1.
Flag of the United Kingdom
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The national flag of the United Kingdom is the Union Jack, also known as the Union Flag. The current design of the Union Jack dates from the union of Ireland and it consists of the red cross of Saint George, edged in white, superimposed on the Cross of St Patrick, which are superimposed on the Saltire of Saint Andrew. Wales, however, is not represented in the Union Flag by Waless patron saint, Saint David, the flags standard height-to-length proportions are 1,2. The war flag variant used by the British Army modifies the proportions to 3,5, the earlier flag of Great Britain was established in 1606 by a proclamation of King James VI and I of Scotland and England. The Union Flag can be flown by any individual or organisation in Great Britain on any day of their choice, legal regulations restrict the use of the Union Flag on Government buildings in Northern Ireland. Long-standing restrictions on Government use of the flag elsewhere were abolished in July 2007, while the flag appears symmetric, the white lines above and below the diagonal red are different widths. On the side closer to the flagpole, the lines above the diagonals are wider, on the side farther from the flagpole. Thus, no change will be apparent when rotating the flag 180 degrees, placing the flag upside down is considered lèse majesté and is offensive to some. However, it can be flown upside down as a distress signal, while this is rare, it was used by groups under siege during the Boer War and during campaigns in India in the late 18th century. The reason that the UK flag is not symmetrical is because of the positions of the saltires of St Patrick. The red saltire of St Patrick is offset such that it does not relegate the white saltire of St Andrew to a mere border, St Andrews saltire has the higher position at the hoist side with St Patricks saltire in the higher position on the opposite side. Half-mast means the flag is flown two-thirds of the way up the flagpole with at least the height of the flag between the top of the flag and the top of the flagpole. Until July 2007, the Union Flag was only flown on Government buildings on a number of special days each year. The choice of days was managed by the Department for Culture, Media, Government buildings are those used by civil servants, the Crown, or the armed forces. They were not applicable to citizens, corporations, or local authorities. On 3 July 2007, the Justice Secretary Jack Straw laid a green paper before Parliament entitled The Governance of Britain. Two days later, Prime Minister Gordon Brown announced that with immediate effect the Union Flag would fly from the pole above the front entrance of 10 Downing Street on every day of the year. The intention was to increase feelings of British national identity, other Government departments were asked to follow this lead, and all Government buildings in Whitehall did so
2.
George Town, Cayman Islands
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George Town is a city situated on Grand Cayman island of the Cayman Islands. It serves as the capital of the Cayman Islands, in the British West Indies, as of 2007, the city had a population of 28,836, making it the second largest city of all the British Overseas Territories. George Town is the heart of the Cayman Islands financial services industry, the Caymanian government offices are located in the city. The Caymanian government offices are located in George Town and these offices include the Legislative Assembly of the Cayman Islands, the Court Houses and the Government Administration Building. The Government Administration Building houses the offices of the Premier and other members of Cabinet, the former Old Courts Building located at the corner of Shedden Road and Harbour Drive is now the National Museum of Grand Cayman. The building was more than 150 years ago and has served the Caymanian government not only as a court building but as a jail. George Towns famous Seven Mile Beach is a crescent of coral-sand beach extending up to the West Bay region of Grand Cayman and is the most popular. The financial services generated CI$1.2 billion of GDP in 2007, 36% of all employment, the Cayman Islands ranks fifth internationally in terms of value of liabilities booked and sixth in terms of assets booked. It has branches of 40 of the worlds 50 largest banks, the Cayman Islands are the second largest captive domicile in the world with more than 700 captives, writing more than US$7.7 billion of premiums and with US$36.8 billion of assets under management. There are more than 9,500 funds under licence with globally recognised legal, audit/accounting, major law firms such as Maples and Calder have established themselves in the Cayman Islands. Similarly, large accounting firms such as KPMG, Ogier, Ernst & Young, as a result, the Cayman Islands are a leader in captive domiciles, hedge fund registrations and is considered a major international banking centre. George Town is a port of call for the Caribbean with cruise ships anchoring in George Town Harbour Tuesday through Friday. Cruise ships calling at George Town anchor offshore and ferry their passengers ashore by tenders, passengers disembark in George Town, in the centre of the Grand Cayman shopping district and usually remain anchored from early morning until mid-afternoon. For nightlife, Seven Mile Beach is host to numerous nightclubs, George Towns waterfront is also home to a Harley-Davidson shop, a Jimmy Buffetts Margaritaville franchise, and a Guy Harvey art studio and restaurant. Ritz-Carlton Grand Cayman is the grandest hotel on the island, George Town, as well as the rest of Grand Cayman, is served by nearby Owen Roberts International Airport. It is one of the two entrance points to the Cayman Islands by air, the other being Charles Kirkconnell Airport on Cayman Brac. There are over 55 weekly flights into the Cayman Islands, Cayman Airways is the National Flag Carrier of the Cayman Islands and features five Boeing 737 jets and two Twin Otters. Non-stop service to Grand Cayman are available from Atlanta, Chicago, Tampa, Newark, London, Toronto, New York, Montego Bay, havana, Miami, Panama City, La Ceiba and more
3.
Gibraltar
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Gibraltar is a British Overseas Territory located on the southern end of the Iberian Peninsula. It has an area of 6.7 km2 and shares its border with Spain. The Rock of Gibraltar is the landmark of the region. At its foot is a populated city area, home to over 30,000 Gibraltarians. An Anglo-Dutch force captured Gibraltar from Spain in 1704 during the War of the Spanish Succession on behalf of the Habsburg claim to the Spanish throne, the territory was subsequently ceded to Great Britain in perpetuity under the Treaty of Utrecht in 1713. Today Gibraltars economy is based largely on tourism, online gambling, financial services, the sovereignty of Gibraltar is a major point of contention in Anglo-Spanish relations as Spain asserts a claim to the territory. Gibraltarians overwhelmingly rejected proposals for Spanish sovereignty in a 1967 referendum, under the Gibraltar constitution of 2006, Gibraltar governs its own affairs, though some powers, such as defence and foreign relations, remain the responsibility of the British government. The name Gibraltar is the Spanish derivation of the Arabic name Jabal Ṭāriq, earlier, it was known as Mons Calpe, a name of Phoenician origin and one of the Pillars of Hercules. The pronunciation of the name in modern Spanish is, evidence of Neanderthal habitation in Gibraltar between 28,000 and 24,000 BP has been discovered at Gorhams Cave, making Gibraltar possibly the last known holdout of the Neanderthals. Within recorded history, the first inhabitants were the Phoenicians, around 950 BC, subsequently, Gibraltar became known as one of the Pillars of Hercules, after the Greek legend of the creation of the Strait of Gibraltar by Heracles. The Carthaginians and Romans also established semi-permanent settlements, after the collapse of the Roman Empire, Gibraltar came briefly under the control of the Vandals. The area later formed part of the Visigothic Kingdom of Hispania from 414 AD until the Islamic conquest of Iberia in 711 AD, in 1160, the Almohad Sultan Abd al-Mumin ordered that a permanent settlement, including a castle, be built. It received the name of Medinat al-Fath, on completion of the works in the town, the Sultan crossed the Strait to look at the works and stayed in Gibraltar for two months. The Tower of Homage of the Moorish Castle remains standing today, from 1274 onwards, the town was fought over and captured by the Nasrids of Granada, the Marinids of Morocco and the kings of Castile. In 1462, Gibraltar was finally captured by Juan Alonso de Guzmán, after the conquest, King Henry IV of Castile assumed the additional title of King of Gibraltar, establishing it as part of the comarca of the Campo Llano de Gibraltar. In 1501, Gibraltar passed back to the Spanish Crown, the occupation of the town by Alliance forces caused the exodus of the population to the surrounding area of the Campo de Gibraltar. As the Alliances campaign faltered, the 1713 Treaty of Utrecht was negotiated and ceded control of Gibraltar to Britain to secure Britains withdrawal from the war. Unsuccessful attempts by Spanish monarchs to regain Gibraltar were made with the siege of 1727 and again with the Great Siege of Gibraltar, during the American War of Independence
4.
Road Town
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Road Town, located on Tortola, is the capital of the British Virgin Islands. It is situated on the horseshoe-shaped Road Harbour in the centre of the south coast. The population was about 9,400 in 2004, the name is derived from the nautical term the roads, a place less sheltered than a harbour but which ships can easily get to. This area is the newest part of the city and the hub for the new commercial, the oldest building in Road Town, HM Prison on Main Street, was built in 1774. The British Virgin Islands enjoy a tropical climate, moderated by trade winds, temperatures vary little throughout the year. In the capital, Road Town, typical daily maxima are around 32 °C in the summer and 29 °C in the winter, typical daily minima are around 24 °C in the summer and 21 °C in the winter. Rainfall averages about 1,150 mm per year, higher in the hills, rainfall can be quite variable, but the wettest months on average are September to November and the driest months on average are February and March. Hurricanes occasionally hit the islands, with the season running from June to November. Road Town is one of the centres for bareboating in the Caribbean. Many successful yacht-charter businesses operate from Road Town, cruise ships can be often seen docked here as well. The Harbour is a popular point for many of the ferries servicing the island. The ferry terminal is located at the north-west end of Road Town, ferries run during the day every day of the week, but rarely at night, it is important to consult an up-to-date ferry timetable in advance. Road Town is served by the British Virgin Islands only major airport, lettsome International Airport, at Beef Island, within a short drive of the city. Only short haul flights are available from this airport, long distance flights are served by Cyril E. King Airport in the US Virgin Islands. Buses in Tortola refers to full-sized passenger vans, or large modified open-air pick-up trucks with bench seating and a canvas top, these are known locally as safaris. Traveling by bus can be less expensive than having a taxi to oneself, on 1 August 1834, the Emancipation Proclamation was read at the Sunday Morning Well. In 1853, a fire destroyed nearly every building in Road Town. The fire spread because of angry rioters protested an increase on the cattle tax, rioters eventually set fire to most of the plantations across the island
5.
Demonym
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A demonym is a word that identifies residents or natives of a particular place, which is derived from the name of that particular place. It is a neologism, previously gentilic was recorded in English dictionaries, e. g. the Oxford English Dictionary, thus a Thai may be any resident or citizen of Thailand, of any ethnic group, or more narrowly a member of the Thai people. Conversely, some groups of people may be associated with multiple demonyms, for example, a native of the United Kingdom may be called a British person, a Brit, or a Briton. In some languages, when a parallel demonym does not exist, in English, demonyms are capitalized and are often the same as the adjectival form of the place, e. g. Egyptian, Japanese, or Greek. Significant exceptions exist, for instance the adjectival form of Spain is Spanish, English widely includes country-level demonyms such as Ethiopian or Guatemalan and more local demonyms such as Seoulite, Wisconsinite, Chicagoan, Michigander, Fluminense, and Paulista. Some places lack a commonly used and accepted demonym and this poses a particular challenge to those toponymists who research demonyms. The word gentilic comes from the Latin gentilis and the English suffix -ic, the word demonym was derived from the Greek word meaning populace with the suffix for name. National Geographic attributes the term demonym to Merriam-Webster editor Paul Dickson in a recent work from 1990 and it was subsequently popularized in this sense in 1997 by Dickson in his book Labels for Locals. However, in What Do You Call a Person From, a Dictionary of Resident Names attributed the term to George H. Scheetz, in his Names Names, A Descriptive and Prescriptive Onymicon, which is apparently where the term first appears. Several linguistic elements are used to create demonyms in the English language, the most common is to add a suffix to the end of the location name, slightly modified in some instances. Cairo → Cairene Cyrenaica → Cyrene Damascus → Damascene Greece → Greek Nazareth → Nazarene Slovenia → Slovene Often used for Middle Eastern locations and European locations. Kingston-upon-Hull → Hullensian Leeds → Leodensian Spain → Spaniard Savoy → Savoyard -ese is usually considered proper only as an adjective, thus, a Chinese person is used rather than a Chinese. Monaco → Monégasque Menton → Mentonasque Basque Country → Basque Often used for French locations, mostly they are from Africa and the Pacific, and are not generally known or used outside the country concerned. In much of East Africa, a person of an ethnic group will be denoted by a prefix. For example, a person of the Luba people would be a Muluba, the plural form Baluba, similar patterns with minor variations in the prefixes exist throughout on a tribal level. And Fijians who are indigenous Fijians are known as Kaiviti and these demonyms are usually more informal and colloquial. In the United States such informal demonyms frequently become associated with mascots of the sports teams of the state university system. In other countries the origins are often disputed and these will typically be formed using the standard models above
6.
