British Overseas Territories

The fourteen British Overseas Territories are:[4]

Flag	Arms	Name	Location	Motto	Area	Population	Capital
		Akrotiri and Dhekelia	Cyprus, Mediterranean Sea		255 km2 (98 sq mi)[5]	7,700 (Cypriots; estimate) 8,000 non-permanent (UK military personnel and their families; estimate)	Episkopi Cantonment
		Anguilla	Caribbean, North Atlantic Ocean	"Unity, Strength and Endurance"	91 km2 (35.1 sq mi)[6]	14,869 (2019 estimate)[7]	The Valley
		Bermuda	North Atlantic Ocean between the Azores, the Caribbean, Cape Sable Island and Canada	"Quo fata ferunt" (Latin; "Whither the Fates carry [us]")	54 km2 (20.8 sq mi)[8]	62,506 (2019 estimate)[9]	Hamilton
		British Antarctic Territory	Antarctica	"Research and discovery"	1,709,400 km2 (660,000 sq mi)[6]	0 50 non-permanent in winter, over 400 in summer (research personnel)[10]	Rothera (main base)
		British Indian Ocean Territory	Indian Ocean	"In tutela nostra Limuria" (Latin; "Limuria is in our charge")	60 km2 (23 sq mi)[11]	0 3,000 non-permanent (UK and US military and staff personnel; estimate)[12]	Diego Garcia (base)
		British Virgin Islands	Caribbean, North Atlantic Ocean	"Vigilate" (Latin; "Be watchful")	153 km2 (59 sq mi)[13]	31,758 (2018 census)[14]	Road Town
		Cayman Islands	Caribbean	"He hath founded it upon the seas"	264 km2 (101.9 sq mi)[15]	68,076 (2019 estimate)[15]	George Town
		Falkland Islands	South Atlantic Ocean	"Desire the right"	12,173 km2 (4,700 sq mi)[8]	3,377 (2019 estimate)[16] 1,350 non-permanent (UK military personnel; 2012 estimate)	Stanley
		Gibraltar	Iberian Peninsula, Continental Europe	"Nulli expugnabilis hosti" (Latin; "No enemy shall expel us")	6.5 km2 (2.5 sq mi)[17]	33,701 (2019 estimate)[18] 1,250 non-permanent (UK military personnel; 2012 estimate)	Gibraltar
		Montserrat	Caribbean, North Atlantic Ocean	"A people of excellence, moulded by nature, nurtured by God"	101 km2 (39 sq mi)[19]	5,215 (2019 census)[20]	Plymouth (abandoned due to volcano—de facto capital is Brades)
		Pitcairn, Henderson, Ducie and Oeno Islands	Pacific Ocean		47 km2 (18 sq mi)[21]	50 (2018 estimate)[22] 6 non-permanent (2014 estimate)[23]	Adamstown
		Saint Helena, Ascension and Tristan da Cunha, including:	South Atlantic Ocean		420 km2 (162 sq mi)	5,633 (total; 2016 census)	Jamestown
		Saint Helena		"Loyal and Unshakeable" (Saint Helena)		4,349 (Saint Helena; 2019 census)[24]
		Ascension Island				880 (Ascension; estimate)[25] 1,000 non-permanent (Ascension; UK military personnel; estimate)[25]
		Tristan da Cunha		"Our faith is our strength" (Tristan da Cunha)		300 (Tristan da Cunha; estimate)[25] 9 non-permanent (Tristan da Cunha; weather personnel)
		South Georgia and the South Sandwich Islands	South Atlantic Ocean	"Leo terram propriam protegat" (Latin; "Let the lion protect his own land")	3,903 km2 (1,507 sq mi)[26]	0 99 non-permanent (officials and research personnel)[27]	King Edward Point
		Turks and Caicos Islands	Lucayan Archipelago, North Atlantic Ocean		430 km2 (166 sq mi)[28]	38,191 (2019 estimate)[29]	Cockburn Town
		Overall			c. 1,700,000 km2	c. 250,000[30]

Map

  British Overseas Territories

  United Kingdom

  Crown dependencies

Unofficial flag for the overseas territories used by Friends of the British Overseas Territories, a charitable organisation[31]

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The term "British Overseas Territory" was introduced by the British Overseas Territories Act 2002, replacing the term British Dependent Territory, introduced by the British Nationality Act 1981. Prior to 1 January 1983, the territories were officially referred to as British Crown Colonies.

