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Contents 1 Geography 1.1 Resources 1.2 Climate 2 History 3 Politics 4 Language 5 References 5.1 Footnotes 6 See also 7 External links

The Chagos Archipelago is a group of seven atolls comprising more than 60 individual tropical islands roughly in the centre of the Indian Ocean.

The Chagos lies about 500 km (300 miles) due south of the Maldives, its nearest neighbour, 1600 km (1000 miles) southwest of India, half way between Tanzania and Java.

The Chagos group is a combination of different coralline structures topping a submarine ridge running southwards across the centre of the Indian Ocean, formed by volcanoes above the Réunion hotspot. Unlike in the Maldives there is not a clearly discernible pattern of arrayed atolls, which makes the whole archipelago look somewhat chaotic. Most of the coralline structures of the Chagos are submerged reefs.

Officially part of the British Indian Ocean Territory, the Chagos were home to the Chagossians for more than a century and a half until their forced expulsion in the 1960s by the United Kingdom and United States.

The entire land area of the islands is a mere 63.17 km², with the largest island, Diego Garcia, having an area of 27.20 km². The total area, including lagoons within atolls, however, is more than 15,000 km², of which 12,642 km² are accounted by the Great Chagos Bank, the second largest atoll structure of the world (after the completely submerged Saya de Malha Bank). The shelf area is 20,607 km², and the Exclusive Economic Zone, which borders to the corresponding zone of the Maldive Islands in the north, has an area of 636,600 km² (including territorial waters).

The largest individual islands are Diego García (27.20 km²), Eagle (Great Chagos Bank, 2.45 km²), Île Pierre (Peros Banhos, 1.50 km²), Eastern Egmont (Egmont Islands, 1.50 km²), Île du Coin (Peros Banhos, 1.28 km²) and Île Boddam (Salomon Islands, 1.08 km²).

The number of atolls in the Chagos Islands is given as four or five in most sources, plus two island groups and two single islands, mainly because it is not recognized that the Great Chagos Bank is a huge atoll structure (including those two island groups and two single islands), and because it is not recognized that Blenheim Reef has islets or cays above or just reaching the high water mark.

In addition to the seven atolls with dry land reaching at least the high water mark, there are nine reefs and banks, most of which can be considered permanently submerged atoll structures. They are listed in the table from north to south:

	Atoll/Reef/Bank (alternate name)	type	land area (km²)	total area (km²)	number of islands	Location
0	unnamed bank	submerged bank	-	3	-	04°25′S, 72°36′E
1	Colvocoresses Reef	submerged atoll	-	10	-	04°54′S, 72°37′E
2	Speakers Bank	unvegetated atoll	>0	582	1)	04°55′S, 72°20′E
3	Blenheim Reef (Baixo Predassa)	unvegetated atoll	0.3	30	4	05°12′S, 72°28′E
4	Benares Shoals	submerged reef	-	2	-	05°15′S, 71°40′E
5	Peros Banhos	atoll	13	503	32	05°20′S, 71°51′E
6	Salomon Islands	atoll	5	36	11	05°22′S, 72°13′E
7	Victory Bank	submerged atoll	-	21	-	05°32′S, 72°14′E
8a	Nelson Island	parts of mega-atoll Great Chagos Bank	0.81	12642	1	05°41′S, 72°02′E
8b	Three Brothers (Trois Freres)		0.37		3	06°09′S, 71°31′E
8c	Eagle Islands		2.63		3	06°12′S, 71°19′E
8d	Danger Island		0.66		1	06°23′S, 71°16′E
9	Egmont Islands	atoll	4	29	7	06°39′S, 71°23′E
10	Cauvin Bank	submerged atoll	-	12	-	06°46′S, 72°22′E
11	Owen Bank	submerged bank	-	4	-	06°48′S, 70°14′E
12	Pitt Bank	submerged atoll	-	1317	-	07°04′S, 72°31′E
13	Diego Garcia	atoll	30	174	42)	07°19′S, 72°25′E
14	Ganges Bank	submerged atoll	-	30	-	07°23′S, 70°58′E
15	Wight Bank	submerged atoll	-	3	-	07°25′S, 71°31′E
16	Centurion Bank	submerged atoll	-	25	-	07°39′S, 70°50′E
	Chagos Archipelago	Archipelago	63.17	15420	64	04°54'S to 07°39'S 70°14'E to 72°37'
1) a number of drying sand cays
2) main island and three islets at the northern end

The main natural resources of the area are coconuts, and fish and the licensing of commercial fishing provides an annual income of about two million dollars for the British Indian Ocean Territory authorities.^[1]

All economic activity is concentrated on the largest island of Diego Garcia, where joint UK-US military facilities are located. Construction projects and various services needed to support the military installations are done by military and contract employees from the UK, Mauritius, the Philippines, and the US. There are currently no industrial or agricultural activities on the islands. When the Chagossians return, they plan to re-establish copra production and fishing.

