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Indian Ocean

Reunion

Réunion is an insular region of France located in the Indian Ocean. It is situated east of Madagascar and about 175 kilometres southwest of Mauritius, the nearest island. As of 2014, its population numbered 844,994 inhabitants. The island has been inhabited since the 17th century, when people from Europe , Madagascar and Africa settled there. Slavery was abolished on 20 December 1848 (a date celebrated yearly on the island), after which indentured workers were brought from South India, among other places. The island became an overseas department of France in 1946. The local language, spoken by the majority of the population, is Réunion Creole. The official language is French. Administratively, Réunion is one of the overseas departments of France. Like the other four overseas departments, it is also one of the 18 regions of France, with the modified status of overseas regions, and an integral part of the Republic with the same status as those situated on the European mainland. Réunion is an outermost region of the European Union and, as an overseas department of France, a part of the Eurozone. Not much is known of Réunion's history prior to the arrival of the Portuguese in the early sixteenth century. Arab traders were familiar with it by the name Dina Morgabin. The island is possibly featured on a map from 1153 AD by Al Sharif el-Edrisi. The island might also have been visited by Swahili or Malay sailors. The first European discovery of the area was made around 1507 by Diego Fernandez Pereira, Portuguese explorers, but the specifics are unclear. The uninhabited island might have been first sighted by the expedition led by Dom Pedro Mascarenhas, who gave his name to the island group around Réunion, the Mascarenes. Réunion itself was dubbed Santa Apolónia after a favourite saint, which suggests that the date of the Portuguese discovery could have been 9 February, her saint day. Diogo Lopes de Sequeira is said to have landed on the islands of Réunion and Rodrigues in 1509. Over a century later, nominal Portuguese rule had left Santa Apolónia virtually untouched. The island was then occupied by France and administered from Port Louis, Mauritius. Although the first French claims date from 1638, when François Cauche and Salomon Goubert visited in June 1638, the island was officially claimed by Jacques Pronis of France in 1642, when he deported a dozen French mutineers to the island from Madagascar. The convicts were returned to France several years later, and in 1649, the island was named Île Bourbon after the French Royal House of Bourbon. Colonization started in 1665, when the French East India Company sent the first settlers. "Île de la Réunion" was the name given to the island in 1793 by a decree of the Convention nationale with the fall of the House of Bourbon in France, and the name commemorates the union of revolutionaries from Marseille with the National Guard in Paris, which took place on 10 August 1792. In 1801, the island was renamed "Île Bonaparte", after First Consul Napoleon Bonaparte. The island was invaded by a Royal Navy squadron led by Commodore Josias Rowley in 1810, who used the old name of "Bourbon". When it was restored to France by the Congress of Vienna in 1815, the island retained the name of "Bourbon" until the fall of the restored Bourbons during the French Revolution of 1848, when the island was once again given the name "Île de la Réunion". From the seventeenth to the nineteenth centuries, French colonisation, supplemented by importing Africans, Chinese and Indians as workers, contributed to ethnic diversity in the population. From 1690, most of the non-Europeans were enslaved. The colony abolished slavery on 20 December 1848. Afterward, many of the foreign workers came as indentured workers. The opening of the Suez Canal in 1869 reduced the importance of the island as a stopover on the East Indies trade route. During the Second World War, Réunion was under the authority of the Vichy Regime until 30 November 1942, when Free French forces took over the island with the destroyer Léopard. Réunion became a département d'outre-mer of France on 19 March 1946. Its département code is 974. Over about two decades in the late twentieth century (1963-1982), 1,630 children from Réunion were relocated to rural areas of metropolitan France, particularly to Creuse, ostensibly for education and work opportunities. That program was led by influential Gaullist politician Michel Debré, who was an MP for Réunion at the time. Many of these children were abused or disadvantaged by the families with whom they were placed. Known as Children of Creuse, they and their fate came to light in 2002 when one of them, Jean-Jacques Martial, filed suit against the French state for kidnapping and deportation of a minor. Other similar lawsuits were filed over the following years, but all were dismissed by French courts and finally by the European Court of Human Rights in 2011. In 2005 and 2006, Réunion was hit by a crippling epidemic of chikungunya, a disease spread by mosquitoes. According to the BBC News, 255,000 people on Réunion had contracted the disease as of 26 April 2006. The neighbouring islands of Mauritius and Madagascar also suffered epidemics of this disease during the same year. A few cases also appeared in mainland France, carried by people travelling by airline. The French government of Dominique de Villepin sent an emergency aid package worth 36 million Euro and deployed approximately five hundred French troops in an effort to eradicate mosquitoes on the island. In July 2015, a flaperon from a Boeing 777 aircraft washed up on the shore of the island. The piece of debris was initially confirmed by Malaysian authorities to be part of Malaysia Airlines Flight 370, which disappeared in March 2014.