Although the Crown dependencies of Jersey, Guernsey, and the Isle of Man are also under the sovereignty of the British monarch, they are in a different constitutional relationship with the United Kingdom.[32][33] The British Overseas Territories and Crown Dependencies are themselves distinct from the Commonwealth realms, a group of 16 independent countries (including the United Kingdom) each having Elizabeth II as their reigning monarch, and from the Commonwealth of Nations, a voluntary association of 53 countries mostly with historic links to the British Empire (which also includes all Commonwealth realms).

With the exceptions of the British Antarctic Territory and South Georgia and the South Sandwich Islands (which host only officials and research station staff) and the British Indian Ocean Territory (used as a military base), the Territories retain permanent civilian populations. Permanent residency for the approximately 7,000 civilians living in the Sovereign Base Areas of Akrotiri and Dhekelia is limited to citizens of the Republic of Cyprus.

Collectively, the Territories encompass a population of about 250,000 people[30] and a land area of about 1,700,000 square kilometres (660,000 sq mi). The vast majority of this land area constitutes the almost uninhabited British Antarctic Territory, while the two largest territories by population, the Cayman Islands and Bermuda, account for about half of the total BOT population. At the other end of the scale, three territories have no civilian population; the Antarctic territory, the British Indian Ocean Territory (from which the Chagos Islanders were controversially removed) and South Georgia. Pitcairn Islands, settled by the survivors of the Mutiny on the Bounty, is the smallest settled territory with 49 inhabitants, while the smallest by land area is Gibraltar on the southern tip of the Iberian peninsula.[34] The United Kingdom participates in the Antarctic Treaty System[35] and, as part of a mutual agreement, the British Antarctic Territory is recognised by four of the six other sovereign nations making claims to Antarctic territory.

St. George's town, in the Islands of Bermuda, or "The Somers Isles". The colony was founded by the wrecking of the flagship of the Virginia Company in 1609. The Company's charter was extended to include Bermuda in 1612, and it has remained a British colony ever since. Since the rebellion of Virginia, it has been the oldest-remaining British colony, and the town of St. George's is the oldest continuously inhabited British settlement in the New World.[36]

Early colonies, in the sense of English subjects residing in lands hitherto outside the control of the English government, were generally known as "Plantations".

The first, unofficial, colony was Newfoundland, where English fishermen routinely set up seasonal camps in the 16th century.[37] It is now a province of Canada known as Newfoundland and Labrador. It retains strong cultural ties with Britain.

English colonisation of North America began officially in 1607 with the settlement of Jamestown, the first successful permanent colony in Virginia (a term that was then applied generally to North America). Its offshoot, Bermuda, was settled inadvertently after the wrecking of the Virginia company's flagship there in 1609, with the Virginia Company's charter extended to officially include the archipelago in 1612. St. George's town, founded in Bermuda in that year, remains the oldest continuously inhabited British settlement in the New World (with some historians stating that – its formation predating the 1619 conversion of "James Fort" into "Jamestown" – St. George's was actually the first successful town the English established in the New World). Bermuda and Bermudians have played important, sometimes pivotal, but generally underestimated or unacknowledged roles in the shaping of the English and British trans-Atlantic Empires. These include maritime commerce, settlement of the continent and of the West Indies, and the projection of naval power via the colony's privateers, among other areas.[38][39]

The growth of the British Empire in the 19th century, to its territorial peak in the 1920s, saw Britain acquire nearly one quarter of the world's land mass, including territories with large indigenous populations in Asia and Africa. From the mid-nineteenth century to the early twentieth century, the larger settler colonies – in Canada, Australia, New Zealand and South Africa – first became self-governing colonies and then achieved independence in all matters except foreign policy, defence and trade. Separate self-governing colonies federated to become Canada (in 1867), Australia (in 1901), South Africa (in 1910), and Rhodesia (in 1965). These and other large self-governing colonies had become known as Dominions by the 1920s. The Dominions achieved almost full independence with the Statute of Westminster (1931).