Tropical marine; hot and humid but moderated by trade winds. Climate is characterised by plenty of sunshine, warm temperatures, showers and light breezes. December through February is considered the rainy season (summer monsoon); typical weather conditions include light west-northwesterly winds and warmer temperatures with more rainfall. June through September is considered the drier season (winter), characterised by moderate south-easterly winds, slightly cooler temperatures and less rainfall. The annual mean rainfall is 2600 mm (100 inches), varying from 105 mm (4 inches) during August to 350 mm (14 inches) during January.

Maldivian mariners knew the Chagos Islands well ^[2]. In Maldivian lore they are known as Fōlhavahi or Hollhavai (the latter name in the closer Southern Maldives). According to Southern Maldivian oral tradition, traders and fishermen were occasionally lost at sea and got stranded in one of the islands of the Chagos. Eventually they were rescued and brought back home. However, these islands were judged to be too far away from the Maldives to be settled permanently by Maldivians. Thus for many centuries the Chagos were ignored by their northern neighbors.

The first European explorer to spot the Chagos was Vasco da Gama in the early 16th century. Portuguese seafarers named the group and some of the Atolls, but they never made these islands part of their seaborne empire. They judged this lonely and isolated group to be economically and politically uninteresting.

The French were the first to lay a claim on the Chagos after they settled Réunion and Ile de France (later renamed Mauritius).

On 27 April 1786 the Chagos Isands and Diego Garcia were claimed for Britain. However, the territory was ceded to the United Kingdom by treaty only after Napoleon's defeat, in 1814. On 31 August 1903 the Chagos Archipelago was administratively separated from the Seychelles and attached to Mauritius.

The islands were retained as part of the British Indian Ocean Territory when Mauritius gained independence. Since 1976, the archipelago has been coterminous with the British Indian Ocean Territory, but it is also claimed by Mauritius and Seychelles.^[3]

The archipelago's first inhabitants arrived in the 18th century. These were the lepers of Ile de France (Mauritius) who were brought there in the second half of the 1700s. Soon after, a plan was drawn up by the French to settle the Chagos and make them profitable. Workers for a massive French project to establish coconut plantations and produce oil were sent from Ile de France (Mauritius) and settled in some of the largest islands. Consequently, in some maps of the time the Chagos are known as the "Oil Islands". Most of these workers were of African origin, but it is likely that there were also a few South Indians among them. The supervisors of the plantations were probably Frenchmen and the workers were probably little more than slaves, but very little has been recorded about conditions on the islands during that time.

By the mid-20th century the oil plantations had largely failed, but the original workers and their families had settled some of the largest islands and survived there. The islanders were known as the Ilois (one French Creole word for "islanders") and they numbered almost 2,000. They were of mixed African and South Asian descent and lived very simple, spartan lives in their isolated archipelago. Few remains of their culture have been left, except for the ruins of a few dwellings and a stone church that can still be seen in Diego Garcia.

Suddenly, between 1967 and 1971, the entire population was forcibly removed from the islands and relocated to Mauritius to make way for a joint United States-United Kingdom military base on Diego Garcia. Apparently, the displaced people received an initial funding of some £650,00 for their rehousing from the British Government, but individual islanders saw little of those funds and ended up living in a slum in Mauritius.

In the Chagos, the houses the Chagossians had abandoned fell slowly into ruin. Now the vegetation has taken over and in some islands it is difficult to discern where the village once had been. Yachtsmen passing through the archipelago often try to find the ruins and are unsuccessful.

Currently, the only habitation is the joint defence and naval support facility on Diego Garcia. Other uninhabited islands, especially in the Salomon group, are common stopping points for long-distance yachtsmen travelling from Southeast Asia to the Red Sea or the coast of Africa.

For more information on the expulsion of the islanders and the court case, please read the article on Diego Garcia.

The most high profile aspect of Chagos Island politics relates to the continued uncertainty as to the future of the former inhabitants of the islands who were evicted in the 1960s and 1970s as part of an arrangement between the United Kingdom and the United States to establish a military establishment on the island of Diego Garcia. The islanders' plight has been well documented, including a documentary produced by investigative journalist John Pilger, entitled "Stealing a Nation", which won the British Royal Television Society Best Documentary Award in 2004.

In 2000, the English High Court ruled that a local Ordinance made by the Commissioner of the British Indian Ocean Territory exiling the islanders was unlawful, a decision which was accepted by the British Foreign Secretary, Robin Cook. Subsequent to this decision, the British Government attempted to achieve the same objective through use of the royal prerogative; a strategy which was also found to be unlawful by the High Court. The UK government appealed the ruling, but on 23 May 2007 the Appeal Court dismissed the appeal saying that the methods used to stop the Chagos families to return to the islands were "unlawful" and "an abuse of power".^[4] The Government were refused leave to appeal to the House of Lords, but have stated an intention to appeal to the Lords against that refusal.