Heard Island and McDonald Islands

The Territory of Heard Island and McDonald Islands are an Australian external territory and volcanic group of barren Antarctic islands, about two-thirds of the way from Madagascar to Antarctica. The group's overall size is 372 square kilometres in area and it has 101.9 km of coastline. Discovered in the mid-19th century, they have been territories of Australia since 1947 and contain the only two active volcanoes in Australian territory. The summit of one, Mawson Peak, is higher than any mountain on the Australian mainland. They lie on the Kerguelen Plateau in the Indian Ocean. The islands are among the most remote places on Earth: They are located approximately 4,099 km southwest of Perth, 3,845 km southwest of Cape Leeuwin, Australia, 4,200 km southeast of South Africa, 3,830 km southeast of Madagascar, 1,630 km north of Antarctica, and 450 km southeast of the Kerguelen Islands. The islands are currently uninhabited. Heard Island, by far the largest of the group, is a 368-square-kilometre bleak and mountainous island. Its mountains are covered by 41 glaciers and dominated by Mawson Peak, a 2,745-metre high complex volcano which forms part of the Big Ben massif. A July 2000 satellite image from the University of Hawaii's Institute of Geophysics and Planetology Thermal Alert Team, University of Hawai'i showed an active 2-kilometre long lava flow trending south-west from the summit of Big Ben. The McDonald Islands are located 44 kilometres to the west of Heard Island.They totalled approximately 2.5 square kilometres in area, where McDonald Island was 1.13 square kilometres large. Mawson Peak is one of only 2 active volcanoes in Australian territory, the other being McDonald Island. It is also one of the highest Australian mountains (higher than Mount Kosciuszko); surpassed only by peaks in the Antarctic territory. There is a small group of islets and rocks about 10 kilometres north of Heard Island, consisting of Shag Islet, Sail Rock, Morgan Island and Black Rock. They total about 1.1 square kilometres in area. The volcano on McDonald Island, after being dormant for 75,000 years, became active in 1992 and has erupted several times since. The most recent eruption is thought to have been on 10 August 2005. Heard Island and the McDonald Islands have no ports or harbours; ships must anchor offshore. The coastline is 101.9 kilometres (63.3 mi), and a 12-nautical-mile territorial sea and 200-nautical-mile exclusive fishing zone are claimed. The islands have an Antarctic climate, tempered by their maritime setting. The weather is marked by low seasonal and daily temperature ranges, persistent and generally low cloud cover, frequent precipitation and strong winds. Snowfall occurs throughout the year.

