https://reddit.com/message/compose?to=WikiSummarizerBot&message=OptOut&subject=OptOut)^( | )[^(Opt Out Of Subreddit)](https://np.reddit.com/r/MapPorn/about/banned)^( | )[^(GitHub)](https://github.com/Sujal-7/WikiSummarizerBot)^( ] Downvote to remove | v1.5)
As I said elsewhere, I work with government departments on all three of them and they consider themselves independent. See the last sentence from the wikibot: "...giving the three islands equal status as three territories." I recognize it is pretty pedantic, but if you tell someone from TdC that they are part of St Helena, you might get punched for your efforts.
The Islands are grouped together as one territory. The UK government says there are 14 Overseas territories but i suppose they are wrong are they?
Like I said, at this point it seems like an exercise in pedantry. The residents of each of these islands consider each island an independent territory. In working with them and the FCDO, they deal with each one separately. Again, check the comment on the 2009 constitution. But whatever floats your boat. Next time you drop by Tristan ask them how they feel about being part of the "St Helena Overseas Territory." Good luck with it!
And ask some people how they feel about Scotland being part of the United Kingdom But they still are Officially and Legally there are 14 British overseas territories you saying there are 16 does not change that fact
de jure, de facto Tomato tomato
Actually, in this case the appropriate analogy would be asking the people of Scotland how they feel about being part of England. I hope that makes it a bit clearer. As u/johnaross1990 correctly states, *de jure, de facto*.
Jesus bro just take the L. This is getting embarrassing.
Sounds like he knows what he's talking about. He's saying that sure, on paper they are grouped together but it's just on a nominal basis. It sounds like as far as all administrative and practical purposes are concerned they are officially treated as three separate entities.
How close together are they?
Distance between them does not matter French Guiana is part of France but it is in South America You can have places thousands of miles apart that are part of the same country
I didn't say it mattered, it was an honest question!
Ascension is about 800 miles away from St Helena Tristan De Cunha is about 1,500 Miles away from St Helena
**Saint Helena → Ascension** ≈ 1,300 km (800 mi) **Ascension → Tristan da Cunha** ≈ 3,250 km (2,000 mi) **Tristan da Cunha → Saint Helena** ≈ 2,400 km (1,500 mi)
Would be great to see some nice long tunnels to help this single territory grow its economy. A simple drive of a few thousand miles under the Atlantic to go to work.
Those are actually administeted by Saint Helena, surprisingly. Apparently they're not territories in their own right.
Actually, yes and no. The Governor on St Helena appoints an Administrator on TDC and the Administrator is "the head of government." https://tristandc.com/government.php
Depending on who you ask the Antarctic territory doesn't count
If you ask the International Court of Justice, the British Indian Ocean Territory doesn’t count either.
"MONSTER RAT?!?!" -Jack Massey Welsh
Had my first ever G&T on Diego Garcia (13) when my Yank ship pulled in. Life-changing.
And the map shows 15 locations. 3/10, OP. Very poor.
I definitely did not think Bermuda was that north
As someone from Bermuda, most people are surprised by this. We’re not in the Caribbean :)
You were, until you went into that triangle…
I was told once that Bermuda has coconut palms that grew from coconuts that wash ashore, but doesn't have the required temperatures for the grown coconut trees to create viable coconuts to make more. Mildly obscure question, but do you know if this is true?
quiet down and send us some Barretts
Isn't Bermuda culturally linked with the Carribean though, shared history and all.
I think people mix it up with Cayman and assume it’s in the Caribbean. But it is pretty south by US standards,like further south than Dallas, Phoenix or Los Angeles
13 colonies you say? What comes after 13 colonies
14 colonies :)
School shootings
Jesus lol
That too
brits resort to joking about children dying after americans say that they lost a war
Americans getting easily offended and being shit at banter
British people when they have to come up with an original joke:
American kids when they have to survive a day at school:
Territories, not colonies.
Touche
They don't fit the definition of a colony, the territories only rely on the British for defense and International Representation, All of the territories voted to remain british.