Many of the overseas territories are in the Caribbean, as shown on the map.

Through a process of decolonisation following the Second World War, most of the British colonies in Africa, Asia and the Caribbean gained independence. Some colonies became Commonwealth realms, retaining the British monarch as their own head of state.[40] Most former colonies and protectorates became member states of the Commonwealth of Nations, a non-political, voluntary association of equal members, comprising a population of around 2.2 billion people.[41]

After the independence of Southern Rhodesia (now Zimbabwe) in Africa in 1980 and British Honduras (now Belize) in Central America in 1981, the last major colony that remained was Hong Kong, with a population of over 5 million.[42] With 1997 approaching, the United Kingdom and China negotiated the Sino-British Joint Declaration, which led to the whole of Hong Kong becoming a "special administrative region" of China in 1997, subject to various conditions intended to guarantee the preservation of Hong Kong's capitalist economy and its way of life under British rule for at least 50 years after the handover. George Town in the Cayman Islands has consequently become the largest city in the Overseas Territories.

In 2002, the British Parliament passed the British Overseas Territories Act 2002. This reclassified the UK's dependent territories as overseas territories and, with the exception of those people solely connected with the Sovereign Base Areas of Cyprus, restored full British citizenship to their inhabitants.[43]

The British Indian Ocean Territory (BIOT) is the subject of a territorial dispute with Mauritius, whose government claim that the separation of the Chagos Archipelago from the rest of British Mauritius in 1965, three years before Mauritius was granted independence from the United Kingdom, was not lawful. The long-running dispute was referred in 2017 to the International Court of Justice, which issued an advisory opinion on 25 February 2019 which supported the position of the Government of Mauritius.

The British Antarctic Territory has some overlap with territorial claims by both Argentina and Chile. However, territorial claims on the continent may not currently be advanced, under the holding measures of the Antarctic Treaty System.[52]

Leaders of the Overseas Territories with the Prime Minister, David Cameron, in 2012

Tristan da Cunha on 6 February 2013, as seen from space. The population was temporarily evacuated to the UK in 1961 because of an eruption. Postal code TDCU 1ZZ

Coastline at Little Bay, the site of the new capital of Montserrat replacing Plymouth. The project is funded by the[53] UK's Department for International Development.

British Overseas Territories at the same geographic scale as the UK

Historically the Secretary of State for the Colonies and the Colonial Office were responsible for overseeing all British Colonies, but today the Foreign and Commonwealth Office (FCO) has the responsibility of looking after the interests of all overseas territories except the Sovereign Base Areas of Akrotiri and Dhekelia, which comes under the jurisdiction of the Ministry of Defence.[54][55] Within the FCO, the general responsibility for the territories is handled by the Overseas Territories Directorate.[56]

In 2012, the FCO published The Overseas Territories: security, success and sustainability which set out Britain's policy for the Overseas Territories, covering six main areas:[57]

• Defence, security and safety of the territories and their people
• Successful and resilient economies
• Cherishing the environment
• Making government work better
• Vibrant and flourishing communities
• Productive links with the wider world

Britain and the overseas territories do not have diplomatic representations, although the governments of the overseas territories with indigenous populations all retain a representative office in London. The United Kingdom Overseas Territories Association (UKOTA) also represents the interests of the territories in London. The governments in both London and territories occasionally meet to mitigate or resolve disagreements over the process of governance in the territories and levels of autonomy.[58]

Britain provides financial assistance to the overseas territories via the Department for International Development. Currently only Montserrat and Saint Helena receive budgetary aid (i.e. financial contribution to recurrent funding). Several specialist funds are made available by the UK, including:

• The Good Government Fund which provides assistance on government administration;
• The Economic Diversification Programme Budget which aim to diversify and enhance the economic bases of the territories.