Akrotiri and Dhekelia
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Akrotiri and Dhekelia, officially the Sovereign Base Areas of Akrotiri and Dhekelia, is a British Overseas Territory on the island of Cyprus. The territory is comprised of two Base Areas, one is Akrotiri, or the Western Sovereign Base Area, which includes two main bases at RAF Akrotiri and Episkopi, plus all of Akrotiri Villages district and parts of eleven other village districts. The other area is Dhekelia Cantonment, or the Eastern Sovereign Base Area, the Sovereign Base Areas were created in 1960 by the London and Zurich Agreements, when Cyprus achieved independence from the British Empire. The United Kingdom desired to retain sovereignty over these areas, as this guaranteed the use of UK military bases on Cyprus, including RAF Akrotiri, and this did not affect the status of the bases. The Turkish advance halted when it reached the edge of the Dhekelia Sovereign Base Area to avoid conflict with the United Kingdom. Some Greek Cypriot refugees remain housed on land in the parts of Trachoni, locals claimed the masts would endanger local lives and cause cancer, as well as have a negative impact on wildlife in the area. As of 2010, around 3,000 troops of British Forces Cyprus are based at Akrotiri, Ayios Nikolaos Station, in the ESBA, is an ELINT listening station of the UKUSA Agreement intelligence network. The election of left-wing Demetris Christofias as Cypriot president in February 2008 prompted concern in the United Kingdom, Christofias pledged to remove all foreign military forces from the island as part of a future settlement of the Cyprus dispute, calling the British presence on the island a colonial bloodstain. In some Cypriot media it was stated that the interdiction of the Syrian civil war, utilising Akrotiri and Dhekelia. The Labour government under whom the proposal appeared was replaced by the first Cameron ministry, the SBAs were retained in 1960 to keep military bases in areas under British sovereignty, along with the rights retained to use other sites in what became the territory of the Republic. Not to set up and administer colonies, not to create customs posts or other frontier barriers between the Sovereign Base Areas and the Republic. Not to establish commercial or civilian seaports or airports, not to allow new settlement of people in the Sovereign Base Areas other than for temporary purposes. Not to expropriate private property within the Sovereign Base Areas except for military purposes on payment of fair compensation, the ancient monuments and antiquity will be administered and maintained by the Republic of Cyprus. Licences for antiquity excavation will be issued by the Republic but will be subject to the consent of the authorities of the Sovereign Base Areas, movable antiquities found in excavations or discovered will be the property of the Republic. It has no connection with the Foreign and Commonwealth Office or the British High Commission in Nicosia. The territory is administered by an Administrator who is also the Commander of British Forces Cyprus, the Administrator is officially appointed by the British monarch on the advice of the Ministry of Defence. The Administrator has all the executive and legislative authority of a governor of an overseas territory, no elections are held in the territory, although British citizens are normally entitled to vote in United Kingdom elections. The areas have their own system, distinct from the United Kingdom
7.
Anguilla
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Anguilla is a British overseas territory in the Caribbean. It is one of the most northerly of the Leeward Islands in the Lesser Antilles, lying east of Puerto Rico, the islands capital is The Valley. The total land area of the territory is 35 square miles, Anguilla has become a popular tax haven, having no capital gains, estate, profit or other forms of direct taxation on either individuals or corporations. In April 2011, faced with a deficit, it introduced a 3% Interim Stabilisation Levy. The name Anguilla is an anglicised or latinate form of earlier Spanish anguila, French anguille, or Italian anguilla, for similar reasons, it was formerly known as Snake or Snake Island. Anguilla was first settled by Indigenous Amerindian peoples who migrated from South America, the earliest Native American artefacts found on Anguilla have been dated to around 1300 BC, remains of settlements date from AD600. The Arawak name for the island seems to have been Malliouhana, traditional accounts state that Anguilla was first colonised by English settlers from Saint Kitts beginning in 1650. The French temporarily took over the island in 1666 but returned it to English control under the terms of the Treaty of Breda the next year. A Major John Scott who visited in September 1667, wrote of leaving the island in good condition and it is likely that some of these early Europeans brought enslaved Africans with them. Historians confirm that African slaves lived in the region in the early 17th century, for example, Africans from Senegal lived in St. Christopher in 1626. By 1672 a slave depot existed on the island of Nevis, while the time of African arrival in Anguilla is difficult to place precisely, archival evidence indicates a substantial African presence of at least 100 slaves by 1683. These seem to have come from Central Africa as well as West Africa, attempts by the French to capture the island during the War of Austrian Succession and the Napoleonic Wars ended in failure. During the early period, Anguilla was administered by the British through Antigua, in 1825. In 1967, Britain granted Saint Kitts and Nevis full internal autonomy, Anguilla was also incorporated into the new unified dependency, named Saint Christopher-Nevis-Anguilla, against the wishes of many Anguillians. This led to two Anguillian Revolutions in 1967 and 1969 headed by Atlin Harrigan and Ronald Webster, the island briefly operated as the independent Republic of Anguilla. The goal of the revolution was not independence per se, but rather independence from Saint Kitts and Nevis, British authority was fully restored in July 1971 and in 1980 Anguilla was finally allowed to secede from Saint Kitts and Nevis and become a separate British Crown colony. Anguilla is an internally self-governing overseas territory of the United Kingdom and its politics take place in a framework of a parliamentary representative democratic dependency, whereby the Chief Minister is the head of government, and of a pluriform multi-party system. The United Nations Committee on Decolonization includes Anguilla on the United Nations list of Non-Self-Governing Territories, the territorys constitution is Anguilla Constitutional Order 1 April 1982
8.
Bermuda
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Bermuda is a British Overseas Territory in the North Atlantic Ocean. It is approximately 1,070 km east-southeast of Cape Hatteras, North Carolina,1,236 km south of Cape Sable Island, Nova Scotia, Bermuda is an associate member of Caribbean Community. The first person known to have reached Bermuda was the Spanish sea captain Juan de Bermúdez in 1503 and he claimed the islands for the Spanish Empire. Bermúdez never landed on the islands, but made two visits to the archipelago, of which he created a recognisable map, shipwrecked Portuguese mariners are now thought to have been responsible for the 1543 inscription on Portuguese Rock. Subsequent Spanish or other European parties are believed to have released pigs there, the island was administered as an extension of Virginia by the Company until 1614. Its spin-off, the Somers Isles Company, took over in 1615, at that time, the companys charter was revoked, and the English Crown took over administration. The islands became a British colony following the 1707 unification of the parliaments of Scotland and England, after 1949, when Newfoundland became part of Canada, Bermuda became the oldest remaining British Overseas Territory. Since the return of Hong Kong to China in 1997, it is the most populous Territory and its first capital, St. Georges, was established in 1612 and is the oldest continuously inhabited English town in the New World. Bermudas economy is based on insurance and reinsurance, and tourism. Bermuda had one of the worlds highest GDP per capita for most of the 20th century, recently, its economic status has been affected by the global recession. The island is in the belt and prone to severe weather. However, it is protected from the full force of a hurricane by the coral reef that surrounds the island. It is 898 nautical miles northeast of Miami, Florida, and 667 nautical miles from Cape Sable Island, in Nova Scotia, Canada. The islands lie due east of Fripp Island, South Carolina, west-northwest of Cape Verde, southeast of New York City, New York, north-northwest of Brazil and north of San Juan, Puerto Rico. The archipelago is formed by points on the rim of the caldera of a submarine volcano that forms a seamount. The volcano is one part of a range that was formed as part of the process that formed the floor of the Atlantic. It has 103 km of coastline, the two incorporated municipalities in Bermuda are the City of Hamilton and the Town of St George. Bermuda is divided into nine parishes, which have some localities called villages, such as Flatts Village, although usually referred to in the singular, the territory consists of 181 islands, with a total area of 53.3 square kilometres
9.
British Antarctic Territory
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The British Antarctic Territory is a sector of Antarctica claimed by the United Kingdom as one of its 14 British Overseas Territories, of which it is by far the largest by area. It comprises the south of 60°S latitude and between longitudes 20°W and 80°W, forming a wedge shape that extends to the South Pole, overlapping the Antarctic claims of Argentina. The Territory was formed on 3 March 1962, although the UKs claim to this portion of the Antarctic dates back to Letters patent of 1908 and 1917. No new claim, or enlargement of a claim, to territorial sovereignty shall be asserted while the present Treaty is in force. Most countries do not recognise territorial claims in Antarctica, the United Kingdom has ratified the treaty. In 2012, the part of the territory was named Queen Elizabeth Land in honour of Queen Elizabeth II. The United Kingdom has had a presence in the far South Atlantic since 1833 when it reasserted sovereignty over the Falkland Islands. All these territories were administered as Falkland Islands Dependencies from Stanley by the Governor of the Falkland Islands, in 1917, the wording of the claim was modified, so as to, among other things, unambiguously include all the territory in the sector stretching to the South Pole. The United Kingdom also claimed Victoria Land in 1841 and Enderby Land in 1930, in 1943, at the height of World War II, the UK undertook a military operation known as Operation Tabarin, to provide reconnaissance and meteorological information in the South Atlantic Ocean. This secret wartime project became the civilian Falkland Islands Dependencies Survey, BAS is responsible for most of the United Kingdoms scientific research in Antarctica. In the 1950s the Antarctic Treaty was negotiated to demilitarise the region and retain Antarctica – defined as all land, the treaty was passed in 1961. The Antarctic Treaty, signed by all relevant regional claimants, does not in itself either recognise or dispute any territorial claims, most of the worlds countries do not recognise any national claims to Antarctica. Australia, France, New Zealand, Norway and the United Kingdom, all of whom have territorial claims on the continent, Argentina and Chile dispute the British claim, and make their own counter-claims that overlap both Britains and each others. The British Antarctic Territory includes the Antarctic Peninsula, the South Shetland Islands, South Orkney Islands and numerous offshore islands. A437, 000-square-kilometre triangle of central Antarctica converging on the South Pole was named Queen Elizabeth Land in December 2012, over 99 per cent of the territorys land surface is covered by a permanent ice sheet, up to about 5,000 metres thick. The highest peak is Mount Jackson, on the Antarctic Peninsula, there are very few plants in the British Antarctic Territories, most of them are mosses and lichens, but there are also two flowering plants, the Antarctic hairgrass and Antarctic pearlwort. Many bird species, including seven species of penguin breed in the British Antarctic Territories, the British Antarctic Territories are also home to six species of seals. The British Antarctic Territory is administered by the Foreign and Commonwealth Office, a Commissioner is appointed and is always the Director of the FCOs Overseas Territories Directorate
10.
British Indian Ocean Territory
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The British Indian Ocean Territory is an overseas territory of the United Kingdom situated in the Indian Ocean halfway between Tanzania and Indonesia. The territory comprises the seven atolls of the Chagos Archipelago with over 1,000 individual islands – many very small – amounting to a land area of 60 square kilometres. The largest and most southerly island is Diego Garcia,44 km2, the site of a joint military facility of the United Kingdom, the islands are off-limits to casual tourists, the media, and their former inhabitants. Mauritius sought to control over the Chagos Archipelago, which was split from its territory by the UK in 1965 to form the British Indian Ocean Territory. Today, the exiled Chagossians are still trying to return, claiming that the expulsion and dispossession was illegal. The British Indian Ocean Territory is one of only two British territories where traffic drives on the right, the other being Gibraltar, Maldivian mariners knew the Chagos Islands well. In Maldivian lore, they are known as Fōlhavahi or Hollhavai, according to Southern Maldivian oral tradition, traders and fishermen were occasionally lost at sea and got stranded on one of the islands of the Chagos. Eventually they were rescued and brought back home, however, these islands were judged to be too far away from the Maldives to be settled permanently by them. Thus, for centuries the Chagos were ignored by their northern neighbours. The islands of Chagos Archipelago were charted by Vasco da Gama in the sixteenth century. They were first settled in the 18th century by African slaves, in 1810, Mauritius was captured by the United Kingdom, and France ceded the territory in the Treaty of Paris. In 1965, the United Kingdom split the Chagos Archipelago from Mauritius, the purpose was to allow the construction of military facilities for the mutual benefit of the United Kingdom and the United States. The islands were established as an overseas territory of the United Kingdom on 8 November 1965. On 23 June 1976, Aldabra, Farquhar and Desroches were returned to Seychelles as a result of its attaining independence, subsequently, BIOT has consisted only of the six main island groups comprising the Chagos Archipelago. In 1990, the first BIOT flag was unfurled, in 1966, the British government purchased the privately owned copra plantations and closed them. In 1971, the United Kingdom and the United States signed a treaty, leasing the island of Diego Garcia to the US military for the purposes of building a large air and naval base on the island. The deal was important to the UK government, as the United States granted it a substantial discount on the purchase of Polaris nuclear missiles in return for the use of the islands as a base. The strategic location of the island was significant at the centre of the Indian Ocean
11.
