The long-forgotten history of the Chagos Islands

Now that Sir Keir Starmer has unilaterally decided to give up British ownership of the Chagos Islands, the last vestige of our imperial inheritance in the Indian Ocean, it seems an appropriate moment to look back at the long-forgotten history of this remote possession. Mauritius will be the happy recipient of the Chagos Archipelago, which consist of some 60 islands, mainly low-lying atolls and their lagoons. The Chagos Islands were ruled under Mauritius’s mantle until 1968. 

Today Mauritius is largely known as a destination for the British middle class who cannot bear the thought of a winter without a week or two’s break on an island on which they can broil under a tropical sun. Mauritius has become the poor man’s Barbados. Personally, like the Dutch who took possession of the island in the 16^th century, I have always viewed Mauritius as a hellhole; to me it ranks with Kuwait, or, closer to home, Swindon, as the least desirable places I have ever visited.