Thus, although these court rulings make it legal for these people to return to all islands other than Diego Garcia - which is currently the only island in the group which by treaty is required by the United States for military purposes - it seems unlikely that resettlement of the islands will commence until legal proceedings have been concluded.

If these court rulings are upheld, the long term future of the archipelago appears uncertain. In the medium term the US lease of Diego Garcia is by treaty currently set to expire in 2016, although both Governments have the option of extending the lease for another 20 years if considered necessary.

Beyond this date, it appears from statements made by Mauritius to the United Nations Human Rights Committee that the United Kingdom has undertaken to cede the islands to Mauritius once they are no longer required by the United States.

However, this undertaking appears to have been made on the predication that the islands continue to remain uninhabited; if the Chagossians are able to resume settlement the United Kingdom may decide to treat the islands in accordance with general principles of self-determination, potentially rendering the geopolitical future of the islands in the hands of its displaced people.

The inhabitants of Chagos were speaking Ilois, a French Creole which has not been properly researched from the linguistic point of view.

The island names are a striking combination of Portuguese, French, English and Creole names. Few places in the world can display such variety of origins in local nomenclature.

• Pilger, John. Freedom Next Time. Bantam Press. ISBN 0593055527.  Chapter 1: Stealing a Nation pp19 - 60

• Rao, Padma, "Der Edikt der Königin," Der Spiegel 5 December 2005, pp. 152-4.

• Xavier Romero-Frias, The Maldive Islanders, A Study of the Popular Culture of an Ancient Ocean Kingdom. Barcelona 1999, ISBN 84 7254 801 5

• List of Islands in Chagos Archipelago
• Depopulation of Diego Garcia
• Indian Ocean states
• British Indian Ocean Territory
• Robert Moresby

• Site shows "Flag of the Chagossians" at end of page
• 5 minute film about Chagos Islanders campaign to return

permanent.access.gpo.gov/websites/pollux/pollux.nss.nima.mil/NAV_PUBS/SD/pub171/171sec08.pdf Indian Ocean Pilot (download PDF)]

• Diego Garcia timeline posted at the History Commons about removal of Chagos Islanders
• Chagos Conservation Management Plan (PDF)
• Coral Reef Degradation in the Indian Ocean
• The US military presence on the Chagos Archipelago
• Article about the real history and life of the Chagossians
• Chagos: A Documentary Film
• Stealing Diego Garcia By JOHN PILGER
• The UK Chagos Support Association
• Texas University E Indian Ocean map
• CIA Factbook - British Indian Ocean Territory
• Stealing a Nation (tv documentary, 2004), a Special Report by John Pilger.
• A Return from Exile in Sight? The Chagossians and their Struggle, from the Northwestern Journal of International Human Rights
• BBC News Exiles lose appeal over benefits 02/11/07

v • d • e Atolls of the Chagos Archipelago (British Indian Ocean Territory)
Atolls with land area	Diego García · Egmont Islands · Peros Banhos · Salomon Islands · Great Chagos Bank · Blenheim Reef
Totally submerged atolls	Speakers Bank · Colvocoresses Reef · Benares Shoals · Victory Bank · Cauvin Bank · Pitt Bank · Ganges Bank · Wight Bank · Centurion Bank · Owen Bank

v • d • e Outlying territories of European countries
Territories under European sovereignty but closer to or on continents other than Europe (see inclusion criteria for further information)
Denmark	Greenland
France	Clipperton Island · French Guiana · French Polynesia · French Southern and Antarctic Lands (Amsterdam • Saint-Paul • Crozet • Kerguelen • Adélie Land1 • Scattered islands in the Indian Ocean: Bassas da India • Europa Island • Glorioso Islands • Juan de Nova Island • Tromelin Island) · Guadeloupe · Martinique · Mayotte · New Caledonia · Réunion · Saint Barthélemy · Saint Martin · Saint Pierre and Miquelon · Wallis and Futuna
Italy	Pantelleria · Pelagie Islands (Lampedusa • Lampione • Linosa)
Netherlands	Aruba · Netherlands Antilles (Bonaire • Curaçao • Saba • Sint Maarten • Sint Eustatius)
Norway	Bouvet Island · Peter I Island1 · Queen Maud Land1
Portugal	Azores Islands · Madeira Islands
Russia	Khabomai · Ratmanov Island · Shikotan
Spain	Canary Islands · Ceuta · Isla de Alborán  · Isla Perejil  · Islas Chafarinas  · Melilla  · Peñón de Alhucemas  · Peñón de Vélez de la Gomera
United Kingdom	Anguilla · Ascension Island · Bermuda · British Virgin Islands · Cayman Islands · Falkland Islands · Montserrat · Saint Helena · Tristan da Cunha · Turks and Caicos Islands · British Antarctic Territory1 · British Indian Ocean Territory · Pitcairn Islands · South Georgia and the South Sandwich Islands