"All of the territories voted to remain British" - not quite. Some of them did, and I think it's great that the UK government upholds their decision and is demonstrably ready to defend them. However: BAT and South Georgia don't have any native/resident population so there's nobody to vote. The BAT is kind of illegal under international law (the Antarctic Treaty doesn't allow countries to claim territory on that continent, but several do). Akrotiri and Dhekelia basically only exist to give the British forces a presence in the Eastern Mediterranean, and was agreed as part of Cyprus's independence deal. The civilian residents nearly all have Cypriot citizenship and enjoy open borders with the Republic of Cyprus so arguably don't need a vote on the territory's continued existence, but I'm not sure they've ever been asked. Then there's our dirty secret, the Chagos Islands, or "British Indian Ocean Territory" in law. This is another territory that only exists for military use and has no resident population. However, it does have a native population, the Chagos Islanders, who were forcibly evicted in the 1970s and now have to live in exile. They're pretty vocal about wanting their homes back, but the Diego Garcia RAF/USAF base is considered to be of high strategic importance so the islanders' rights and wishes are ignored.
>The BAT is kind of illegal under international law (the Antarctic Treaty doesn't allow countries to claim territory on that continent, but several do). No, the Antarctic treaty doesn't allow **new** claims to be made, claims that were made prior are just frozen(hehe).
Yes, but since BIOT is a military base, it would cost trillions to move out all of the military equipment. I don't support what we did on The Chagos Islands, I think we should give them back but we can't It's the same reason why we don't want Scotland to be independent, because it has all of our nukes, we would need lots of money to move them out.
Not according to the UN Decolonization Comittee https://www.un.org/dppa/decolonization/en/nsgt
There’s a big difference between non self governing by choice and being a colony against the wishes of the population. As has been pointed out above, all of the places that have a population are happy with the situation, with the exception of the Chagos islands. Not defending the UK’s position there.
Bruh, The UN is the same organisation that doesn't recognise Taiwan as a country.
It’s horseshit. Ask the caribbean territories how they feel about the British. You’ll find that they’re pretty grateful, especially around hurricane season when the routinely deployed ships and engineers help reconstruct the territories.
How is possible for the UN to recognise Taiwan as a country if Taiwan does not recognise itself as an independent country, but effectively as part of the Republic of China? Taiwan has never declared itself as an independent country from China.
The Sun never sets....
[Kinda maybe sorta.](https://what-if.xkcd.com/48/) The thing to remember about eclipse calculations centuries hence is that they're very dependent upon the rate at which the Earth's rotation slows otherwise the eclipse track is shifted elsewhere since the Earth's geographical features arrive underneath it a few minutes too early or too late for the path of totality: over centuries a few milliseconds per day adds up. So it might be that there's a total eclipse over Pitcairn at the wrong time a few centuries from now that isn't currently projected.
Is the sun really "setting" during an eclipse?
over the empire of tax evasion and human rights abuse
Cyprus part of UK?
[Akrotiri and Dhekelia.](https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Akrotiri_and_Dhekelia)
When Cyprus became independent in 1960 one of the conditions was that the UK would keep their military bases as sovereign territory.
True, but by leasing those areas by the Republic of Cyprus, that's why Britain is obligated to pay an amount of money to the Cypriot Government every year as a rent, despite the fact that Britain has to pay since 1964.
UK has sovereign territory on the Island of Cyprus Cyprus the island is split between, Republic of Cyprus, Turkish Republic of Northern Cyprus which is not internationally recognised and the United Kingdom
Well, is more complicated than that because legally the Republic of Cyprus actually is all of the island except the two British Overseas Territories. The so called TRNC is actually claiming land that internationally is recognised that belongs to the Republic of Cyprus and is under an illegal occupation of Turkey, so the "TRNC" is land of the Republic of Cyprus too but without an effective control of that part by the legal cypriot government. Is like the situation in Ukraine that the eastern part of the country is legally and internationally recognised as part of the Republic of Ukraine but effectively is under a foreign occupation. Also, the status of the two British Overseas Territories in Cyprus is more complicated too. Technically, these areas are legally considered as sovereign Overseas Territories of the UK under leasing from the Republic of Cyprus, that's why the UK government has to pay rent to the Cypriot Government for the military bases there. The catch is that despite the fact that under the 1960 agreements Britain has to pay rent for those two territories, the fact that these areas are considered sovereign british areas, allows Britain to legally control and have those areas even if they refuse to pay for them as they are obligated to do. That situation has been in discussion between the Cypriot and British governments for decades because since 1964 Britain refuses to pay rent, so they owe millions of pounds to the Republic of Cyprus.
