How the sun will set on the British Empire for the first time in 200 years
The sun will quite literally set on the British Empire for the first time in 200 years.
The UK government confirmed yesterday they are handing over its control of the Chagos Islands in the Indian Ocean to Mauritius after taking it over and transforming the land into a military base in 1973.
This means British territories are no longer so spread across the globe, and the phrase ‘the sun never sets on the British Empire’ is no longer true.
But we will have to wait until next year to see off such a staple of British history, as parts of the British Antarctic Territory will be in sunlight for several more months.
Some on social media have managed to pinpoint an exact date the British Empire will finally experience total nightfall.
Writing when control over the Chagos Islands is officially relinquished, one redditor wrote: ‘Assuming this happens before March, this means when the sun sets on the Pitcairn Islands (18:50 Local time: UTC-8, 02:50 London time: UTC), the sun will have set on all British territory for the first time in over 200 years.’
Chagossians who have spent decades fighting for the right to their land back, but the Foreign Office said the agreement means the status of the military base will be undisputed and legally secure.
Foreign Secretary David Lammy said: ‘This Government inherited a situation where the long-term, secure operation of the Diego Garcia military base was under threat, with contested sovereignty and ongoing legal challenges.
Which countries are still part of the British Empire?
- Antigua and Barbuda
- Australia
- The Bahamas
- Belize
- Canada
- Grenada
- Jamaica
- New Zealand
- Papua New Guinea
- Saint Kitts and Nevis
- Saint Lucia
- Saint Vincent and the Grenadines
- Solomon Islands
- Tuvalu
- United Kingdom
‘Today’s agreement secures this vital military base for the future.
‘It will strengthen our role in safeguarding global security, shut down any possibility of the Indian Ocean being used as a dangerous illegal migration route to the UK, as well as guaranteeing our long-term relationship with Mauritius, a close Commonwealth partner.’
The agreement on the continued UK-US military presence on Diego Garcia is expected to run for 99 years with an option to renew.
A joint statement from the UK and Mauritius governments said the treaty will ‘address wrongs of the past and demonstrate the commitment of both parties to support the welfare of Chagossians’.
Why have the Chagos Islands been handed to Mauritius?
For a tiny group of atolls comprising just over 20 square miles of land in the Indian Ocean, the Chagos Islands have a long and contentious history.
The first inhabitants were slaves brought over by the French in the 18th century, and the territory was handed over by France to the British as part of Mauritius in 1814.
From the late 1960s to the early 1970s, the Chagossians were forced to leave their homes to make way for a US military base on the island of Diego Garcia.
Since then, there have been several court battles between former residents of the archipelago and the British government, who refused to let them return.
While Mauritius has never controlled the Chagos Islands as a sovereign state – it only gained independence in 1968, when the UK kept control of the atolls – the country has claimed them as its territory.
Despite anger from the Conservatives over yesterday’s announcement, the negotiations to hand Mauritius control of the islands began while the Tories were in government.
But it’s unclear who precisely started the process after former PMs and foreign secretaries pointed their fingers at each other.
James Cleverly criticised the deal as ‘weak, weak, weak’ yesterday, before it emerged he had initiated talks when he led the Foreign Office.
However, his team placed the blame at the feet of Liz Truss, saying she had asked him to begin negotiations during her brief spell as Prime Minister.
But Truss’s spokesman fired back by accusing then-PM Boris Johnson of telling her to raise the issue with the Mauritian leader at COP26 while she was foreign secretary, adding she was ‘absolutely clear that we would and should never cede the territory’.
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