Following decades of heated disputes, the UK finally cedes the Chagos Islands to Mauritius, one of the wealthiest nations in Africa. The Brits needed the colony as a site of a strategic military base, hence the purge of the local civilians. But what made Number Ten give in and why does the loss of the archipelago spell trouble for the former empire?
Summarised in one word, the main reason the UK had to cede the Chagos Island is the US. Sooner or later, America’s insistent policy will prompt the Brits to pile outside and begin urging the government to make Britain Great again. Even though the British leadership was hoping to have their American counterparts help them retain the archipelago, the good old Blighty eventually had to back down.
The American finger in the archipelagic pie has a traceable origin. The atoll of Diego Garcia is home to a British–American military base that features navy ships and long-range bomber aircraft. It is an active compound that may be used in the U.S.–China showdown the way it was used in the allied invasion of Afghanistan and Iraq.
But recently, the Chagos Islands have been handed over to Mauritius, which is considered by international law as part of the decolonisation process. More often than not, this phenomenon involves the UK. After all, there are only 22 present-day countries to have never been invaded by the expansive Brits.
To be fair, though, both the Chagos Islands discovered by Vasco da Gama and Mauritius had been uninhabited before the early European settlers stepped foot ashore. That fact helped preserve the pristine local natural landscape that housed unique species, some of which, including the dodo, were later wiped out by the Brits.
The earliest attempt to populate Mauritius came at the hands of the Portuguese seafarers, followed by the Dutch incursions. But both countries had to give up and abandon the colonisation project due to a combination of the inclement tropical cyclones, the multiple insects and the hard-to-access shoreline. The French got luckier, though. The first European country to settle the Chagos Islands, France began transporting the Black slaves to work on the sugar plantations.
The nefarious practice was taken over by the Brits who ousted the French out of both Isle de France (later renamed Mauritius) and the Chagos Islands in 1810 as the British Empire consolidated these territories under its rule.
By the time the US and the UK decided to convert the archipelago’s largest atoll into a military base, the territory was home to roughly 2,000 residents, mostly of slave descent. All of them were exiled to Mauritius and barred from getting back home. The ban was in effect until quite recently as the Mauritians sought to retake ownership of the islands.
In a desperate bid to keep the base, the Brits severed the Chagos Islands from the rest of Mauritius before granting it independence in 1968. But since the UN had outlawed colonial secession, the UK lost a court battle over its prized overseas possessions. However, the government was reluctant to loosen its grip on the ill-fated archipelago. Whether the UN would call it occupation or, worse, ethnic cleansing, the Brits wanted the secretive military facility too badly to relent.
Needless to say, the British landlords were avidly supported by the US leaseholders. Time and again, the UN votes on the Chagos’ status saw the two nations act in unison. The Americans have made similar allied pacts with Ukraine and Israel when everybody else votes against the resolutions or chooses to abstain.
And while the UN General Assembly vote results are not necessarily enforceable, the Security Council’s resolutions are, but the UK is a permanent member with veto power. That means the UK could resist ceding the islands forever, and it largely seemed to be the case.
However, ‘forever’ was snapped short last week as the British and Mauritian governments signed a deal. Under the new agreement, the Chagos Islands are to rejoin Mauritius, but the UK’s sovereign rights to Diego Garcia have been extended for ‘an initial period of 99 years’, which means the resettlement of the island will be out of the question. The dispute was brokered by the US, which had a vested interest in the smooth operation of its military facility secured by the new agreement that is way more efficient than being the atoll’s co-occupiers.
From now on, the Americans will be using the base under the terms of the deal, which they are more comfortable with than the outdated chicanery of the former colonial power. Truth be told, the US has always been rather contemptuous of Britain’s hawkish foreign interests. It even used to challenge them before the US grew more imperious than the jolly good former empire itself. Except the Americans have largely upgraded and revamped the colonial policy that was in dire need of a proper facelift.
However, the mitigating aspect of the recent manoeuvre was that it had long been resisted by the Tory government, only to be pulled off by the now-ruling Labour.
Nevertheless, the British elites are concerned by the Chagos handover, not because the islands had an intrinsic value – after all, they are still in control of its sole asset – but rather it set an alarming precedent that could motivate the other nations to stake claims to the other territories currently owned by the Brits.
Argentina, for one, jumped at the opportunity to pledge to regain its sovereignty over the Falklands, and mind you, its incumbent president, Javier Milei, is a pro-American politician seeking to step up his country’s partnership with Nato.
Some say it is just the beginning, but is it? We may well be witnessing the ultimate downfall of the world’s most ruthless empire that will apparently not be lamented by anyone, not even its closest allies.
The Chagos Islands, the Falklands, Gibraltar – the list of Britain’s overseas territories goes on and on.
Crucially, though, Northern Island, Scotland and Wales may well be waiting in the wings too. And the dodo extinction requires a long-overdue apology, for sure.