The territories have no official representation in the UK Parliament, but have informal representation through the All-Party Parliamentary Group,[59] and can petition the UK Government through the Directgov e-Petitions website.[60]

Two national parties, UKIP and the Liberal Democrats, have endorsed calls for direct representation of overseas territories in the UK Parliament, as well as backbench members of the Conservative Party and Labour Party.[61][62]

Foreign affairs

Map showing the portion of Antarctica claimed by the UK as British Antarctic Territory

Gibraltar was the only overseas territory included in the European Union.

Foreign affairs of the overseas territories are handled by the FCO in London. Some territories maintain diplomatic officers in nearby countries for trade and immigration purposes. Several of the territories in the Americas maintain membership within the Organisation of Eastern Caribbean States, the Caribbean Community, the Caribbean Development Bank, Caribbean Disaster Emergency Management Agency, and the Association of Caribbean States. The territories are members of the Commonwealth of Nations through the United Kingdom. The inhabited territories compete in their own right at the Commonwealth Games, and three of the territories (Bermuda, the Cayman Islands and the British Virgin Islands) sent teams to the 2016 Summer Olympics.

Full British citizenship[63] has been granted to most 'belongers' of overseas territories (mainly since the British Overseas Territories Act 2002).

Most countries do not recognise the sovereignty claims of any other country, including Britain's, to Antarctica and its off-shore islands. Five nations contest, with counter-claims, the UK's sovereignty in the following overseas territories:

• British Antarctic Territory – Territory overlaps Antarctic claims made by Chile and Argentina
• British Indian Ocean Territory – claimed by Mauritius and Seychelles
• Falkland Islands – claimed by Argentina
• Gibraltar – border disputed by Spain
• South Georgia and the South Sandwich Islands – claimed by Argentina

Citizenship

None of the overseas territories has its own nationality status, and most residents hold two forms of British nationality: British Overseas Territories citizenship (BOTC) and British citizenship. Only the latter grants the right of abode in a specific country or territory, namely, the United Kingdom proper which includes its three Crown Dependencies. Individual overseas territories have legislative independence over immigration, and consequently, BOTC status does not automatically grant the right of abode in any of the territories, as it depends on the territory's immigration laws. A territory may issue belonger status to allow a person to reside in the territory that they have close links with. The governors of the territories may also allow naturalization of non-BOTCs as BOTCs.

Thousands of Gibraltarians dress in their national colours of red and white during the 2013 Gibraltar National Day celebrations. Gibraltarians were the only group of overseas territories residents who could apply for full British citizenship without restrictions before 2002.

From 1949 to 1983, the nationality status of Citizenship of UK and Colonies (CUKC) was shared by residents of the UK proper and residents of overseas territories, although most residents of overseas territories lost their automatic right to live in the UK after the ratification of Commonwealth Immigrants Act 1968 that year unless they were born in the UK proper or had a parent or a grandparent born in the UK.[64] In 1983, CUKC status of residents of overseas territories without the right of abode in the UK was replaced by British Dependent Territories citizenship (BDTC) in the newly-minted British Nationality Act 1981, a status that does not come with it the right of abode in the UK or any overseas territory. For these residents, registration as full British citizens then required physical residence in the UK proper. There were only two exceptions: Falkland Islanders, who were automatically granted British citizenship and was treated as a part of the UK proper through the enactment of British Nationality (Falkland Islands) Act 1983 due to the Falklands War with Argentina, and Gibraltarians who were given the special entitlement to be registered as British citizens upon request without further conditions because of its individual membership in the European Economic Area and the European Community.[65]

Five years after the handover of Hong Kong to China in 1997, the British government amended the 1981 Act to give British citizenship without restrictions to all BDTCs (the status was also renamed BOTC at the same time) except for those solely connected with Akrotiri and Dhekelia (whose residents already held Cypriot citizenship).[66]. This restored the right of abode in the UK to residents of overseas territories after a 34-year hiatus from 1968 to 2002.

