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Why Diego Garcia?2024 Oct 16
There's a tiny little scrap of dry land in the middle of the Indian Ocean named after two of the first people to report seeing it: Diego Garcia. It's an atoll a thousand miles from nowhere administered as a lingering remnant of the British Empire. Mauritius really wants Diego Garcia and the rest of the outlaying nearby atolls for itself, though, the Mauritius-ites saying they were promised the isolated atolls when they split off from the British Empire and became a country 50-someodd years ago.
So why not give Diego Garcia et al to Mauritius? Well, famous British frenemies USA! USA! USA! have built quite the military base on the island, using it for our favorite Just Superpower Things: housing all sorts of fun toys up to and including nukes. Because of course we have.
But I guess the powers that be have finally figured out a deal. As of earlier this month, after decades of bickering (including UN resolutions calling the UK a bunch of wankers for kicking out the islands' original ~1,000 inhabitants) Mauritius, the UK, and the USA have come to an agreement. Mauritius gets the Chagos Archipelago, but can't settle anyone on Diego Garcia (the biggest atoll), and the American military base gets an "initial" lease of 99 years (making this the next generation's problem).
Why do I care? Well, its interesting, in the way all edge cases are interesting. But it's also interesting in that this struggle of tiny population of Chagos Islanders versus big old mean Britain has recently adopted the narrative of colonized versus oppressors, even though (in my opinion) that's not really what happened here. The Chagos Islanders aren't exactly indigenous to the islands, having their own inhabitation of the place only date back a few hundred years, and Britain didn't exactly colonize Diego Garcia as there is no colony there, only a military base. But there's no arguing against the narrative, I suppose, and so after an increasing Mauritian PR campaign against the UK, and the UK looking for international support on its other concerns, the British Empire has peacefully surrendered one of the last remnants of its once-massive holdings.
Don't worry, though, about the Falkland Islands. Saith the Falklands governor, Alison Blake: "The UK’s unwavering commitment to defend UK sovereignty remains undiminished."
There's a tiny little scrap of dry land in the middle of the Indian Ocean named after two of the first people to report seeing it: Diego Garcia. It's an atoll a thousand miles from nowhere administered as a lingering remnant of the British Empire. Mauritius really wants Diego Garcia and the rest of the outlaying nearby atolls for itself, though, the Mauritius-ites saying they were promised the isolated atolls when they split off from the British Empire and became a country 50-someodd years ago.
So why not give Diego Garcia et al to Mauritius? Well, famous British frenemies USA! USA! USA! have built quite the military base on the island, using it for our favorite Just Superpower Things: housing all sorts of fun toys up to and including nukes. Because of course we have.
But I guess the powers that be have finally figured out a deal. As of earlier this month, after decades of bickering (including UN resolutions calling the UK a bunch of wankers for kicking out the islands' original ~1,000 inhabitants) Mauritius, the UK, and the USA have come to an agreement. Mauritius gets the Chagos Archipelago, but can't settle anyone on Diego Garcia (the biggest atoll), and the American military base gets an "initial" lease of 99 years (making this the next generation's problem).
Why do I care? Well, its interesting, in the way all edge cases are interesting. But it's also interesting in that this struggle of tiny population of Chagos Islanders versus big old mean Britain has recently adopted the narrative of colonized versus oppressors, even though (in my opinion) that's not really what happened here. The Chagos Islanders aren't exactly indigenous to the islands, having their own inhabitation of the place only date back a few hundred years, and Britain didn't exactly colonize Diego Garcia as there is no colony there, only a military base. But there's no arguing against the narrative, I suppose, and so after an increasing Mauritian PR campaign against the UK, and the UK looking for international support on its other concerns, the British Empire has peacefully surrendered one of the last remnants of its once-massive holdings.
Don't worry, though, about the Falkland Islands. Saith the Falklands governor, Alison Blake: "The UK’s unwavering commitment to defend UK sovereignty remains undiminished."