British Virgin Islands
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The British Virgin Islands, officially the Virgin Islands, are a British overseas territory located in the Caribbean to the east of Puerto Rico. The islands make up part of the Virgin Islands archipelago, the islands constitute the US Virgin Islands. The 150-square-kilometre British Virgin Islands consist of the islands of Tortola, Virgin Gorda, Anegada. About 15 of the islands are inhabited, the capital, Road Town, is situated on Tortola, the largest island, which is about 20 km long and 5 km wide. The islands had a population of about 28,000 at the 2010 Census, of whom approximately 23,500 lived on Tortola, British Virgin Islanders are classed as British Overseas Territories citizens and since 2002 have had an entitlement to take up full UK citizenship. Although the territory is not part of the European Union and not directly subject to EU law, the official name of the territory is still simply the Virgin Islands, but the prefix British is often used. This is commonly believed to distinguish it from the neighbouring American territory which changed its name from the Danish West Indies to Virgin Islands of the United States in 1917. Moreover, the territorys Constitutional Commission has expressed the view that every effort should be made to encourage the use of the name Virgin Islands. In 1968 the British Government issued a memorandum requiring that the stamps in the territory should say British Virgin Islands. This was likely to prevent confusion following on from the adoption of US currency in the Territory in 1959, the Virgin Islands were first settled by the Arawak from South America around 100 BC. The Arawaks inhabited the islands until the 15th century when they were displaced by the more aggressive Caribs, the first European sighting of the Virgin Islands was by Christopher Columbus in 1493 on his second voyage to the Americas. Columbus gave them the fanciful name Santa Ursula y las Once Mil Vírgenes, shortened to Las Vírgenes, there is no record of any native Amerindian population in the British Virgin Islands during this period, although the native population on nearby Saint Croix was decimated. The Dutch established a permanent settlement on the island of Tortola by 1648, in 1672, the English captured Tortola from the Dutch, and the English annexation of Anegada and Virgin Gorda followed in 1680. Meanwhile, over the period 1672–1733, the Danish gained control of the islands of Saint Thomas, Saint John. The British islands were considered principally a strategic possession, but were planted when economic conditions were particularly favourable, the British introduced sugar cane which was to become the main crop and source of foreign trade, and slaves were brought from Africa to work on the sugar cane plantations. In 1917, the United States purchased St. John, St. Thomas, the British Virgin Islands were administered variously as part of the British Leeward Islands or with St. Kitts and Nevis, with an administrator representing the British Government on the islands. The islands gained separate status in 1960 and became autonomous in 1967. Since the 1960s, the islands have diversified away from their traditionally agriculture-based economy towards tourism and financial services and they are located in the Virgin Islands archipelago, a few miles east of the US Virgin Islands
12.
Cayman Islands
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The Cayman Islands is a British Overseas Territory in the western Caribbean Sea. Its population is approximately 60,000, and its capital is George Town, the Cayman Islands are considered to be part of the geographic Western Caribbean Zone as well as the Greater Antilles. The territory is considered a major world offshore financial haven for many wealthy individuals. The Cayman Islands remained largely uninhabited until the 17th century, the first recorded permanent inhabitant of the Cayman Islands, Isaac Bodden, was born on Grand Cayman around 1661. He was the grandson of the original settler named Bodden who was one of Oliver Cromwells soldiers at the taking of Jamaica in 1655. England took formal control of the Cayman Islands, along with Jamaica, following several unsuccessful attempts at settlement, a permanent English-speaking population in the islands dates from the 1730s. With settlement, after the first royal land grant by the Governor of Jamaica in 1734, many were brought to the islands from Africa, this is evident today with the majority of native Caymanians being of African and English descent. The results of the first census taken in the islands in 1802 showed the population on Grand Cayman to be 933 with 545 of those inhabitants being enslaved, slavery was abolished in the Cayman Islands in 1833. At the time of abolition, there were over 950 Blacks of African ancestry enslaved by 116 white families of English ancestry. The islands continued to be governed as part of the Colony of Jamaica until 1962, the Cayman Islands historically have been a tax-exempt destination. On 8 February 1794, the Caymanians rescued the crews of a group of ten merchant ships, including HMS Convert, the ships had struck a reef and run aground during rough seas. Legend has it that King George III rewarded the island with a never to introduce taxes as compensation for their generosity. While this remains a legend, the story is not true. However, whatever the history, in practice the government of the Cayman Islands has always relied on indirect, the islands have never levied income tax, capital gains tax, or any wealth tax, making them a popular tax haven. On 11 September 2004 the island of Grand Cayman, which lies largely unprotected at sea level, was hit by Hurricane Ivan, an estimated 83% of the dwellings on the island were damaged including 4% requiring complete reconstruction. A reported 70% of all dwellings suffered severe damage from flooding or wind, another 26% sustained minor damage from partial roof removal, low levels of flooding, or impact with floating or wind driven hurricane debris. Power, water and communications were disrupted for months in areas as Ivan was the worst hurricane to hit the islands in 86 years. Grand Cayman began a rebuilding process and within two years its infrastructure was nearly returned to pre-hurricane status.23 years
13.
Falkland Islands
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The Falkland Islands are an archipelago in the South Atlantic Ocean on the Patagonian Shelf. The principal islands are about 300 miles east of South Americas southern Patagonian coast, the archipelago, with an area of 4,700 square miles, comprises East Falkland, West Falkland and 776 smaller islands. As a British overseas territory, the Falklands have internal self-governance, the islands capital is Stanley on East Falkland. Controversy exists over the Falklands discovery and subsequent colonisation by Europeans, at various times, the islands have had French, British, Spanish, and Argentine settlements. Britain reasserted its rule in 1833, although Argentina maintains its claim to the islands, in April 1982, Argentine forces temporarily occupied the islands. British administration was restored two months later at the end of the Falklands War, most Falklanders favour the archipelago remaining a UK overseas territory, but its sovereignty status is part of an ongoing dispute between Argentina and the United Kingdom. The population primarily consists of native-born Falkland Islanders, the majority of British descent, other ethnicities include French, Gibraltarian and Scandinavian. Immigration from the United Kingdom, the South Atlantic island of Saint Helena, under the British Nationality Act 1983, Falkland Islanders are British citizens. The islands lie on the boundary of the oceanic and tundra climate zones. They are home to bird populations, although many no longer breed on the main islands because of competition from introduced species. Major economic activities include fishing, tourism and sheep farming, with an emphasis on high-quality wool exports, oil exploration, licensed by the Falkland Islands Government, remains controversial as a result of maritime disputes with Argentina. The Falkland Islands take their name from the Falkland Sound, a strait separating the two main islands. The name Falkland was applied to the channel by John Strong, Strong named the strait in honour of Anthony Cary, 5th Viscount of Falkland, the Treasurer of the Navy who sponsored their journey. The name Falklands was not applied to the islands until 1765, the term Falklands is a standard abbreviation used to refer to the islands. The Spanish name for the archipelago, Islas Malvinas, derives from the French Îles Malouines — the name given to the islands by French explorer Louis-Antoine de Bougainville in 1764, Bougainville, who founded the islands first settlement, named the area after the port of Saint-Malo. The port, located in the Brittany region of western France, was in turn named after St. Malo, in Spanish, the territory was designated as Islas Malvinas. The nomenclature used by the United Nations for statistical processing purposes is Falkland Islands, although Fuegians from Patagonia may have visited the Falkland Islands in prehistoric times, the islands were uninhabited at the time of their discovery by Europeans. Claims of discovery date back to the 16th century, but no consensus exists on whether these early explorers discovered the Falklands or other islands in the South Atlantic, whether or not the settlements were aware of each others existence is debated by historians
14.
Montserrat
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Montserrat is a Caribbean island—specifically in the Leeward Islands, which is part of the chain known as the Lesser Antilles, in the British West Indies. It is a British Overseas Territory, Montserrat measures approximately 16 km long and 11 km wide, with approximately 40 km of coastline. Montserrat is nicknamed The Emerald Isle of the Caribbean both for its resemblance to coastal Ireland and for the Irish ancestry of many of its inhabitants, on 18 July 1995, the previously dormant Soufrière Hills volcano, in the southern part of the island, became active. Eruptions destroyed Montserrats Georgian era capital city of Plymouth, between 1995 and 2000, two-thirds of the islands population was forced to flee, primarily to the United Kingdom, leaving fewer than 1,200 people on the island as of 1997. Visitors are generally not permitted entry into the zone. Relatively quiet since early 2010, the continues to be closely monitored by the Montserrat Volcano Observatory. It is the most studied volcano in the world and Montserrat has been regarded as a Modern Day Pompeii in the Caribbean, a new town and port is being developed at Little Bay, which is on the northwest coast of the island. While this construction proceeds, the centre of government and businesses is at Brades, in 1493, Christopher Columbus named the island Santa María de Montserrate, after the Virgin of Montserrat in the Monastery of Montserrat, on Montserrat mountain, near Barcelona in Catalonia, Spain. Montserrat means serrated mountain in Catalan, archaeological field work in 2012, in Montserrats Centre Hills indicated there was an Archaic occupation between 4000 and 2500 BP. Later coastal sites show the presence of the Saladoid culture, in November 1493, Christopher Columbus passed Montserrat in his second voyage, after being told that the island was unoccupied due to raids by the Caribs. A number of Irishmen settled in Montserrat in 1642, the island was captured by the French in 1666. It was captured shortly afterwards by the English and English control of the island was confirmed under the Treaty of Breda the following year, despite the interruption to English rule, the islands legal status is that of a colony acquired by settlement. A neo-feudal colony developed amongst the redlegs, the colonists began to transport Sub-Saharan African slaves for labour, as was common to most Caribbean islands. The colonists built an economy based on the production of sugar, rum, arrowroot and sea island cotton, by the late 18th century, numerous plantations had been developed on the island. Many Irish continued to be transported to the island, to work as indentured servants, on 17 March 1768, slaves rebelled but failed to achieve freedom. The people of Montserrat celebrate St Patricks Day as a public holiday due to the slave revolt, festivities held that week commemorate the culture of Montserrat in song, dance, food and traditional costumes. In 1782, during the American Revolutionary War, France briefly captured Montserrat after supporting the American rebels, the French returned the island to Great Britain under the 1783 Treaty of Paris, which ended that conflict. The Irish constituted the largest proportion of the population from the founding of the colony in 1628
15.
Pitcairn Islands
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The four islands – Pitcairn, Henderson, Ducie, and Oeno – are spread over several hundred miles of ocean and have a total land area of about 47 square kilometres. Only Pitcairn, the second-largest island that measures about 3.6 kilometres from east to west, is inhabited, the islands are inhabited mostly by descendants of nine Bounty mutineers and the Tahitians who accompanied them, an event that has been retold in many books and films. This history is apparent in the surnames of many of the islanders. With only about 50 permanent inhabitants, originating from four main families, although archaeologists believe that Polynesians were living on Pitcairn as late as the 15th century, the islands were uninhabited when they were rediscovered by Europeans. Ducie and Henderson Islands were discovered by Portuguese sailor Pedro Fernandes de Queirós, sailing for the Spanish Crown and he named them La Encarnación and San Juan Bautista, respectively. Pitcairn Island was sighted on 3 July 1767 by the crew of the British sloop HMS Swallow, the island was named after Midshipman Robert Pitcairn, a fifteen-year-old crew member who was the first to sight the island. Robert Pitcairn was a son of British Marine Major John Pitcairn, Carteret, who sailed without the newly invented marine chronometer, charted the island at 25°2′S 133°21′W, and although the latitude was reasonably accurate, the longitude was incorrect by about 3°. This made Pitcairn difficult to find, as highlighted by the failure of Captain James Cook to locate the island in July 1773. In 1790, nine of the mutineers from the Bounty, along with the native Tahitian men and women who were with them, settled on Pitcairn Islands, the wreck is still visible underwater in Bounty Bay, discovered in 1957 by National Geographic explorer Luis Marden. Although the settlers survived by farming and fishing, the period of settlement was marked by serious tensions among them. Alcoholism, murder, disease and other ills took the lives of most mutineers, John Adams and Ned Young turned to the scriptures, using the ships Bible as their guide for a new and peaceful society. Young eventually died of an asthmatic infection, after the rediscovery of Pitcairn, John Adams was granted amnesty for his part in the mutiny. Ducie Island was rediscovered in 1791 by Royal Navy Captain Edwards aboard HMS Pandora and he named it after Francis Reynolds-Moreton, 3rd Baron Ducie, also a captain in the Royal Navy. A second ship appeared in 1801, but made no attempt to communicate with them, a third came sufficiently near to see their house, but did not try to send a boat on shore. Finally, the American sealing ship Topaz under Mayhew Folger became the first to visit the island, a report of Folgers discovery was forwarded to the Admiralty, mentioning the mutineers and giving a more precise location of the island, 25°2′S 130°0′W. However this was not known to Sir Thomas Staines, who commanded a Royal Navy flotilla of two ships found the island at 25°4′S 130°25′W on 17 September 1814. Staines sent a party ashore and wrote a report for the Admiralty. Henderson Island was rediscovered on 17 January 1819 by British Captain James Henderson of the British East India Company ship Hercules, Captain Henry King, sailing on the Elizabeth, landed on 2 March to find the kings colours already flying
16.
Saint Helena, Ascension and Tristan da Cunha
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Its name was Saint Helena and Dependencies until 1 September 2009, when a new constitution came into force giving the three islands equal status within the territory. Despite this change, the territory is still commonly referred to as simply Saint Helena after its main island. Similarly, the demonym Saint Helenians and the name for the local nationality is commonly understood to include Ascension Islanders and Tristanians. Administratively, the territory is divided into the three parts as the territorys geography, namely Saint Helena, Ascension and Tristan da Cunha. Each is governed by a council, the island of St Helena is then further divided into eight districts. The Portuguese found Saint Helena uninhabited, with an abundance of trees and they imported livestock, fruit trees and vegetables, and built a chapel and one or two houses. Though they formed no permanent settlement, the island became important for the collection of food. Englishman Sir Francis Drake very probably located the island on the lap of his circumnavigation of the world. In 1657, the English East India Company was granted a charter to govern Saint Helena by Oliver Cromwell, and the following year the Company decided to fortify and colonise the island with planters. The first governor, Captain John Dutton, arrived in 1659, a fort was completed and a number of houses were built. After the Restoration of the English monarchy in 1660, the East India Company received a Royal Charter giving it the right to fortify. The fort was renamed James Fort and the town Jamestown, in honour of the Duke of York and heir apparent, later King James II of England. The Kingdom of England became part of the new Kingdom of Great Britain in 1707 and then the United Kingdom in 1801, the most important and first settled, the island of Saint Helena, had been governed by the East India Company since 1659. For similar reasons Tristan da Cunha was annexed as a dependency of the Cape Colony on 14 August 1816, for a short period just prior, Tristan da Cunha had been inhabited by a private American expedition who named the territory the Islands of Refreshment. The political union between these colonies began to shape on 12 September 1922, when by letters patent Ascension Island became a dependency of Saint Helena. Lightly populated Tristan da Cunha, even today more than an outpost with a population of less than three hundred, followed suit on 12 January 1938. The United Kingdom and the United States still jointly operate the airfield on Ascension, which serves as a space-based communications, signals intelligence. One of only four GPS satellite ground antennas is located there, between Saint Helena and Tristan da Cunha is the Tropic of Capricorn
17.