Military

RAF Mount Pleasant, Falkland Islands

Defence of the Overseas Territories is the responsibility of the UK. Many of the overseas territories are used as military bases by the UK and its allies.

• Ascension Island (part of Saint Helena, Ascension and Tristan da Cunha) – the Base known as RAF Ascension Island is used by both the Royal Air Force and the United States Air Force.
• Bermuda – became the primary Royal Navy base in North America, following US independence. The Naval establishment included an admiralty, a dockyard, and a naval squadron. A considerable military garrison was built up to protect it, and Bermuda, which the British Government came to see as a base, rather than as a colony, was known as Fortress Bermuda, and the Gibraltar of the West (Bermudians, like Gibraltarians, also dub their territory "The Rock").[67] Canada and the USA also established bases in Bermuda during the Second World War, which were maintained through the Cold War. Four air bases were located in Bermuda during the Second World War (operated by the Royal Air Force, Royal Navy, US Navy, and US Army/Army Air Force). Since 1995, the military force in Bermuda has been reduced to the local territorial battalion, the Royal Bermuda Regiment.
• British Indian Ocean Territory – the island of Diego Garcia is home to a large naval base and airbase leased to the United States by the United Kingdom until 2036 (unless renewed). There are British forces in small numbers in the BIOT for administrative and immigration purposes.
• Falkland Islands – the British Forces Falkland Islands includes commitments from the British Army, Royal Air Force and Royal Navy, along with the Falkland Islands Defence Force.
• Gibraltar – British Forces Gibraltar includes a Royal Navy dockyard (also used by NATO), RAF Gibraltar – used by the RAF and NATO and a local garrison – the Royal Gibraltar Regiment.
• The Sovereign Base Areas of Akrotiri and Dhekelia in Cyprus – maintained as strategic British military bases in the eastern Mediterranean Sea.
• Montserrat – the Royal Montserrat Defence Force, historically connected with the Irish Guards, is a body of twenty volunteers, whose duties are primarily ceremonial.[68]

Cliffs at Gough and Inaccessible Islands

Most of the languages other than English spoken in the territories contain a large degree of English, either as a root language, or in codeswitching, e.g. Llanito. They include:

• Llanito or Yanito and Spanish (Gibraltar)
• Cayman Creole (Cayman Islands)
• Turks-Caicos Creole (Turks and Caicos Islands)
• Pitkern (Pitcairn Islands)
• Greek and Turkish (Akrotiri and Dhekelia)

Forms of English:

• Bermudian English (Bermuda)
• Falkland Islands English

The many British overseas territories use a varied assortment of currencies, including the euro, pound, US dollar, NZ dollar, or their own currencies, which may be pegged to one of these.

¹ Part of the British Overseas Territory of Saint Helena, Ascension and Tristan da Cunha.

Overseas Territories flags in Parliament Square in 2013

Each overseas territory has been granted its own flag and coat of arms by the British monarch. Traditionally, the flags follow the Blue Ensign design, with the Union Flag in the canton, and the territory's coat of arms in the fly. Exceptions to this are Bermuda which uses a Red Ensign; British Antarctic Territory which uses a White Ensign, but without the overall cross of St. George; British Indian Ocean Territory which uses a Blue Ensign with wavy lines to symbolise the sea; and Gibraltar which uses a banner of its coat of arms (the flag of the city of Gibraltar).

Akrotiri and Dhekelia and Saint Helena, Ascension and Tristan da Cunha are the only British overseas territories without their own flag, though Saint Helena and Ascension Island both have their own individual flags. The Union Flag is used in these territories.

