British Indian Ocean Territory – the Chagos Archipelago and its displaced islanders
The Chagos Archipelago, a group of coral atolls in the middle of the Indian Ocean, remained uninhabited until the late eighteenth century. French settlers from Mauritius then established coconut plantations there, worked by enslaved people brought from Africa and Madagascar. After the Napoleonic Wars the islands passed to Britain together with Mauritius and were administered as its dependency. Following the abolition of slavery, a distinct Chagossian community developed, with its own Creole culture, living mainly from copra production.
In 1965, shortly before Mauritius gained independence, the United Kingdom separated the archipelago from it and created the British Indian Ocean Territory. The largest island, Diego Garcia, was made available to the United States as a military base. Between the late 1960s and the early 1970s the entire Chagossian population was removed from the islands and resettled, mostly in Mauritius and the Seychelles, often in great hardship. Their fate and their wish to return have been the subject of long legal and political struggles.
Mauritius has long contested the separation, and the question of sovereignty has come before international bodies, including an advisory opinion of the International Court of Justice in 2019. In recent years the United Kingdom and Mauritius have negotiated an agreement on the transfer of sovereignty while retaining the base on Diego Garcia.
Today the territory is defined by the military base, a vast protected marine environment and the hopes of the Chagossian community.
Do you have a connection to the Chagos Islands, or stories and photos to share? Share them with the community in the Local History section.