South Georgia and the South Sandwich Islands
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South Georgia and the South Sandwich Islands is a British overseas territory in the southern Atlantic Ocean. It is a remote and inhospitable collection of islands, consisting of South Georgia, South Georgia is 165 kilometres long and 1 to 35 km wide and is by far the largest island in the territory. The South Sandwich Islands lie about 700 kilometres southeast of South Georgia, the total land area of the territory is 3,903 square kilometres. There is no permanent population on the islands, the United Kingdom claimed sovereignty over South Georgia in 1775 and the South Sandwich Islands in 1908. The territory of South Georgia and the South Sandwich Islands was formed in 1985, Argentina claimed South Georgia in 1927 and claimed the South Sandwich Islands in 1938. Argentina maintained a station, Corbeta Uruguay, on Thule Island in the South Sandwich Islands from 1976 until 1982 when it was closed by the Royal Navy. The Argentine claim over South Georgia contributed to the 1982 Falklands War, Argentina continues to claim sovereignty over South Georgia and the South Sandwich Islands. The Island of South Georgia is said to have been first sighted in 1675 by Anthony de la Roché, a London merchant and it was sighted by the commercial Spanish ship León operating out of Saint-Malo on 28 June or 29 June 1756. At one time it was confused with Pepys Island, which was discovered by Dampier and Cowley in 1683, captain James Cook circumnavigated the island in 1775 and made the first landing. He claimed the territory for the Kingdom of Great Britain, British arrangements for the government of South Georgia were established under the 1843 British Letters Patent. In 1882–1883, a German expedition for the First International Polar Year was stationed at Royal Bay on the southeast side of the island, the scientists of this group observed the transit of Venus and recorded waves produced by the 1883 eruption of Krakatoa. Seal hunting at South Georgia began in 1786 and continued throughout the 19th century, the waters proved treacherous and a number of vessels were wrecked there, such as Earl Spencer, in late 1801. South Georgia became a base for whaling beginning in the 20th century, a Norwegian, Carl Anton Larsen, established the first land-based whaling station and first permanent habitation at Grytviken in 1904. It operated through his Argentine Fishing Company, which settled in Grytviken, the station remained in operation until 1965. Whaling stations operated under leases granted by the Governor of the Falkland Islands, one was called a charnel house boiling wholesale in vaseline by an early 20th-century visitor. With the end of the industry, the stations were abandoned. Apart from a few preserved buildings such as the museum and church at Grytviken, in 1908, the United Kingdom issued further Letters Patent that established constitutional arrangements for its possessions in the South Atlantic. The Letters Patent covered South Georgia, the South Orkneys, the South Shetlands, the South Sandwich Islands, in 1909, an administrative centre and residence were established at King Edward Point on South Georgia, near the whaling station of Grytviken
18.
Turks and Caicos Islands
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They are known primarily for tourism and as an offshore financial centre. The resident population is 31,458 as of 2012 of whom 23,769 live on Providenciales in the Caicos Islands, the Turks and Caicos Islands lie southeast of Mayaguana in the Bahamas island chain and north of the island of Hispaniola and the other Antilles archipelago islands. Cockburn Town, the capital since 1766, is situated on Grand Turk Island about 1,042 kilometres east-southeast of Miami, the islands have a total land area of 430 square kilometres. The first recorded European sighting of the now known as the Turks. In the subsequent centuries, the islands were claimed by several European powers with the British Empire eventually gaining control, for many years the islands were governed indirectly through Bermuda, the Bahamas, and Jamaica. When the Bahamas gained independence in 1973, the islands received their own governor, in August 2009, the United Kingdom suspended the Turks and Caicos Islands self-government following allegations of ministerial corruption. Home rule was restored in the islands after the November 2012 elections, the Turks and Caicos Islands are named after the Turks cap cactus, and the Lucayan term caya hico, meaning string of islands. The first inhabitants of the islands were Arawakan-speaking Taíno people, who crossed over from Hispaniola sometime from AD500 to 800, together with Taino who migrated from Cuba to the southern Bahamas around the same time, these people developed as the Lucayan. Around 1200, the Turks and Caicos Islands were resettled by Classical Taínos from Hispaniola, the southern Bahama Islands and the Turks and Caicos Islands were completely depopulated by about 1513, and remained so until the 17th century. The first European documented to sight the islands was Spanish conquistador Juan Ponce de León, during the 16th, 17th, and 18th centuries, the islands passed from Spanish, to French, to British control, but none of the three powers ever established any settlements. Bermudian salt collectors settled the Turks Islands around 1680, for several decades around the turn of the 18th century, the islands became popular pirate hideouts. From 1765–1783, the islands were under French occupation, and again after the French captured the archipelago in 1783, after the American War of Independence, many Loyalists fled to British Caribbean colonies, in 1783, they were the first settlers on the Caicos Islands. They developed cotton as an important cash crop, but it was superseded by the development of the salt industry, in 1799, both the Turks and the Caicos island groups were annexed by Britain as part of the Bahamas. The processing of sea salt was developed as an important export product from the West Indies. Salt continued to be an export product into the nineteenth century. In 1807, Britain prohibited the trade and, in 1833. British ships sometimes intercepted slave traders in the Caribbean, and some ships were wrecked off the coast of these islands, in 1837, the Esperanza, a Portuguese slaver, was wrecked off East Caicos, one of the larger islands. While the crew and 220 captive Africans survived the shipwreck,18 Africans died before the survivors were taken to Nassau, Africans from this ship may have been among the 189 liberated Africans whom the British colonists settled in the Turks and Caicos from 1833 to 1840
19.
Monarchy of the United Kingdom
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The monarchy of the United Kingdom, commonly referred to as the British monarchy, is the constitutional monarchy of the United Kingdom, its dependencies and its overseas territories. The monarchs title is King or Queen, the current monarch and head of state, Queen Elizabeth II, ascended the throne on the death of her father, King George VI, on 6 February 1952. The monarch and his or her immediate family undertake various official, ceremonial, diplomatic, as the monarchy is constitutional, the monarch is limited to non-partisan functions such as bestowing honours and appointing the Prime Minister. The monarch is, by tradition, commander-in-chief of the British Armed Forces, from 1603, when the Scottish monarch King James VI inherited the English throne as James I, both the English and Scottish kingdoms were ruled by a single sovereign. From 1649 to 1660, the tradition of monarchy was broken by the republican Commonwealth of England, the Act of Settlement 1701 excluded Roman Catholics, or those who married Catholics, from succession to the English throne. In 1707, the kingdoms of England and Scotland were merged to create the Kingdom of Great Britain, and in 1801, the British monarch became nominal head of the vast British Empire, which covered a quarter of the worlds surface at its greatest extent in 1921. After the Second World War, the vast majority of British colonies and territories became independent, George VI and his successor, Elizabeth II, adopted the title Head of the Commonwealth as a symbol of the free association of its independent member states. The United Kingdom and fifteen other Commonwealth monarchies that share the person as their monarch are called Commonwealth realms. In the uncodified Constitution of the United Kingdom, the Monarch is the Head of State, oaths of allegiance are made to the Queen and her lawful successors. God Save the Queen is the British national anthem, and the monarch appears on postage stamps, coins, the Monarch takes little direct part in Government. Executive power is exercised by Her Majestys Government, which comprises Ministers, primarily the Prime Minister and the Cabinet and they have the direction of the Armed Forces of the Crown, the Civil Service and other Crown Servants such as the Diplomatic and Secret Services. Judicial power is vested in the Judiciary, who by constitution, the Church of England, of which the Monarch is the head, has its own legislative, judicial and executive structures. Powers independent of government are legally granted to public bodies by statute or Statutory Instrument such as an Order in Council. The Sovereigns role as a monarch is largely limited to non-partisan functions. This role has been recognised since the 19th century, the constitutional writer Walter Bagehot identified the monarchy in 1867 as the dignified part rather than the efficient part of government. Whenever necessary, the Monarch is responsible for appointing a new Prime Minister, the Prime Minister takes office by attending the Monarch in private audience, and after kissing hands that appointment is immediately effective without any other formality or instrument. Since 1945, there have only been two hung parliaments, the first followed the February 1974 general election when Harold Wilson was appointed Prime Minister after Edward Heath resigned following his failure to form a coalition. Although Wilsons Labour Party did not have a majority, they were the largest party, the second followed the May 2010 general election, in which the Conservatives and Liberal Democrats agreed to form the first coalition government since World War II
20.
Elizabeth II
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Elizabeth II has been Queen of the United Kingdom, Canada, Australia, and New Zealand since 6 February 1952. Elizabeth was born in London as the eldest child of the Duke and Duchess of York, later King George VI and Queen Elizabeth and her father acceded to the throne on the abdication of his brother Edward VIII in 1936, from which time she was the heir presumptive. She began to undertake duties during the Second World War. Elizabeths many historic visits and meetings include a visit to the Republic of Ireland. She has seen major changes, such as devolution in the United Kingdom, Canadian patriation. She has reigned through various wars and conflicts involving many of her realms and she is the worlds oldest reigning monarch as well as Britains longest-lived. In October 2016, she became the longest currently reigning monarch, in 2017 she became the first British monarch to commemorate a Sapphire Jubilee. Elizabeth has occasionally faced republican sentiments and press criticism of the family, however, support for the monarchy remains high. Elizabeth was born at 02,40 on 21 April 1926, during the reign of her paternal grandfather and her father, Prince Albert, Duke of York, was the second son of the King. Her mother, Elizabeth, Duchess of York, was the youngest daughter of Scottish aristocrat Claude Bowes-Lyon, 14th Earl of Strathmore and she was delivered by Caesarean section at her maternal grandfathers London house,17 Bruton Street, Mayfair. Elizabeths only sibling, Princess Margaret, was born in 1930, the two princesses were educated at home under the supervision of their mother and their governess, Marion Crawford, who was casually known as Crawfie. Lessons concentrated on history, language, literature and music, Crawford published a biography of Elizabeth and Margarets childhood years entitled The Little Princesses in 1950, much to the dismay of the royal family. The book describes Elizabeths love of horses and dogs, her orderliness, others echoed such observations, Winston Churchill described Elizabeth when she was two as a character. She has an air of authority and reflectiveness astonishing in an infant and her cousin Margaret Rhodes described her as a jolly little girl, but fundamentally sensible and well-behaved. During her grandfathers reign, Elizabeth was third in the line of succession to the throne, behind her uncle Edward, Prince of Wales, and her father, the Duke of York. Although her birth generated public interest, she was not expected to become queen, many people believed that he would marry and have children of his own. When her grandfather died in 1936 and her uncle succeeded as Edward VIII, she became second-in-line to the throne, later that year, Edward abdicated, after his proposed marriage to divorced socialite Wallis Simpson provoked a constitutional crisis. Consequently, Elizabeths father became king, and she became heir presumptive, if her parents had had a later son, she would have lost her position as first-in-line, as her brother would have been heir apparent and above her in the line of succession
21.
Jeremy Hunt
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Jeremy Richard Streynsham Hunt PC MP is a British Conservative Party politician who has been the Secretary of State for Health since 2012 and the Member of Parliament for South West Surrey since 2005. Hunt was born in Kennington and studied Philosophy, Politics, and Economics at Magdalen College, Oxford, as Culture Secretary, Hunt spearheaded the drive for local TV, resulting in Ofcom awarding local TV licences to several cities and towns. Hunt also oversaw the 2012 London Olympics, which received widespread acclaim, negotiations with the doctors union, the British Medical Association, failed, resulting in multiple strikes in 2016. Hunt was raised in Shere, Surrey, near the constituency that he represents in Parliament and he is a distant relation of Elizabeth II, and Oswald Mosley. Hunt was educated at Charterhouse School where he was Head Boy and he then studied Philosophy, Politics, and Economics at Magdalen College, Oxford, and graduated with a first class honours Bachelor of Arts degree. He became involved in Conservative politics while at university, where David Cameron and he was active in the Oxford University Conservative Association, and was elected to serve as President in 1987. After university Hunt worked for two years as a management consultant at OC&C Strategy Consultants, and then became an English language teacher in Japan. On his return to Britain he tried his hand at a number of different entrepreneurial business ventures, in 1991, Hunt co-founded a public relations agency named Profile PR specialising in IT with Mike Elms, a childhood friend. Hunt and Elms later sold their interest in Profile PR to concentrate on directory publishing, together they founded a company known as Hotcourses in the 1990s, a major client of which is the British Council. He personally gained over £14 million from the sale, Hunt was elected at the 2005 general election, after the previous Conservative MP Virginia Bottomley was created a life peeress. He was elected to represent the constituency of South West Surrey with a majority of 5,711, after supporting David Camerons bid for leadership of the Conservative Party, he was appointed Shadow Minister for Disabled People in December 2005. Hunt later denied that the policy pamphlet expresses his views, in David Camerons reshuffle of 2 July 2007, Hunt joined the Shadow Cabinet as Shadow Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport. When the Conservatives and the Liberal Democrats formed a coalition following the 2010 general election, Hunt was appointed Secretary of State for Culture, Olympics, Media and he was consequently appointed a Privy Councillor on 13 May 2010. Hunt supported Britain remaining in the EU in the 2016 referendum, gummer is the daughter of a Conservative life peer, Lord Chadlington, who was a director of Hotcourses between 2000 and 2004. As Culture Secretary, Hunt devised and championed a plan to give Britain the fastest broadband speeds in Europe, there was initial scepticism about his plans with concerns they could lead to BT regaining its monopoly. While speeds did increase when he was in office this was, in the main, in terms of culture policy, his main focus was to boost philanthropy given the spending cuts that the arts along with other sectors was experiencing. Tax breaks were introduced to boost inheritance tax and gifts of works of art, Hunt was consequently given the quasi-judicial power to adjudicate over the News Corporation takeover bid for BSkyB. Following a series of scandals concerning phone hacking, a House of Commons motion was planned that called on News Corporation to abandon the bid, Hunt was alleged to have had improper contact with News Corp
22.