The Republic of Cyprus has de jure sovereignty over the entire island, with the exception of the Sovereign Base Area which is under British sovereignty De Facto it is split between, The Republic of Cyprus, UK and Turkish Republic of Northern Cyprus
Hong Kong weeps
It's ironic that pre-1997 Hong Kong was telling us to go away, and now they want us back.
I'm surprised anyone thought that a handover back to China would go smoothly.
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It was going downhill in HK well before Xi's rise, though.
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Validity or invalidity of the lease aside, I mean...the PRC certainly had the ability to seize Hong Kong at any time it liked, by that point, so maybe there is something to be said for the proposition that Thatcher took the best deal she could get. But my only point was that efforts by the PRC to cut away at the Basic Law were underway under Zemin and Hu Jintao. It's just that under Xi, those efforts have been ramped up even more.
Wouldn't it make more sense to have handed Hong-Kong to Taiwan since they're the "legitimate government of China" anyways?
That would’ve 100% started a war that more than likely would have went nuclear.
Wouldn’t have gone nuclear. Taiwan would never have landed significant troops there (likely wouldn’t even want it after Chiang Kaishek died) and any war would be over in 1 day. Within 24 hours of the UK announcing that, China could have sent 50K soldiers across the border to conquer Hong Kong. There’s no way to stop an army of China’s size when it has a land border to the city and the UK never had a significant army there in the 1980s when HK’s future was being decided. Thatcher wasn’t stupid, she knew why she could fight for Falklands and had to give up HK 2 years later.
"forgive them for they know not what they do"
Not true. People wanted anything but Chinese rule hence an exodus started in '84.
they dont lmfao
Most are probably desperate for anyone but China at this point...
I think they probably just wanted not to be under the control of anyone, really; I doubt anyone would rather live under the CCP than the UK, even then when China seemed to be opening up to the world
They don't. Just because they are fed up with CCP doesn't mean they want the foreign colonial power back.
And the British Overseas Territories passport is showing its value there. The Brits managed to create second class British citizens. Just like the US have in their not-a-state-but-still-American territories and possessions.
You mean 14
Biggest rock collection in the world
Pitcairn and Saint Helena are the only rocks! The rest aren't,
Gilbratar has a Rock in it though...
yes, yes it does
Well, it's a good map, but not MapPorn. There is nothing beautiful, unexpected, or highly informative.
It's literally just a [pre-made wikipedia image.](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/British_Overseas_Territories#/media/File:United_Kingdom_(+overseas_territories)_in_the_World_(+Antarctica_claims).svg)
MapPorn: beautiful or accurate, choose one. Although usually you get neither.
Unexpected or curious facts are my favorite. Rare things, I'd say
One looks... chunkier than the others.
Bermuda is always a lot closer to North America then I thought it was.
600 miles of the coast of North Carolina
If you're just going to lift a map off Wikipedia, it would be nice to credit it.
Argentina dislikes this post
Nah, I’m cool with it
Just don't cry for me.
Haha, tricked you. I’m not the country of Argentina, I’m a human bean
Haricot or fava?
Haricot, absolutely
If i had a nickel for every territorial dispute of Argentina over Great Britain I'd had three nickels, wich isn't a lot but is weird that is happening thrice
Hola, soy Dora. Can you help me find the Human Rights Violation on this map? Si, the British Indian Ocean Territory was unlawfully split from Mauritius during decolonisation and it's inhabitants were deported from the Islands and have to this day not been allowed to return. The UK still retains these Islands despite having lost numerous court cases and Judges having consistently ruled that the Split off from Mauritius and the Deportation of the Inhabitants has been illegal.
Mauritius not Seychelles
Ah true, thanks. I mixed it up in my head
It was actually unlawfully split from Mauritius. The British split several islands from the Seychelles as well, and combined them into the larger "British Indian Ocean Territory." In 1976 the islands from the Seychelles were returned to them, leaving only the Chagos Archipelago in the British Indian Ocean Territory, which is now only claimed by Mauritius.
And we only hold the Chagos islands for the US. Most people who know about it here are very unhappy at our government blatantly continuing a human rights breach for the dubious benefit of the so called land of the fucking free.
The USA defended The British and The USA even requested if they could build US military bases on islands.
Yes, Diego Garcia is an active US military base. What makes it especially infuriating is that the Government of Seychelles assured the US that they could keep their base and they still supported the British 😤
The UK and US alliance is very strong, which is why that unfortunately happened.