Bermuda, the British Virgin Islands and the Cayman Islands are the only British Overseas Territories with recognised National Olympic Committees (NOCs); the British Olympic Association is recognised as the appropriate NOC for athletes from the other territories, and thus athletes who hold a British passport are eligible to represent Great Britain at the Olympic Games.[75]

Shara Proctor from Anguilla, Delano Williams from the Turks and Caicos Islands, Jenaya Wade-Fray from Bermuda[76] and Georgina Cassar from Gibraltar strived to represent Team GB at the London 2012 Olympics. Proctor, Wade-Fray and Cassar qualified for Team GB, with Williams missing the cut, however wishing to represent the UK in 2016.[77][78]

The Gibraltar national football team was accepted into UEFA in 2013 in time for the 2016 European Championships. It has been accepted by FIFA and went into the 2018 FIFA World Cup qualifying, where they achieved 0 points.

The World Heritage Sites of the UK (Overseas Territories): The natural sites of Gough and Inaccessible Islands and Henderson Island are marked green, the cultural sites of the Historic Town of St George and Related Fortifications, Kourion, and Gorham's Cave are marked red.

The British Overseas Territories have more biodiversity than the entire UK mainland.[79] There are at least 180 endemic plant species in the overseas territories as opposed to only 12 on the UK mainland. Responsibility for protection of biodiversity and meeting obligations under international environmental conventions is shared between the UK Government and the local governments of the territories.[80]

Two areas, Henderson Island in the Pitcairn Islands as well as the Gough and Inaccessible Islands of Tristan Da Cunha are listed as UNESCO World Heritage Sites, and two other territories, the Turks and Caicos Islands, and Saint Helena are on the United Kingdom's tentative list for future UNESCO World Heritage Sites.[81][82] Gibraltar's Gorham's Cave Complex is also found on the UK's tentative UNESCO World Heritage Site list.[83]

The three regions of biodiversity hotspots situated in the British Overseas Territories are the Caribbean Islands, the Mediterranean Basin and the Oceania ecozone in the Pacific.[80]

The UK created the largest continuous marine protected areas in the world, the Chagos Marine Protected Area, and announced in 2015 funding to establish a new, larger, reserve around the Pitcairn Islands.[84][85][86]

In January 2016, the UK government announced the intention to create a marine protected area around Ascension Island. The protected area would be 234,291 square kilometers, half of which would be closed to fishing.[87]

• 
  A Stoplight Parrotfish in Princess Alexandra Land and Sea National Park, Providenciales, Turks and Caicos Islands
• 
  Penguins in South Georgia, 2010
• 
  Henderson Island in the Pitcairn Islands
• 
  Rothera Research Station

• Depopulation of Chagossians from the Chagos Archipelago to enable building of a UK-US military base in the British Indian Ocean Territory
• List of postcodes
• List of leaders of Overseas Territories
• List of British Army installations
• British overseas territory citizens in the mainland United Kingdom
• Colonial Department
• Secretary of State for the Colonies
• Colonial Office
• Universities in British Overseas Territories
• United Kingdom Overseas Territories Association (UKOTA)
• UK Overseas Territories Conservation Forum
• List of stock exchanges in the United Kingdom, the British Crown Dependencies and United Kingdom Overseas Territories
• Tax haven lists

• Charles Cawley. Colonies in Conflict: The History of the British Overseas Territories (2015) 444pp
• Harry Ritchie, The Last Pink Bits: Travels Through the Remnants of the British Empire (London: Hodder & Stoughton, 1997)
• Simon Winchester, Outposts: Journeys to the Surviving Relics of the British Empire (London & New York, 1985)
• George Drower, Britain's Dependent Territories (Dartmouth, 1992)
• George Drower, Overseas Territories Handbook (London: TSO, 1998)
• Ian Hendry and Susan Dickson, "British Overseas Territories Law" (London: Hart Publishing, 2011)
• Ben Fogle, The Teatime Islands: Adventures in Britain's Faraway Outposts (London: Michael Joseph, 2003)
• Bonham C. Richardson (16 January 1992). The Caribbean in the Wider World, 1492–1992. Cambridge University Press. ISBN 9780521359771. Retrieved 8 December 2010.

Wikimedia Commons has media related to British overseas territories.

• Foreign and Commonwealth Office – UK Overseas Territories
• United Kingdom Overseas Territories Association
• British Overseas Territories Act 2002 – Text of the Act

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