Tariq Ahmad, Baron Ahmad of Wimbledon
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Tariq Mahmood Ahmad, Baron Ahmad of Wimbledon, is a British businessman and a Conservative Lord Temporal. He was educated at Rutlish School, Merton Park, southwest London, speaking at a primary school he said that he decided that he wanted to be a politician after a visit to the Houses of Parliament when he was 13 years of age. In 1991, he entered Natwests Graduate Management programme, eventually working as Head of Marketing, Sponsorship, in 2000, he went to work for AllianceBernstein. In 2004, he joined Sucden Financial, where he serves on the Executive Committee and as Director of Marketing, Strategy and he is an Associate of the Institute of Financial Services and a member of the Institute of Directors. He is a member of the Ahmadiyya Muslim Community and from 1999 to 2008 served as Vice-President of AMYA, from 2001 to 2006, he served as school governor of the Wimbledon Park Primary school. He joined the Conservative Party in 1994, in 2002, he was elected as councillor in Wimbledon. He contested Croydon North for the party in 2005, from 2008 to 2010, he served as Vice chairman of the Conservative Party. On 13 January 2011, he was created a peer, taking the title Baron Ahmad of Wimbledon, of Wimbledon in the London Borough of Merton. In the 2014 reshuffle he was promoted to Parliamentary Under Secretary of State at DCLG, following the 2015 election he was appointed in the same role at both the Home Office and the Department for Transport
23.
Alan Duncan
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Sir Alan James Carter Duncan, KCMG is a British Conservative Party politician. He is the Minister of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs, between 2010 and 2014 he was the Minister of State for International Development. Duncan began his career in the oil industry with Royal Dutch Shell, after several minor positions in the government of John Major, he played a key role in William Hagues successful bid for the Conservative leadership in 1997. He was removed from the Cabinet and appointed a Knight Commander of the Order of St Michael, a return to front-line politics was signalled when his appointment as a minister of state at the Foreign Office was announced on 17 July 2016. He was the first openly gay Conservative Member of Parliament, having come out in 2002. Duncan was born in Rickmansworth, Hertfordshire, the son of J. G. Duncan OBE, an RAF wing commander, and his wife Anne Duncan, the family travelled much, following Alans father on NATO postings, including in Gibraltar, Italy, and Norway. Duncan was educated at two independent schools, Beechwood Park School in Markyate, and Merchant Taylors School in Northwood, whilst coming from a Liberal family, and running as a Liberal at a school mock election in 1970, Duncan joined the Young Conservatives in 1972. Duncan had two brothers, who also attended Beechwood Park School, Duncan then attended St Johns College at the University of Oxford, where he coxed the college first eight, and was elected President of the Oxford Union in 1979. Whilst there, he formed a friendship with Benazir Bhutto, and he gained a Kennedy Scholarship to study at Harvard University between 1981 and 1982. After graduating from Oxford, he worked as a trader of oil and refined products, first with Royal Dutch Shell, Duncan worked for Rich in London and Singapore. From 1988 to 1992, Duncan used the connections he had built up to be self-employed, acting as a consultant and adviser to governments on oil supplies. In 1989, Duncan set up the independent Harcourt Consultants, which advises on oil and he made over a £1 million after helping fill the need to supply oil to Pakistan after Kuwaits supplies had been disrupted in the Gulf War. Duncan was an member of the Battersea Conservative Association from 1979 until 1984. After Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher resigned in November 1990, he offered his home in Westminster as the headquarters of John Majors leadership campaign, Duncan first stood for Parliament as a Conservative candidate in the 1987 general election, unsuccessfully contesting the safe Labour seat of Barnsley West and Penistone. For the 1992 general election he was selected as the Conservative candidate for Rutland and Melton, a safe Conservative seat, which he retained with a 59% share of the votes cast. In the Labour landslide of 1997, his proportion of the vote was reduced to 46% but has increased to 48% in 2001, 51% in 2005. From 1993 to 1995, Duncan was a member of the Social Security Select Committee and his first governmental position was as Parliamentary Private Secretary to the Minister of Health, a position he obtained in December 1993. He resigned from the position within a month after it emerged that he had used the programme to make profits on property deals
24.
Anno Domini
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The terms anno Domini and before Christ are used to label or number years in the Julian and Gregorian calendars. The term anno Domini is Medieval Latin and means in the year of the Lord, There is no year zero in this scheme, so the year AD1 immediately follows the year 1 BC. This dating system was devised in 525 by Dionysius Exiguus of Scythia Minor, the Gregorian calendar is the most widely used calendar in the world today. Traditionally, English followed Latin usage by placing the AD abbreviation before the year number, however, BC is placed after the year number, which also preserves syntactic order. The abbreviation is widely used after the number of a century or millennium. Because BC is the English abbreviation for Before Christ, it is sometimes concluded that AD means After Death. However, this would mean that the approximate 33 years commonly associated with the life of Jesus would not be included in either of the BC, astronomical year numbering and ISO8601 avoid words or abbreviations related to Christianity, but use the same numbers for AD years. The Anno Domini dating system was devised in 525 by Dionysius Exiguus to enumerate the years in his Easter table. His system was to replace the Diocletian era that had used in an old Easter table because he did not wish to continue the memory of a tyrant who persecuted Christians. The last year of the old table, Diocletian 247, was followed by the first year of his table. Thus Dionysius implied that Jesus Incarnation occurred 525 years earlier, without stating the year during which his birth or conception occurred. Blackburn & Holford-Strevens briefly present arguments for 2 BC,1 BC, There were inaccuracies in the list of consuls There were confused summations of emperors regnal years It is not known how Dionysius established the year of Jesuss birth. It is convenient to initiate a calendar not from the day of an event. For example, the Islamic calendar begins not from the date of the Hegira, at the time, it was believed by some that the Resurrection and end of the world would occur 500 years after the birth of Jesus. The old Anno Mundi calendar theoretically commenced with the creation of the based on information in the Old Testament. It was believed that, based on the Anno Mundi calendar, Anno Mundi 6000 was thus equated with the resurrection and the end of the world but this date had already passed in the time of Dionysius. The Anglo-Saxon historian the Venerable Bede, who was familiar with the work of Dionysius Exiguus, used Anno Domini dating in his Ecclesiastical History of the English People, completed in 731. e. On the continent of Europe, Anno Domini was introduced as the era of choice of the Carolingian Renaissance by the English cleric and scholar Alcuin in the late eighth century
25.
United Kingdom
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The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland, commonly known as the United Kingdom or Britain, is a sovereign country in western Europe. Lying off the north-western coast of the European mainland, the United Kingdom includes the island of Great Britain, Northern Ireland is the only part of the United Kingdom that shares a land border with another sovereign state—the Republic of Ireland. The Irish Sea lies between Great Britain and Ireland, with an area of 242,500 square kilometres, the United Kingdom is the 78th-largest sovereign state in the world and the 11th-largest in Europe. It is also the 21st-most populous country, with an estimated 65.1 million inhabitants, together, this makes it the fourth-most densely populated country in the European Union. The United Kingdom is a monarchy with a parliamentary system of governance. The monarch is Queen Elizabeth II, who has reigned since 6 February 1952, other major urban areas in the United Kingdom include the regions of Birmingham, Leeds, Glasgow, Liverpool and Manchester. The United Kingdom consists of four countries—England, Scotland, Wales, the last three have devolved administrations, each with varying powers, based in their capitals, Edinburgh, Cardiff and Belfast, respectively. The relationships among the countries of the UK have changed over time, Wales was annexed by the Kingdom of England under the Laws in Wales Acts 1535 and 1542. A treaty between England and Scotland resulted in 1707 in a unified Kingdom of Great Britain, which merged in 1801 with the Kingdom of Ireland to form the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland. Five-sixths of Ireland seceded from the UK in 1922, leaving the present formulation of the United Kingdom of Great Britain, there are fourteen British Overseas Territories. These are the remnants of the British Empire which, at its height in the 1920s, British influence can be observed in the language, culture and legal systems of many of its former colonies. The United Kingdom is a country and has the worlds fifth-largest economy by nominal GDP. The UK is considered to have an economy and is categorised as very high in the Human Development Index. It was the worlds first industrialised country and the worlds foremost power during the 19th, the UK remains a great power with considerable economic, cultural, military, scientific and political influence internationally. It is a nuclear weapons state and its military expenditure ranks fourth or fifth in the world. The UK has been a permanent member of the United Nations Security Council since its first session in 1946 and it has been a leading member state of the EU and its predecessor, the European Economic Community, since 1973. However, on 23 June 2016, a referendum on the UKs membership of the EU resulted in a decision to leave. The Acts of Union 1800 united the Kingdom of Great Britain, Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland have devolved self-government
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British Empire
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The British Empire comprised the dominions, colonies, protectorates, mandates and other territories ruled or administered by the United Kingdom and its predecessor states. It originated with the possessions and trading posts established by England between the late 16th and early 18th centuries. At its height, it was the largest empire in history and, for over a century, was the foremost global power. By 1913, the British Empire held sway over 412 million people, 23% of the population at the time. As a result, its political, legal, linguistic and cultural legacy is widespread, during the Age of Discovery in the 15th and 16th centuries, Portugal and Spain pioneered European exploration of the globe, and in the process established large overseas empires. Envious of the great wealth these empires generated, England, France, the independence of the Thirteen Colonies in North America in 1783 after the American War of Independence caused Britain to lose some of its oldest and most populous colonies. British attention soon turned towards Asia, Africa, and the Pacific, after the defeat of France in the Revolutionary and Napoleonic Wars, Britain emerged as the principal naval and imperial power of the 19th century. In the early 19th century, the Industrial Revolution began to transform Britain, the British Empire expanded to include India, large parts of Africa and many other territories throughout the world. In Britain, political attitudes favoured free trade and laissez-faire policies, during the 19th Century, Britains population increased at a dramatic rate, accompanied by rapid urbanisation, which caused significant social and economic stresses. To seek new markets and sources of raw materials, the Conservative Party under Benjamin Disraeli launched a period of imperialist expansion in Egypt, South Africa, Canada, Australia, and New Zealand became self-governing dominions. By the start of the 20th century, Germany and the United States had begun to challenge Britains economic lead, subsequent military and economic tensions between Britain and Germany were major causes of the First World War, during which Britain relied heavily upon its empire. The conflict placed enormous strain on the military, financial and manpower resources of Britain, although the British Empire achieved its largest territorial extent immediately after World War I, Britain was no longer the worlds pre-eminent industrial or military power. In the Second World War, Britains colonies in Southeast Asia were occupied by Imperial Japan, despite the final victory of Britain and its allies, the damage to British prestige helped to accelerate the decline of the empire. India, Britains most valuable and populous possession, achieved independence as part of a larger movement in which Britain granted independence to most territories of the empire. The transfer of Hong Kong to China in 1997 marked for many the end of the British Empire, fourteen overseas territories remain under British sovereignty. After independence, many former British colonies joined the Commonwealth of Nations, the United Kingdom is now one of 16 Commonwealth nations, a grouping known informally as the Commonwealth realms, that share a monarch, Queen Elizabeth II. The foundations of the British Empire were laid when England and Scotland were separate kingdoms. In 1496, King Henry VII of England, following the successes of Spain and Portugal in overseas exploration, Cabot led another voyage to the Americas the following year but nothing was ever heard of his ships again
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European Union
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The European Union is a political and economic union of 28 member states that are located primarily in Europe. It has an area of 4,475,757 km2, the EU has developed an internal single market through a standardised system of laws that apply in all member states. Within the Schengen Area, passport controls have been abolished, a monetary union was established in 1999 and came into full force in 2002, and is composed of 19 EU member states which use the euro currency. The EU operates through a system of supranational and intergovernmental decision-making. The EU traces its origins from the European Coal and Steel Community, the community and its successors have grown in size by the accession of new member states and in power by the addition of policy areas to its remit. While no member state has left the EU or its antecedent organisations, the Maastricht Treaty established the European Union in 1993 and introduced European citizenship. The latest major amendment to the basis of the EU. The EU as a whole is the largest economy in the world, additionally,27 out of 28 EU countries have a very high Human Development Index, according to the United Nations Development Programme. In 2012, the EU was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize, through the Common Foreign and Security Policy, the EU has developed a role in external relations and defence. The union maintains permanent diplomatic missions throughout the world and represents itself at the United Nations, the World Trade Organization, the G7, because of its global influence, the European Union has been described as an emerging superpower. After World War II, European integration was seen as an antidote to the nationalism which had devastated the continent. 1952 saw the creation of the European Coal and Steel Community, the supporters of the Community included Alcide De Gasperi, Jean Monnet, Robert Schuman, and Paul-Henri Spaak. These men and others are credited as the Founding fathers of the European Union. In 1957, Belgium, France, Italy, Luxembourg, the Netherlands and West Germany signed the Treaty of Rome and they also signed another pact creating the European Atomic Energy Community for co-operation in developing nuclear energy. Both treaties came into force in 1958, the EEC and Euratom were created separately from the ECSC, although they shared the same courts and the Common Assembly. The EEC was headed by Walter Hallstein and Euratom was headed by Louis Armand, Euratom was to integrate sectors in nuclear energy while the EEC would develop a customs union among members. During the 1960s, tensions began to show, with France seeking to limit supranational power, Jean Rey presided over the first merged Commission. In 1973, the Communities enlarged to include Denmark, Ireland, Norway had negotiated to join at the same time, but Norwegian voters rejected membership in a referendum