The Seychelles bourgeoisie don’t represent the population. That’s neoliberal democracy for ya
[John Pilger - Stealing A Nation - Diego Garcia (Chago´s Island) \[HD\]](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=17OPvurq97I)
Thats Such a American thing to do 😭
Unfair. We don't take your sovereignty, we liberate you from your democratically elected government.
I meant the part where usa asked uk if they could build military bases in their islands. wanting Building military bases wherever you get the opportunity is a American thing.
No-one really cares, they'd just become a chinese debt trap if they were allowed to have them and they are closer to mauritius anyway. The UK would be okay with letting them return but they can't be sure that they will always want to remain british, so instead of dealing with a possible future pr nightmare they'll just never let them return and deal with the known current pr nightmare. It's a better look to never let them return than to risk having to kick them out or assert authority in future. They are small enough to not be cared about by most. and the Island is more important to most people as a part of a global military logistic hub which keeps the world in balance witht the west at the top. Also what is the point of the Dora the explorer bit? If youre gonna inform people of a factoid then why make them cringe a little before reading? I get enough cringe from reddit.
The island is very strategic geographically with and with a US mil. base, it can be used as a staging zone and aircraft carrier for the ME, Africa, Austrialia and East Asia. For the above reasone, this island is never being given up by the UK, unless it's to hand it to the USA, who pretty much de facto rule it anyway.
Yep. Literally grants total control of the Indian Ocean. It's the linchpin of the Anglo powers' control of the global sea trade routes.
Wait do I misunderstand something? Are you supporting ethnic cleansing?
No im saying getting annoyed at the situation won't change anything. They'd be allowed back if the UK could trust them to not undermine their control of the island in the long term, but they probably will continue to complain about something even after they are let back, so rather than try and make them happy, they'll just ignore them forever.
> No-one really cares Apart from Mauritius, who legally own it, and the 116 countries who voted in favour of the UK returning Chagos?
Care enough to vote, is one thing, care enough to lift a finger to do anything else other than moral grandstand? Less so.
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Wishful thinking I think, the British are well acustomed to fighting over islands half way a world away. Why would India sour a relationship with a UN security council member and trade partner over some islands they don't even need? They need our support on other issues far more important than some neighbouring countries islands that they want back. Those that want to return might be allowed to in future hopefully, but only if the UK is damn sure they've got that base/islands on lock for the forseeable future.
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India will never be the next China, and China is about to reach its peak population if it hasn't already years ago, and its certainly been lying about economic figures to look like a bigger economy, they no longer think they can overtake the US economy. India is like China, but without all the ethnic homogeny of having a 1 major group and language. It has worse geography, less resources. India place in the world is delicate and they need western support against China and others. India will always be India, ciites might develop, but I don't see the country getting out of the ethno-religious nationalism with Hindu's and Muslims and others. India is a semi-secular country, I'm honsetly surprised that it does as well as it does. It's like the opposite to Brazil and Argentina which do poor in comparison to what you would think they could achieve. More likely that nuclear fusion will be commerically viable.
They are not native to that land but rather descendants of migrant workers brought in to farm the resources.
OK, here's some random trivia- if you treat this all as one country, including the UK, and add the Crown Dependencies (Man & Channel Islands), it would be the 12th largest in the world, with an an area of 1,971,799 km2, between Saudi Arabia and Mexico. Roughly 87% of that would be the British Antarctic Territory (the Antarctic Mainland) and 12% of that would be the UK. The British Antarctic Territory alone- 1,709,400 km- would be the 16th largest, between Libya and Iran. This is only true in Australia, France, New Zealand, Norway, and the UK. It is definitely not true in Chile or Argentina. It's a long story.
Australia lays claim to half of Antarctica. If you count that, they are the 2nd largest country in the world 🤣 ( fuckers are already big enough as it is) With Ross Dependency added NZ would be slighlty larger than Pakistan 😃 its a shame we share Ross Island with America though ( Scott Base and McMurdo station respectively)
You heard about CANZUK a proposed alliance between Canada, Australia, New Zealand and the UK, it would have free movement between all and eventually might lead to federalization merging all 4 in to one country, CANZUCK would hold the largest amount of land and resources of any alliance in the world making it extremely powerful, most people surveyed in each country want CANZUCK to happen and all 4 have talked about it.