French Southern and Antarctic Lands

The French Southern and Antarctic Lands, in full the Territory of the French Southern and Antarctic Lands is an overseas territory of France. It consists of: Kerguelen Islands , a group of volcanic islands in the southern Indian Ocean, southeast of Africa, approximately equidistant between Africa, Antarctica and Australia; St. Paul and Amsterdam islands (Îles Saint Paul et Amsterdam), a group to the north of Kerguelen; Crozet Islands (Îles Crozet), a group in the southern Indian Ocean, south of Madagascar; Adélie Land (Terre Adélie), the French claim on the continent of Antarctica; the Scattered Islands (Îles Éparses), a dispersed group of islands around the coast of Madagascar. The territory is also called the French Southern Lands or French Southern Territories. The latter excludes Adélie Land and Scattered Islands, where French sovereignty is not widely recognized or disputed by another state. The lands are not connected to France Antarctique, a former French colony in Brazil. The territory has no permanent civilian population. Those resident consist of visiting military personnel, officials, scientific researchers and support staff. The French Southern and Antarctic Lands have formed a territoire d'outre-mer of France since 1955. Formerly, they were administered from Paris by an administrateur supérieur assisted by a secretary-general; since December 2004, however, their administrator has been a préfet, currently Cécile Pozzo di Borgo, with headquarters in Saint-Pierre on Réunion Island.

Maldives

Maldives, officially the Republic of Maldives, is an island country and archipelago in the Indian Ocean. It lies southwest of India and Sri Lanka in the Laccadive Sea. The chain of twenty six atolls stretches from Ihavandhippolhu Atoll to the Addu Atoll. The capital and largest city is Malé, traditionally called the "King's Island." Historically linked with the Indian subcontinent, Maldives is a Muslim-majority country. From the mid-sixteenth century colonial powers dominated the islands: Portugal, the Netherlands and Britain. The islands gained independence from the United Kingdom in 1965, becoming a republic in 1968. The country is ruled by a president and its government is authoritarian. The Maldivian economy is dominated by tourism and fishing. The World Bank classifies the country as having an upper middle income economy. Encompassing a territory spread over roughly 90,000 square kilometres , Maldives is one of the world's most geographically dispersed countries. It is the smallest Asian country in both land area and in population. The archipelago is located atop the Chagos-Maldives-Laccadive Ridge, a vast submarine mountain range in the Indian Ocean, which also forms a terrestrial ecoregion, together with the Chagos and the Lakshadweep. With an average ground-level elevation of 1.5 metres above sea level, it is the planet's lowest country. It is also the country with the lowest natural highest point in the world, at 2.4 metres . The government has pledged to make Maldives a carbon-neutral country by 2019 amid concerns about rising sea-levels. Maldives became a founding member of the South Asian Association for Regional Cooperation and it hosted the 17th SAARC summit in 2011. It is also a member of the Commonwealth of Nations, the Organization of Islamic Cooperation and the Non-Aligned Movement.