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Head of state
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A head of state is the public persona that officially represents the national unity and legitimacy of a sovereign state. In some countries, the head of state is a figurehead with limited or no executive power, while in others. Former French president Charles de Gaulle, while developing the current Constitution of France, some academic writers discuss states and governments in terms of models. An independent nation state normally has a head of state, the non-executive model, in which the head of state has either none or very limited executive powers, and mainly has a ceremonial and symbolic role. In parliamentary systems the head of state may be merely the chief executive officer, heading the executive branch of the state. This accountability and legitimacy requires that someone be chosen who has a majority support in the legislature and it also gives the legislature the right to vote down the head of government and their cabinet, forcing it either to resign or seek a parliamentary dissolution. In parliamentary constitutional monarchies, the legitimacy of the head of state typically derives from the tacit approval of the people via the elected representatives. In reality, numerous variants exist to the position of a head of state within a parliamentary system, usually, the king had the power of declaring war without previous consent of the parliament. For example, under the 1848 constitution of the Kingdom of Italy, the Statuto Albertino—the parliamentary approval to the government appointed by the king—was customary, so, Italy had a de facto parliamentarian system, but a de jure presidential system. These officials are excluded completely from the executive, they do not possess even theoretical executive powers or any role, even formal, hence their states governments are not referred to by the traditional parliamentary model head of state styles of His/Her Majestys Government or His/Her Excellencys Government. Within this general category, variants in terms of powers and functions may exist, the constitution explicitly vests all executive power in the Cabinet, who is chaired by the prime minister and responsible to the Diet. The emperor is defined in the constitution as the symbol of the State and of the unity of the people and he is a ceremonial figurehead with no independent discretionary powers related to the governance of Japan. Today, the Speaker of the Riksdag appoints the prime minister, Cabinet members are appointed and dismissed at the sole discretion of the prime minister. In contrast, the contact the President of Ireland has with the Irish government is through a formal briefing session given by the taoiseach to the president. However, he or she has no access to documentation and all access to ministers goes through the Department of the Taoiseach. The president does, however, hold limited reserve powers, such as referring a bill to the court to test its constitutionality. The most extreme non-executive republican Head of State is the President of Israel, semi-presidential systems combine features of presidential and parliamentary systems, notably a requirement that the government be answerable to both the president and the legislature. The constitution of the Fifth French Republic provides for a minister who is chosen by the president
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Foreign and Commonwealth Office
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The Foreign and Commonwealth Office, commonly called the Foreign Office, is a department of the Government of the United Kingdom. It is responsible for protecting and promoting British interests worldwide and it was created in 1968 by merging the Foreign Office and the Commonwealth Office. The head of the FCO is the Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs and this position is regarded as one of the four most prestigious appointments in the Cabinet, alongside those of Chancellor of the Exchequer and Home Secretary. Together with the Prime Minister, these are the Great Offices of State, the FCO is managed from day-to-day by a civil servant, the Permanent Under-Secretary of State for Foreign Affairs, who also acts as the Head of the Her Majestys Diplomatic Service. This position is held by Sir Simon McDonald, who took office on 1 September 2015, safeguarding the UK’s national security by countering terrorism and weapons proliferation, and working to reduce conflict. Building the UK’s prosperity by increasing exports and investment, opening markets, ensuring access to resources, supporting British nationals around the world through modern and efficient consular services. The two departments foreign affairs responsibilities became the Foreign Office, whilst their domestic affairs responsibilities were assigned to the Home Office, the Home Office is technically the senior. One of the most influential Times journalists was Valentine Chirol, British Ambassadors across Europe communicated with him on a number of political and local issues. Twentieth century During World War I, the Arab Bureau was set up within the British Foreign Office as a section of the Cairo Intelligence Department, the FCO was formed in 1968, from the merger of the short-lived Commonwealth Office and the Foreign Office. The Foreign and Commonwealth Office held responsibility for development issues between 1970 and 1974, and again between 1979 and 1997. From 1997, this became the responsibility of the separate Department for International Development, the National Archives website contains a Government timeline to show the departments responsible for Foreign Affairs from 1945. When David Miliband took over as Foreign Secretary in June 2007, one of the key messages of these discussions was the conclusion that the existing framework of ten international strategic priorities, dating from 2003, was no longer appropriate. Although the framework had been useful in helping the FCO plan its work and allocate its resources, the new strategic framework consists of three core elements, A flexible global network of staff and offices, serving the whole of the UK Government. Three essential services that support the British economy, British nationals abroad and these services are delivered through UK Trade & Investment, consular teams in Britain and overseas, and UK Visas and Immigration. In August 2005 a report by management consultant group Collinson Grant was made public by Andrew Mackinlay, the report severely criticised the FCOs management structure, noting, The Foreign Office could be slow to act. Delegation is lacking within the management structure, the FCO could feasibly cut 1200 jobs. At least £48 million could be saved annually, the Foreign Office commissioned the report to highlight areas which would help it achieve its pledge to reduce spending by £87 million over three years. In response to the report being made public, the Foreign Office stated it had implemented the reports recommendations
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Geography of Cyprus
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Cyprus is an island in the Eastern Basin of the Mediterranean Sea. It is the third largest island in the Mediterranean and the worlds 81st largest island by area, the island is dominated by two mountain ranges, the Troodos Mountains and the Kyrenia Mountains or Pentadaktylos, and the central plain, the Mesaoria, between them. The Troodos Mountains cover most of the southern and western portions of the island, the narrow Kyrenia Range extends along the northern coastline. It is not as high as the Troodos Mountains, and it substantially less area. The two mountain ranges run parallel to the Taurus Mountains on the Turkish mainland, the outlines of which are visible from northern Cyprus. Coastal lowlands, varying in width, surround the island, geopolitically, the island is divided into four segments. The Republic of Cyprus, the recognized government, occupies the southern 60% of the island. The Turkish Republic of Northern Cyprus, diplomatically recognized only by Turkey, the United Nations-controlled Green Line is a buffer zone that separates the two and it is about 4%. Lastly, two areas—Akrotiri and Dhekelia—remain under British sovereignty for military purposes, collectively forming the Sovereign Base Areas of Akrotiri, the SBAs are located on the southern coast of the island and together encompass 254 km2, or 2. 8% of the island. The rugged Troodos Mountains, whose principal range stretches from Pomos Point in the northwest almost to Larnaca Bay on the east, are the single most conspicuous feature of the landscape. Intensive uplifting and folding in the period left the area highly fragmented, so that subordinate ranges and spurs veer off at many angles. In the southwest, the mountains descend in a series of stepped foothills to the coastal plain, while the Troodos Mountains are a massif formed of molten igneous rock, the Kyrenia Range is a narrow limestone ridge that rises suddenly from the plains. Its easternmost extension becomes a series of foothills on the Karpass Peninsula and that peninsula points toward Asia Minor, to which Cyprus belongs geologically. Rich copper deposits were discovered in antiquity on the slopes of the Troodos, in much of the island, access to a year-round supply of water is difficult. This is traditionally attributed to deforestation which damaged the drainage system through erosion. A network of winter rivers rises in the Troodos Mountains and flows out from them in all directions, the Yialias River and the Pedhieos River flow eastward across the Mesaoria into Famagusta Bay, the Serraghis River flows northwest through the Morphou plain. All of the rivers, however, are dry in the summer. An extensive system of dams and waterways has been constructed to bring water to farming areas, the Mesaoria is the agricultural heartland of the island, but its productiveness for wheat and barley depends very much on winter rainfall, other crops are grown under irrigation
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Mediterranean Sea
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The sea is sometimes considered a part of the Atlantic Ocean, although it is usually identified as a separate body of water. The name Mediterranean is derived from the Latin mediterraneus, meaning inland or in the middle of land and it covers an approximate area of 2.5 million km2, but its connection to the Atlantic is only 14 km wide. The Strait of Gibraltar is a strait that connects the Atlantic Ocean to the Mediterranean Sea and separates Gibraltar. In oceanography, it is called the Eurafrican Mediterranean Sea or the European Mediterranean Sea to distinguish it from mediterranean seas elsewhere. The Mediterranean Sea has a depth of 1,500 m. The sea is bordered on the north by Europe, the east by Asia and it is located between latitudes 30° and 46° N and longitudes 6° W and 36° E. Its west-east length, from the Strait of Gibraltar to the Gulf of Iskenderun, the seas average north-south length, from Croatia’s southern shore to Libya, is approximately 800 km. The Mediterranean Sea, including the Sea of Marmara, has an area of approximately 2,510,000 square km. The sea was an important route for merchants and travelers of ancient times that allowed for trade, the history of the Mediterranean region is crucial to understanding the origins and development of many modern societies. In addition, the Gaza Strip and the British Overseas Territories of Gibraltar and Akrotiri, the term Mediterranean derives from the Latin word mediterraneus, meaning amid the earth or between land, as it is between the continents of Africa, Asia and Europe. The Ancient Greek name Mesogeios, is similarly from μέσο, between + γη, land, earth) and it can be compared with the Ancient Greek name Mesopotamia, meaning between rivers. The Mediterranean Sea has historically had several names, for example, the Carthaginians called it the Syrian Sea and latter Romans commonly called it Mare Nostrum, and occasionally Mare Internum. Another name was the Sea of the Philistines, from the people inhabiting a large portion of its shores near the Israelites, the sea is also called the Great Sea in the General Prologue by Geoffrey Chaucer. In Ottoman Turkish, it has also been called Bahr-i Sefid, in Modern Hebrew, it has been called HaYam HaTikhon, the Middle Sea, reflecting the Seas name in ancient Greek, Latin, and modern languages in both Europe and the Middle East. Similarly, in Modern Arabic, it is known as al-Baḥr al-Mutawassiṭ, in Turkish, it is known as Akdeniz, the White Sea since among Turks the white colour represents the west. Several ancient civilisations were located around the Mediterranean shores, and were influenced by their proximity to the sea. It provided routes for trade, colonisation, and war, as well as food for numerous communities throughout the ages, due to the shared climate, geology, and access to the sea, cultures centered on the Mediterranean tended to have some extent of intertwined culture and history. Two of the most notable Mediterranean civilisations in classical antiquity were the Greek city states, later, when Augustus founded the Roman Empire, the Romans referred to the Mediterranean as Mare Nostrum
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Caribbean
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The Caribbean is a region that consists of the Caribbean Sea, its islands and the surrounding coasts. The region is southeast of the Gulf of Mexico and the North American mainland, east of Central America, situated largely on the Caribbean Plate, the region comprises more than 700 islands, islets, reefs and cays. These islands generally form island arcs that delineate the eastern and northern edges of the Caribbean Sea, in a wider sense, the mainland countries of Belize, Guyana, Suriname and French Guiana are often included due to their political and cultural ties with the region. Geopolitically, the Caribbean islands are usually regarded as a subregion of North America and are organized into 30 territories including sovereign states, overseas departments, and dependencies. From December 15,1954, to October 10,2010, there was a known as the Netherlands Antilles composed of five states. The West Indies cricket team continues to represent many of those nations, the region takes its name from that of the Caribs, an ethnic group present in the Lesser Antilles and parts of adjacent South America at the time of the Spanish conquest. The two most prevalent pronunciations of Caribbean are KARR-ə-BEE-ən, with the accent on the third syllable. The former pronunciation is the older of the two, although the variant has been established for over 75 years. It has been suggested that speakers of British English prefer KARR-ə-BEE-ən while North American speakers more typically use kə-RIB-ee-ən, usage is split within Caribbean English itself. The word Caribbean has multiple uses and its principal ones are geographical and political. The Caribbean can also be expanded to include territories with strong cultural and historical connections to slavery, European colonisation, the United Nations geoscheme for the Americas accords the Caribbean as a distinct region within the Americas. Physiographically, the Caribbean region is mainly a chain of islands surrounding the Caribbean Sea, to the north, the region is bordered by the Gulf of Mexico, the Straits of Florida and the Northern Atlantic Ocean, which lies to the east and northeast. To the south lies the coastline of the continent of South America, politically, the Caribbean may be centred on socio-economic groupings found in the region. For example, the known as the Caribbean Community contains the Co-operative Republic of Guyana. Bermuda and the Turks and Caicos Islands, which are in the Atlantic Ocean, are members of the Caribbean Community. The Commonwealth of the Bahamas is also in the Atlantic and is a member of the Caribbean Community. According to the ACS, the population of its member states is 227 million people. The geography and climate in the Caribbean region varies, Some islands in the region have relatively flat terrain of non-volcanic origin and these islands include Aruba, Barbados, Bonaire, the Cayman Islands, Saint Croix, the Bahamas, and Antigua
