The History Of British Indian Ocean Territory

The British Indian Ocean Territory. The History, Environment and the other Truth. Is one of the most remote places on Earth. It is located mid-way between Indonesia and Tanzania and the BIOT's closest neighbor is The Maldives to its north. The Territory is comprised of seven atolls known as the Chagos Archipelago with more than 1,000 small islands. These islands are mostly coralline structures formed by underwater volcanos. The largest island, which is also the most southerly, is Diego Garcia and is used as an American military base. The Chagos Archipelago was originally chartered by Vasco de Gama in the 1500s, but wasn't colonized until the eighteenth century when the French claimed the archipelago as a part of Mauritius. The islands were settled by African slaves and Indian contractors who worked on the coconut plantations. In 1810, Mauritius became a colony of the United Kingdom and in 1965, the United Kingdom split Mauritius and the Seychelles to make the British Indian Ocean Territory. This strange decision was fueled by the creation of an American military base. The islands from the Seychelles were later returned to the jurisdiction of that country after it gained independence in 1976.