Mayotte

Mayotte is an overseas department and region of France officially named Département de Mayotte. It consists of a main island, Grande-Terre , a smaller island, Petite-Terre , and several islets around these two. The archipelago is located in the northern Mozambique Channel in the Indian Ocean off the coast of Southeast Africa, between northwestern Madagascar and northeastern Mozambique. Mayotte's area is 374 square kilometres and, with its 212,645 people, is very densely populated at 569 per km² . The biggest city and prefecture is Mamoudzou on Grande-Terre. However, the Dzaoudzi-Pamandzi International Airport is located on the neighbouring island of Petite-Terre. The territory is geographically part of the Comoro Islands. The territory is also known as Maore, the native name of its main island, especially by advocates of its inclusion in the Union of Comoros. The language of the majority is Shimaore, a Bantu language variety closely related to the varieties in the neighbouring Comoros islands. The second most widely spoken native language is Kibushi, a Malagasy language variety most closely related to the Sakalava dialect of Malagasy with influences from Shimaore. The vast majority of population is Muslim. The island was populated from neighbouring East Africa with later arrival of Arabs, who brought the Islamic religion. A sultanate was established in 1500. In the 19th century, Mayotte was conquered by Andriantsoly, former king of Iboina on Madagascar, and later by the neighbouring islands Mohéli and then Anjouan before being purchased by France in 1841. The people of Mayotte voted to remain politically a part of France in the 1974 referendum. Mayotte became an overseas department on 31 March 2011 and became an outermost region of the European Union on 1 January 2014, following a 2009 referendum with an overwhelming result in favour of the department status. The term Mayotte may refer to all of the department's islands, of which the largest is known as Maore and includes Maore's surrounding islands, most notably Pamanzi , or only to the largest island. The main island, Grande-Terre , geologically the oldest of the Comoro Islands, is 39 kilometres long and 22 kilometres wide, and its highest point is Mount Benara, at 660 metres above sea level. Because of the volcanic rock, the soil is relatively rich in some areas. A coral reef encircling much of the island ensures protection for ships and a habitat for fish. Dzaoudzi was the capital of Mayotte until 1977. It is situated on Petite-Terre , which at 10 square kilometres is the largest of several islets adjacent to Maore. In 1500, the Maore or Mawuti sultanate was established on the island. In 1503, Mayotte was observed by Portuguese explorers, but not colonized. In 1832, Mayotte was conquered by Andriantsoly, former king of Iboina on Madagascar; in 1833, it was conquered by the neighbouring sultanate of Mwali (Mohéli island in French). On 19 November 1835, Mayotte was again conquered by the Ndzuwani Sultanate (Anjouan sultanate in French); a governor was installed with the unusual Islamic style of Qadi (from the Arabic قاض which means judge, a sort of a 'resident magistrate' in British terms). However, in 1836 it regained its independence under a last local Sultan. Mayotte was purchased by France in 1841. It was the only island in the archipelago that voted in referendums in 1974 and 1976 to retain its link with France and forgo independence (with 63.8% and 99.4% of votes respectively). The Comoros continue to claim the island. A draft 1976 United Nations Security Council resolution recognizing Comorian sovereignty over Mayotte, supported by 11 of the 15 members of the Council, was vetoed by France. It was the last time, as of 2011, that France cast a lone veto in the Council. The United Nations General Assembly has adopted a series of resolutions on the issues, whose tenor can be gauged from their title: "Question of the Comorian Island of Mayotte" up to 1995. Since 1995, the subject of Mayotte has not been discussed by the General Assembly. Mayotte became an overseas department of France in March 2011 in consequence of a 29 March 2009 referendum. The outcome was a 95.5 per cent vote in favour of changing the island's status from a French "overseas community" to become France's 101st département. Its non-official traditional Islamic law, applied in some aspects of the day-to-day life, will be gradually abolished and replaced by the uniform French civil code. Additionally, French social welfare and taxes apply in Mayotte, though some of each will be brought in gradually. Comoros continues to claim the island, while criticising the French military base there.

British Indian Ocean Territory

The British Indian Ocean Territory (BIOT) is a British overseas territory of the United Kingdom situated in the Indian Ocean halfway between Tanzania and Indonesia. The territory comprises the seven atolls of the Chagos Archipelago with over 1,000 individual islands – many very small – amounting to a total land area of 60 square kilometres (23 sq mi). The largest and most southerly island is Diego Garcia, 27 km2 (10 sq mi), the site of a joint military facility of the United Kingdom and the United States. The only inhabitants are US and British military personnel and associated contractors, who collectively number around 2,500 (2012 figures). The removal of Chagossians from the Chagos Archipelago occurred between 1968 and 1973. The Chagossians, then numbering about 2,000 people, were expelled by the British government to Mauritius and Seychelles to allow the United States to build a military base there. Today, the exiled Chagossians are still trying to return, arguing that the forced expulsion and dispossession was illegal. The islands are off-limits to Chagossians, casual tourists, and the media. Mauritius has sought to gain control over the Chagos Archipelago, which was separated from its territory by the U.K. in 1965 to form the British Indian Ocean Territory On 23 June 2017, the United Nations General Assembly (UNGA) voted in favour of referring the territorial dispute between Mauritius and the UK to the International Court of Justice (ICJ) in order to clarify the legal status of the Chagos Islands archipelago in the Indian Ocean. The motion was approved by a majority vote with 94 voting for and 15 against. The British Indian Ocean Territory is one of only two British territories where traffic drives on the right, the other being Gibraltar.
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