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Atlantic Ocean
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The Atlantic Ocean is the second largest of the worlds oceans with a total area of about 106,460,000 square kilometres. It covers approximately 20 percent of the Earths surface and about 29 percent of its surface area. It separates the Old World from the New World, the Atlantic Ocean occupies an elongated, S-shaped basin extending longitudinally between Eurasia and Africa to the east, and the Americas to the west. The Equatorial Counter Current subdivides it into the North Atlantic Ocean, in contrast, the term Atlantic originally referred specifically to the Atlas Mountains in Morocco and the sea off the Strait of Gibraltar and the North African coast. The Greek word thalassa has been reused by scientists for the huge Panthalassa ocean that surrounded the supercontinent Pangaea hundreds of years ago. The term Aethiopian Ocean, derived from Ancient Ethiopia, was applied to the Southern Atlantic as late as the mid-19th century, many Irish or British people refer to the United States and Canada as across the pond, and vice versa. The Black Atlantic refers to the role of ocean in shaping black peoples history. Irish migration to the US is meant when the term The Green Atlantic is used, the term Red Atlantic has been used in reference to the Marxian concept of an Atlantic working class, as well as to the Atlantic experience of indigenous Americans. Correspondingly, the extent and number of oceans and seas varies, the Atlantic Ocean is bounded on the west by North and South America. It connects to the Arctic Ocean through the Denmark Strait, Greenland Sea, Norwegian Sea, to the east, the boundaries of the ocean proper are Europe, the Strait of Gibraltar and Africa. In the southeast, the Atlantic merges into the Indian Ocean, the 20° East meridian, running south from Cape Agulhas to Antarctica defines its border. In the 1953 definition it extends south to Antarctica, while in later maps it is bounded at the 60° parallel by the Southern Ocean, the Atlantic has irregular coasts indented by numerous bays, gulfs, and seas. Including these marginal seas the coast line of the Atlantic measures 111,866 km compared to 135,663 km for the Pacific. Including its marginal seas, the Atlantic covers an area of 106,460,000 km2 or 23. 5% of the ocean and has a volume of 310,410,900 km3 or 23. 3%. Excluding its marginal seas, the Atlantic covers 81,760,000 km2 and has a volume of 305,811,900 km3, the North Atlantic covers 41,490,000 km2 and the South Atlantic 40,270,000 km2. The average depth is 3,646 m and the maximum depth, the bathymetry of the Atlantic is dominated by a submarine mountain range called the Mid-Atlantic Ridge. It runs from 87°N or 300 km south of the North Pole to the subantarctic Bouvet Island at 42°S, the MAR divides the Atlantic longitudinally into two halves, in each of which a series of basins are delimited by secondary, transverse ridges. The MAR reaches above 2000 m along most of its length, the MAR is a barrier for bottom water, but at these two transform faults deep water currents can pass from one side to the other
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The Valley, Anguilla
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The Valley is the capital of Anguilla, one of its fourteen districts, and the main town on the island. As of 2011, it had a population of 1,067, new shops have opened in new buildings and renovated West Indian-style cottages. Old shops have been modernized and have enlarged their stocks as well as their space, the ruins of the Old Court House are located on Crocus Hill, the islands highest point. All that remains are the walls of a few basement jail cells. The town is located in the middle of the island, in front of Crocus Bay and nearby Crocus Hill, nearest villages are North Side, The Quarter, North Hill and George Hill. The Valley has a wet and dry climate under the Köppen climate classification. The area has a dry season that covers the months of February and April. However the wet season, though lengthy, does not quite see the heavy precipitation that is commonplace in other Caribbean cities such as Santo Domingo, average temperatures in The Valley are relatively constant throughout the year, ranging from 26–29 degrees Celsius. The Valley is served by Clayton J. Lloyd International Airport with some international flights, cardigan Connor – Former Hampshire County Cricket Club fast bowler. Ronald Webster Park Map of The Valley
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Azores
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Its main industries are agriculture, dairy farming, livestock, fishing, and tourism, which is becoming the major service activity in the region. In addition, the government of the Azores employs a large percentage of the population directly or indirectly in the service, the main settlement of the Azores is Ponta Delgada. There are nine major Azorean islands and a cluster, in three main groups. These are Flores and Corvo, to the west, Graciosa, Terceira, São Jorge, Pico, and Faial in the centre, and São Miguel, Santa Maria, and they extend for more than 600 km and lie in a northwest-southeast direction. All the islands have volcanic origins, although some, such as Santa Maria, have had no recorded activity since the islands were settled, mount Pico, on the island of Pico, is the highest point in Portugal, at 2,351 m. The Azores are actually some of the tallest mountains on the planet, measured from their base at the bottom of the ocean to their peaks, which thrust high above the surface of the Atlantic. The climate of the Azores is very mild for such a location, being influenced by its distance to continents. Due to the influence, temperatures remain mild year-round. Daytime temperatures normally fluctuate between 16 °C and 25 °C depending on season, temperatures above 30 °C or below 3 °C are unknown in the major population centres. It is also generally wet and cloudy, the culture, dialect, cuisine, and traditions of the Azorean islands vary considerably, because these once-uninhabited and remote islands were settled sporadically over a span of two centuries. However, these kinds of structures have always used in the Azores to store cereals. Detailed examination and dating to authenticate the validity of these speculations is lacking and it is unclear whether these structures are natural or man-made and whether they predate the 15th-century Portuguese colonization of the Azores. Solid confirmation of a human presence in the archipelago has not yet been published. The islands were known in the century and parts of them appear in the Atlas Catalan. In 1427, a captain sailing for Henry the Navigator, possibly Gonçalo Velho, rediscovered the Azores, but this is not certain. In Thomas Ashes 1813 work, A History of the Azores, the author identified a Fleming, Joshua Vander Berg of Bruges and he stated that the Portuguese explored the area and claimed it for Portugal. Other stories note the discovery of the first islands by sailors in the service of Henry the Navigator, although there are few documents to support the claims. Although it is said that the archipelago received its name from the goshawk
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Canada
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Canada is a country in the northern half of North America. Canadas border with the United States is the worlds longest binational land border, the majority of the country has a cold or severely cold winter climate, but southerly areas are warm in summer. Canada is sparsely populated, the majority of its territory being dominated by forest and tundra. It is highly urbanized with 82 per cent of the 35.15 million people concentrated in large and medium-sized cities, One third of the population lives in the three largest cities, Toronto, Montreal and Vancouver. Its capital is Ottawa, and other urban areas include Calgary, Edmonton, Quebec City, Winnipeg. Various aboriginal peoples had inhabited what is now Canada for thousands of years prior to European colonization. Pursuant to the British North America Act, on July 1,1867, the colonies of Canada, New Brunswick and this began an accretion of provinces and territories to the mostly self-governing Dominion to the present ten provinces and three territories forming modern Canada. With the Constitution Act 1982, Canada took over authority, removing the last remaining ties of legal dependence on the Parliament of the United Kingdom. Canada is a parliamentary democracy and a constitutional monarchy, with Queen Elizabeth II being the head of state. The country is officially bilingual at the federal level and it is one of the worlds most ethnically diverse and multicultural nations, the product of large-scale immigration from many other countries. Its advanced economy is the eleventh largest in the world, relying chiefly upon its abundant natural resources, Canadas long and complex relationship with the United States has had a significant impact on its economy and culture. Canada is a country and has the tenth highest nominal per capita income globally as well as the ninth highest ranking in the Human Development Index. It ranks among the highest in international measurements of government transparency, civil liberties, quality of life, economic freedom, Canada is an influential nation in the world, primarily due to its inclusive values, years of prosperity and stability, stable economy, and efficient military. While a variety of theories have been postulated for the origins of Canada. In 1535, indigenous inhabitants of the present-day Quebec City region used the word to direct French explorer Jacques Cartier to the village of Stadacona, from the 16th to the early 18th century Canada referred to the part of New France that lay along the St. Lawrence River. In 1791, the area became two British colonies called Upper Canada and Lower Canada collectively named The Canadas, until their union as the British Province of Canada in 1841. Upon Confederation in 1867, Canada was adopted as the name for the new country at the London Conference. The transition away from the use of Dominion was formally reflected in 1982 with the passage of the Canada Act, later that year, the name of national holiday was changed from Dominion Day to Canada Day
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Latin
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Latin is a classical language belonging to the Italic branch of the Indo-European languages. The Latin alphabet is derived from the Etruscan and Greek alphabets, Latin was originally spoken in Latium, in the Italian Peninsula. Through the power of the Roman Republic, it became the dominant language, Vulgar Latin developed into the Romance languages, such as Italian, Portuguese, Spanish, French, and Romanian. Latin, Italian and French have contributed many words to the English language, Latin and Ancient Greek roots are used in theology, biology, and medicine. By the late Roman Republic, Old Latin had been standardised into Classical Latin, Vulgar Latin was the colloquial form spoken during the same time and attested in inscriptions and the works of comic playwrights like Plautus and Terence. Late Latin is the language from the 3rd century. Later, Early Modern Latin and Modern Latin evolved, Latin was used as the language of international communication, scholarship, and science until well into the 18th century, when it began to be supplanted by vernaculars. Ecclesiastical Latin remains the language of the Holy See and the Roman Rite of the Catholic Church. Today, many students, scholars and members of the Catholic clergy speak Latin fluently and it is taught in primary, secondary and postsecondary educational institutions around the world. The language has been passed down through various forms, some inscriptions have been published in an internationally agreed, monumental, multivolume series, the Corpus Inscriptionum Latinarum. Authors and publishers vary, but the format is about the same, volumes detailing inscriptions with a critical apparatus stating the provenance, the reading and interpretation of these inscriptions is the subject matter of the field of epigraphy. The works of several hundred ancient authors who wrote in Latin have survived in whole or in part and they are in part the subject matter of the field of classics. The Cat in the Hat, and a book of fairy tales, additional resources include phrasebooks and resources for rendering everyday phrases and concepts into Latin, such as Meissners Latin Phrasebook. The Latin influence in English has been significant at all stages of its insular development. From the 16th to the 18th centuries, English writers cobbled together huge numbers of new words from Latin and Greek words, dubbed inkhorn terms, as if they had spilled from a pot of ink. Many of these words were used once by the author and then forgotten, many of the most common polysyllabic English words are of Latin origin through the medium of Old French. Romance words make respectively 59%, 20% and 14% of English, German and those figures can rise dramatically when only non-compound and non-derived words are included. Accordingly, Romance words make roughly 35% of the vocabulary of Dutch, Roman engineering had the same effect on scientific terminology as a whole
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Hamilton, Bermuda
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Hamilton is the capital of the British Overseas Territory of Bermuda. It is the financial centre and a major port and tourist destination. Its population of 1,010 is one of the smallest of any capital cites, the Colonys capital relocated to Hamilton from St. Georges in 1815. The City has been at the political and military heart of Bermuda ever since, the Town of Hamilton became a City in 1897, ahead of the consecration in 1911 of the Cathedral of the Most Holy Trinity, which was under construction at the time. A Catholic cathedral, St. Theresas, was later constructed, today, the city overlooking Hamilton Harbour is primarily a business district, with few structures other than office buildings and shops. The City of Hamilton has long maintained a building height and view limit, in the 21st century, buildings have been planned and some are under construction that are as high as 10 stories in this area. Bermudas local newspaper, The Royal Gazette, reports If you dont recognise the city, from 15 years ago, Hamilton is located on the north side of Hamilton Harbour, and is Bermudas main port. Although there is a parish of the name, the city of Hamilton is in the parish of Pembroke. The City is named after Sir Henry Hamilton, governor from 1786 to 1793, the administrative capital of Bermuda, Hamilton has a limited permanent population of approximately 1,010, however,13,340 work here on a daily basis. The only incorporated city in Bermuda, Hamilton is smaller than the town of St. Georges. A more representative measure of Bermuda local residential populations tends to be by parish, finance and international business constitute the largest sector of Bermudas economy, and virtually all of this business takes place within the borders of Hamilton. Numerous leading international insurance companies are based in Hamilton, as it is a global reinsurance centre, around 400 internationally owned and operated businesses are physically based in Bermuda, and many are represented by the Association of Bermuda International Companies. In total, over 1,500 exempted or international companies are registered with the Registrar of Companies in Bermuda. Its low corporate tax rate makes it attractive to US companies, in addition, the corporate headquarters of the Bermuda grocery store chain The MarketPlace is located within the chains Hamilton MarketPlace location, the largest grocery store in Bermuda. This shield is supported by a mermaid and heraldic sea horse, the shield is topped by a crest featuring a closed helm topped with a torque above which an heraldic seahorse is emerging from the sea holding a flower. The citys full motto is Hamilton sparsa collegit, the citys flag is a banner of arms, featuring the same details as on the shield of the citys coat of arms, but with the flowers in white rather than gold. The city of Hamilton has many parks for its size, probably the most notable park in the city is Victoria Park. This park occupies a block and was named after the former Queen Victoria
