Scattered about halfway between Tanzania and Indonesia, about 7° south of the Equator, the British Indian Ocean Territory, comprised of the majority of the islands of the Chagos Archipelago, continues to cause ripples in international affairs, as the full extent of the wacky [underhanded, it is submitted] behavior of British and United States of American wheeler-dealers emerges. Originally part of the British colony of Mauritius (which was itself a French colony before that, having originally been sighted by Portuguese explorer Vasco da Gama in the early 1500s), the Chagos (and some of the islands of Seychelles) were cobbled together to form the British Indian Ocean Territory in 1965 to give the British a bargaining chip with the United States of Americans, who in turn wanted a military base in the Indian Ocean--an otherwise *uninhabited* military base in the Indian Ocean, it should be noted. Ergo. The forced depopulation of the roughly 2,000 Chagossians who called the islands home (descendants of the African/Indian/Malay slaves brought over to work the copra plantations) commenced in earnest and was realized fully by the early 1970s. Through the decades, the Îlois have fought for the right of return, and just as progress was being made, some leaked documents in recent years have shown how the British and United States of Americans hatched a [nefarious, it is submitted] plan to create the Chagos Marine Protected Area and promptly designated the entirety of the BIOT thusly....and if you know anything about marine protected areas, you’ll know no one’s allowed to *live* there.....A strange little pocket of the earth.
Stamp details: Stamp on top: Issued on: October 23, 1968 From: Camp Justice, British Indian Ocean Territory MC #16
Middle stamps: Issued on: November 8, 1990 From: Camp Justice, British Indian Ocean Territory MC #108-109
Stamps on bottom: Issued on: May 2, 2018 From: Camp Justice, British Indian Ocean Territory Colnect #2018-01
Recognized as a sovereign state by the UN: No Claimed by: British Overseas Territory; Mauritius and Seychelles also have laid claim for sovereignty over the Chagos Archipelago Member of the Universal Postal Union: Yes (BOTs joined on April 1, 1877)