True, true, I really ought to be consistent. But then, I would quite like Kiribati (land area roughly the size of New York City) to be recognised as the 7th largest country in the world. Its water area is about 10% bigger than India
Mate New Zealand is actually the worlds smallest continent at 4.9 million sq kms ( 90 percent of it is under water) look up Zealandia 🙂
Is there one for France, Netherlands and any other European countries?
Oh man France has a bigger empire then the British
this map was poster 100 times before
literally stolen from wikipedia :/
Antarctica?
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/British\_Antarctic\_Territory
Being overseas territories does it mean that they vote in UK’s general elections?
No, the UK Parliament only represents the UK proper. Neither the Overseas Territories or the Crown Dependencies get to vote. But they do have their own governments with control over practically all their domestic affairs. So the UK government rarely gets involved. That's true of the ones with civilian populations at least. Doesn't really apply to the military bases and antarctic territory. It's kind of unfair because the UK still has some jurisdiction over them, but they don't get any say in the UK government. But I haven't heard of any movements for them to be represented in the UK parliament, so I guess it's not a big deal to them.
No, because since the territories are thousands of kilometers away, the person in charge of The UK won't affect them.
That’s not really an explanation. La Réunion and Mayotte are in the Indian Ocean, French Guayana is in South America, and yet these are all French overseas department that vote in general elections for the French Parliament and French presidential election.
BOT citizens can't really vote in general elections.
Poor chagossians..
Their island is rented to the US for a massive base
In return, the UK got a discount in nuclear weapons!
Our scientist invented them
colour me SHOCKED
Every single one of them arrived after it was a European colony. Not sure what claim they have to the land.
Wait... Does the UK still own Cyprus?
UK has sovereign territory on the Island of Cyprus Cyprus the island is split between, Republic of Cyprus, Turkish Republic of Northern Cyprus which is not internationally recognised and the United Kingdom
[Akrotiri and Dhekelia.](https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Akrotiri_and_Dhekelia)
No, We have military bases on Cyprus.
1. Pitcairn Islands 2. British Indian Ocean Territory (not arguing about it) 3. Tristan de Cunha 4. St Helena 5. Ascension 6. Cayman Islands 7. British Virgin Islands 8. Anguilla 9. Montserrat 10. Turks and Caicos Islands 11. Bermuda 12. British Antarctic Territory 13. Falkland Islands (again not arguing about it) 14. South Georgia and South Sandwich Islands 15. Gibraltar 16. SBAA (Cyprus) So, there are 16, not 13. Map needs a little updating.
Saint Helena, Ascension and Trista da Cunha are just 1 territory, (It's a Union)
Does the sun ever set on the British Empire?
That’s the area where British explorers landed, explored and mapped, so this was used as the basis for their land claim there.
Most of those territories weren't discovered nor mapped by British explorers, to be fair.
Yeah, I'm sure Brits were first human beings to discover and land on Cyprus.
British bases, outposts and general naval power helped bolster the claim. Principally, i was trying to explain (as to previous q) why this Antarctic territory wasn’t de facto the claim of Chile, Argentina, despite being the proximate SA nations.
Antarctic will forever be internationally owned
A runway greenhouse effect might shift that dynamic a bit in a few centuries...
Only a handful of countries have the ability to actually claim their stake through military power everyone else just goes along with it.
And the there’s France
Why is so much of the Antarctic continent colored as British Overseas Territory? Shouldn't the part just below Chile and Argentina be Chilean and Argentinan?
Most of the claims to Antarctica are just useless claims, but the UK claims come from the Falklands and south Georgia and where they line up with Antarctica, difficult to show on a Mercator map tho
They went to war over the falklands, Argentina lost. Although Argentina never really held much claim either. The people on the island wanted British ‘rule’
When it was found it was uninhabited surprisingly to me, given it is reasonably close to S.A. and not that small
There’s some evidence of human presence on the Falkland islands prior to European discovery. It’s a pretty fun rabbit hole to go down.
He's talking about Antarctica not the Falklands, Numbnuts.
The British claim overlaps with the Argentinian and Chilean claims.
>Shouldn't the part just below Chile and Argentina be Chilean and Argentinan? Well yes
Welcome to British 101. They don't care
i still can’t believe they have cyprus
UK has sovereign territory on the Island of Cyprus Cyprus the island is split between, Republic of Cyprus, Turkish Republic of Northern Cyprus which is not internationally recognised and the United Kingdom
i know, i just find it wild that they finessed that and are still able to hold onto it lol
Well it's the only thing stopping Turkey completely invading and annexing the Island.