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Antarctica
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It contains the geographic South Pole and is situated in the Antarctic region of the Southern Hemisphere, almost entirely south of the Antarctic Circle, and is surrounded by the Southern Ocean. At 14,000,000 square kilometres, it is the fifth-largest continent, for comparison, Antarctica is nearly twice the size of Australia. About 98% of Antarctica is covered by ice that averages 1.9 km in thickness, Antarctica, on average, is the coldest, driest, and windiest continent, and has the highest average elevation of all the continents. Antarctica is a desert, with precipitation of only 200 mm along the coast. The temperature in Antarctica has reached −89.2 °C, though the average for the quarter is −63 °C. Anywhere from 1,000 to 5,000 people reside throughout the year at the research stations scattered across the continent. Organisms native to Antarctica include many types of algae, bacteria, fungi, plants, protista, vegetation, where it occurs, is tundra. The continent, however, remained neglected for the rest of the 19th century because of its hostile environment, lack of easily accessible resources. In 1895, the first confirmed landing was conducted by a team of Norwegians, Antarctica is a de facto condominium, governed by parties to the Antarctic Treaty System that have consulting status. Twelve countries signed the Antarctic Treaty in 1959, and thirty-eight have signed it since then, the treaty prohibits military activities and mineral mining, prohibits nuclear explosions and nuclear waste disposal, supports scientific research, and protects the continents ecozone. Ongoing experiments are conducted by more than 4,000 scientists from many nations, the name Antarctica is the romanised version of the Greek compound word ἀνταρκτική, feminine of ἀνταρκτικός, meaning opposite to the Arctic, opposite to the north. Aristotle wrote in his book Meteorology about an Antarctic region in c.350 B. C, marinus of Tyre reportedly used the name in his unpreserved world map from the 2nd century A. D. Before acquiring its present geographical connotations, the term was used for locations that could be defined as opposite to the north. For example, the short-lived French colony established in Brazil in the 16th century was called France Antarctique, the first formal use of the name Antarctica as a continental name in the 1890s is attributed to the Scottish cartographer John George Bartholomew. Antarctica has no population and there is no evidence that it was seen by humans until the 19th century. Explorer Matthew Flinders, in particular, has credited with popularising the transfer of the name Terra Australis to Australia. Cook came within about 120 km of the Antarctic coast before retreating in the face of ice in January 1773. The first confirmed sighting of Antarctica can be narrowed down to the crews of ships captained by three individuals, according to various organisations, ships captained by three men sighted Antarctica or its ice shelf in 1820, von Bellingshausen, Edward Bransfield, and Nathaniel Palmer
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Rothera Research Station
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The Rothera Research Station is a British Antarctic Survey base on the Antarctic Peninsula, located at Rothera Point, Adelaide Island. Rothera also serves as the capital of the British Antarctic Territory, being located just South of the Antarctic Circle, the weather is cold year round. Temperatures in summer barely go over freezing, Rothera station was established in 1975 to replace Adelaide station where the skiway had deteriorated. The opening of the Bonner Laboratory in 1996/1997 marked the start of new activities in biological sciences in the Antarctic peninsula and these included scuba diving and experiments conducted in the Bonner Laboratory throughout the year. The first Bonner Lab burned down in the winter of 2001 after a fault, it was rebuilt. Meteorological research using data intercepted at the Rothera ground station also continues year round. In January 2017, it was announced that the Rothera Research Station will receive £100m in funding from the government, the money will be used by the British Antarctic Survey to build new living quarters, storage and a new wharf. Tim Stockings, its director of operations called the investment “an exciting moment for polar science”, a portion of the money will also be used to fund the modernisation of facilities and buildings at the British Antarctic stations in Signy, Bird Island and at King Edward Point. Fieldwork is concentrated in the months from November until March. Once in the field, the parties travel using skidoos and sledges for up to four months, the station is open throughout the year with a maximum population of 130 in the summer and an average winter population of 22. In 1998,26 sounding rockets of Viper-type were launched from Rothera Research Station and they reached altitudes of 100 kilometres. Rothera has evolved from a base to the large complex it is today. As is the case everywhere in Antarctica, the buildings need constant repair, although some of the buildings are very new, some of the older ones still survive, often having undergone many different uses. This was re-built from the original in 1985/1986, using parts of the old building, the building is the hub of the base, as it has the main communal areas. It also has the bulk of the offices, computer rooms, communication facilities, meteorological facilities, dried food storage. Bransfield also has several four-person pit rooms which were the main accommodation for the base until 2001 when Admirals House was opened, the building was named after the former BAS ship RRS Bransfield. There is a corridor to the garage, and on one end is the operations tower. Bransfield also produces all the water for the base using a reverse osmosis plant
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Indian Ocean
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The Indian Ocean is the third largest of the worlds oceanic divisions, covering 70,560,000 km2. It is bounded by Asia on the north, on the west by Africa, on the east by Australia, the Indian Ocean is known as Ratnākara, the mine of gems in ancient Sanskrit literature, and as Hind Mahāsāgar, in Hindi. The northernmost extent of the Indian Ocean is approximately 30° north in the Persian Gulf, the oceans continental shelves are narrow, averaging 200 kilometres in width. An exception is found off Australias western coast, where the width exceeds 1,000 kilometres. The average depth of the ocean is 3,890 m and its deepest point is Diamantina Deep in Diamantina Trench, at 8,047 m deep, Sunda Trench has a depth of 7, 258–7,725 m. North of 50° south latitude, 86% of the basin is covered by pelagic sediments. The remaining 14% is layered with terrigenous sediments, glacial outwash dominates the extreme southern latitudes. The major choke points include Bab el Mandeb, Strait of Hormuz, the Lombok Strait, the Strait of Malacca, the Indian Ocean is artificially connected to the Mediterranean Sea through the Suez Canal, which is accessible via the Red Sea. All of the Indian Ocean is in the Eastern Hemisphere and the centre of the Eastern Hemisphere is in this ocean, marginal seas, gulfs, bays and straits of the Indian Ocean include, The climate north of the equator is affected by a monsoon climate. Strong north-east winds blow from October until April, from May until October south, in the Arabian Sea the violent Monsoon brings rain to the Indian subcontinent. In the southern hemisphere, the winds are milder. When the monsoon winds change, cyclones sometimes strike the shores of the Arabian Sea, the Indian Ocean is the warmest ocean in the world. Long-term ocean temperature records show a rapid, continuous warming in the Indian Ocean, Indian Ocean warming is the largest among the tropical oceans, and about 3 times faster than the warming observed in the Pacific. Research indicates that human induced greenhouse warming, and changes in the frequency, among the few large rivers flowing into the Indian Ocean are the Zambezi, Shatt al-Arab, Indus, Godavari, Krishna, Narmada, Ganges, Brahmaputra, Jubba and Irrawaddy River. The oceans currents are controlled by the monsoon. Two large gyres, one in the northern hemisphere flowing clockwise and one south of the equator moving anticlockwise, during the winter monsoon, however, currents in the north are reversed. Deep water circulation is controlled primarily by inflows from the Atlantic Ocean, the Red Sea, north of 20° south latitude the minimum surface temperature is 22 °C, exceeding 28 °C to the east. Southward of 40° south latitude, temperatures drop quickly, surface water salinity ranges from 32 to 37 parts per 1000, the highest occurring in the Arabian Sea and in a belt between southern Africa and south-western Australia
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Limuria
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Lemuria /lᵻˈmjuːriə/ is the name of a hypothetical lost land variously located in the Indian and Pacific Oceans. The concepts 19th-century origins are from attempts to account for discontinuities in biogeography, however, though Lemuria is no longer considered a valid scientific hypothesis, it has been adopted by writers involved in the occult, as well as by some Tamil writers in India. In 1864 the zoologist and biogeographer Philip Sclater wrote an article on The Mammals of Madagascar in The Quarterly Journal of Science, the anomalies of the Mammal fauna of Madagascar can best be explained by supposing that. A large continent occupied parts of the Atlantic and Indian Oceans. that this continent was broken up into islands, with what is now Asia, and that in Madagascar and the Mascarene Islands we have existing relics of this great continent, for which. I should propose the name Lemuria, Sclaters theory was hardly unusual for his time, land bridges, real and imagined, fascinated several of Sclaters contemporaries. The acceptance of Darwinism led scientists to seek to trace the diffusion of species from their points of evolutionary origin, prior to the acceptance of continental drift, biologists frequently postulated submerged land masses in order to account for populations of land-based species now separated by barriers of water. Similarly, geologists tried to account for striking resemblances of rock formations on different continents, the first systematic attempt was made by Melchior Neumayr in his book Erdgeschichte in 1887. Many hypothetical submerged land bridges and continents were proposed during the 19th century, after gaining some acceptance within the scientific community, the concept of Lemuria began to appear in the works of other scholars. Ernst Haeckel, a Darwinian taxonomist, proposed Lemuria as an explanation for the absence of missing link fossil records, according to another source, Haeckel put forward this thesis prior to Sclater. Locating the origins of the species on this lost continent. Other scientists hypothesized that Lemuria had extended across parts of the Pacific oceans, seeking to explain the distribution of species across Asia. The Lemuria theory disappeared completely from conventional scientific consideration after the theories of plate tectonics, the original landmass, the supercontinent Gondwana, broke apart, it did not sink beneath sea level. Samples showed pollen and fragments of wood in a 90-million-year-old sediment, in 2013, the study of grains of sand from the beaches of Mauritius led to the conclusion that a similar landmass would have existed between 2,000 and 85 million years ago. Some Tamil writers such as Devaneya Pavanar have associated Lemuria with Kumari Kandam, since the 1880s, the legend of Lemuria has inspired many novels, television shows, films and music. Atlantis Doggerland Evolution of lemurs, primate from Madagascar Kumari Kandam Lost city Legends of Mount Shasta Mauritia Mu Phantom island Ramtha Jane Roberts Thule Ramaswamy, the Lost Land of Lemuria, Fabulous Geographies, Catastrophic Histories. Catastrophic Cartographies, Mapping the Lost Continent of Lemuria, history at Land’s End, Lemuria in Tamil Spatial Fables. Frederick Spencer Oliver, A Dweller on Two Planets,1905 Manufactured folklore, Shasta Lemuria
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Diego Garcia
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Diego Garcia is an atoll just south of the equator in the central Indian Ocean, and the largest of 60 small islands comprising the Chagos Archipelago. It was settled by the French in the 1790s and was transferred to British rule after the Napoleonic Wars and it was one of the Dependencies of the British Colony of Mauritius until it was detached for inclusion in the newly created British Indian Ocean Territory in 1965. Between 1968 and 1973, the population was removed by the United Kingdom through intimidation of locals. Many were deported to Mauritius and Seychelles, following which the United States built a naval and military base on Diego Garcia. As of March 2015, Diego Garcia is the inhabited island of the BIOT. The atoll is located 3,535 km east of Tanzanias coast,1,796 km south-southwest of the tip of India and 4,723 km west-northwest of the west coast of Australia. According to Southern Maldivian oral tradition, traders and fishermen were occasionally lost at sea, eventually, they were rescued and brought back home. However, the different atolls of the Chagos have no names in the Maldivian oral tradition. Nothing is known of pre-European contact history of Diego Garcia, speculations include visits during the Austronesian diaspora around 700 AD, as some say the old Maldivian name for the islands originated from Malagasy. Arabs, who reached Lakshadweep and Maldives around 900 AD, may have visited the Chagos, another Portuguese expedition with a Spanish explorer of Andalusian origin, Diego García de Moguer, rediscovered the island in 1544 and named it after himself. Garcia de Moguer died the year on the return trip to Portugal in the Indian Ocean. The misnomer Diego could have been made unwittingly by the British ever since and it is assumed that the island was named after one of its first two discoverers—the one by the name of Garcia, the other with name Diego. Also, a cacography of the saying Deo Gracias is eligible for the attribution of the atoll, the Sebastian Cabot map shows a number of islands to the south which may be the Mascarene Islands. The first map which identifies and names Los Chagos is that of Pierre Desceliers, an island called Don Garcia appears on the Theatrum Orbis Terrarum of Abraham Ortelius, together with Dos Compagnos, slightly to the north. It may be the case that Don Garcia was named after Garcia de Noronha, the island is also labelled Don Garcia on Mercators Nova et Aucta Orbis Terrae Descriptio ad Usum Navigatium Emendate. However, on the Vera Totius Expeditionis Nauticae Description of Jodocus Hondius, Don Garcia mysteriously changes its name to I. de Dio Gratia, while the I. de Chagues appears close by. The first map to delineate the island under its present name, Diego Garcia, is the World Map of Edward Wright, possibly as a result of misreading Dio as Diego, and Gratia as Garcia. The Nova Totius Terrarum Orbis Geographica of Hendrik Hondius II repeats Wrights use of the name, which is then proliferated on all subsequent Dutch maps of the period, Diego Garcia and the rest of the Chagos islands were uninhabited until the late 18th century
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