50 Fun Facts About Dependent Territories

Which self-governing Arctic territory, with its capital at Nuuk, is the world's largest island?

Greenland gained self-rule in 2009, with the right to take over its own courts, policing and natural resources in time. An ice sheet covers about 81% of the island.

From which European country did the United States buy the US Virgin Islands for $25 million in 1917?

Denmark had run the three main islands as the Danish West Indies. The United States took possession on March 31, 1917, and gave them their present name.

The overseas department of French Guiana gives France its longest land border with which country?

Brazil meets France along French Guiana, which sits in South America yet is fully part of France and of the European Union.

Which British territory at the tip of the Iberian Peninsula is home to wild Barbary macaques?

Gibraltar has been British since Spain ceded it under the 1713 Treaty of Utrecht. Its famous "apes" are actually monkeys, the only wild ones in Europe.

On which remote British island in the South Atlantic did Napoleon Bonaparte die in exile in 1821?

Saint Helena was picked by the British government in 1815, after Waterloo. Napoleon lived at Longwood House there until his death six years later.

Which British Pacific territory was settled in 1790 by mutineers from HMS Bounty?

The Pitcairn Islands had just 35 permanent residents in 2023, the fewest of any territory in the world. Most islanders descend from the nine mutineers.

Which US territory became the 50th state when it joined the Union in August 1959?

Hawaii was admitted on August 21, 1959, a few months after Alaska, which had become the 49th state that January.

Which British South Atlantic territory did Argentina invade in April 1982, starting a ten-week war?

The Falkland Islands were retaken by a British task force that June. Fishing, tourism and sheep farming now drive the economy, and five penguin species live there.

Which Caribbean island with its capital at San Juan is a US territory styled a commonwealth?

Puerto Rico is home to about 3.2 million people, and its one member of Congress, called the resident commissioner, is a non-voting delegate.

Which territory did the United Kingdom hand back to China at midnight on 1 July 1997?

Hong Kong became a special administrative region of China, ending 156 years of British rule that began with the capture of its main island in 1841.

Which Atlantic island group, named after a Spanish explorer, is Britain's oldest overseas territory?

Bermuda takes its name from Juan de Bermúdez, who found it in the early 1500s. Its House of Assembly dates from 1620, making it one of the world's oldest legislatures.

Which Pacific island, home to the Chamorro people, did the United States capture from Spain in 1898?

Guam fell to the US on June 21, 1898, early in a brief war with Madrid. It is now the westernmost territory of the United States.

Which Crown Dependency in the Irish Sea is known for its TT motorcycle races and tailless cats?

The Isle of Man has its own parliament, Tynwald, which in 1881 became the first national legislature to give some women the vote in a general election.

Which Channel Island, the largest of all, gave its name to a dairy cattle breed and a US state?

Jersey sheltered the future Charles II in the 1640s, and he repaid its governor, Sir George Carteret, with land in America that Carteret named after his island.

Which British Caribbean territory did Columbus name Las Tortugas after its many turtles?

The Cayman Islands have always relied on indirect rather than direct taxes. The turtles behind their first name were soon hunted to near-extinction.

Which Norwegian Arctic archipelago, governed under a 1920 treaty, houses the Global Seed Vault?

Svalbard is a free economic zone where the 1920 treaty restricts military use. Unlike mainland Norway, it lies outside the Schengen Area.

Which island group about halfway between Iceland and Norway has its capital at Tórshavn?

The Faroe Islands, 18 major islands in all, have had home rule since 1948. Their name is widely taken to mean "sheep islands".

Which Chinese territory, run by Portugal until 1999, is known as the gambling capital of the world?

Macau is the most densely populated territory on Earth, and two-thirds of its area is built on land reclaimed from the sea.

People born in which US territory are US nationals rather than citizens at birth?

American Samoa is the only inhabited US territory where citizenship is not granted at birth. It is also the southernmost, with its capital at Pago Pago.

Which country owned the Caribbean island of Saint Barthélemy from 1784 until 1878?

Sweden got the island from Louis XVI in return for trading rights in Gothenburg, then sold it back to France. The capital, Gustavia, still bears a Swedish king's name.

Which island, the largest in French Polynesia, is home to the capital Papeete?

Tahiti is also the highest island in French Polynesia and by far the most populous, home to more than two-thirds of the collectivity's people.

Which French Pacific territory with its capital at Nouméa voted against independence in 2018?

New Caledonia voted to stay French again in 2020 and 2021. A British explorer named it in 1774 because its coast reminded him of Scotland.

Which Caribbean island has been split between France and the Netherlands since a 1648 treaty?

Saint Martin holds the only land border between the French Republic and the Kingdom of the Netherlands. The Dutch part is smaller but has more people.

The French islands of Saint Pierre and Miquelon lie just off the coast of which Canadian island?

Newfoundland is their nearest neighbour, yet the islands are French soil where the euro is the official currency and residents hold European Union citizenship.

Which Caribbean island, the A of the ABC islands, became a country within the Dutch Kingdom in 1986?

Aruba lies just 29 kilometres north of Venezuela's Paraguaná peninsula, and its politicians had pressed for a separate status since the 1940s.

Which Dutch Caribbean island with its capital at Willemstad gave its name to an orange liqueur?

Curaçao was part of the Netherlands Antilles until 2010. Its namesake liqueur is flavoured with the dried peel of the laraha, a citrus fruit grown on the island.

Mount Scenery, the highest point in the Kingdom of the Netherlands, is on which Caribbean island?

Saba consists largely of that one dormant volcano, which rises 870 metres above the sea, far higher than anything in the famously flat European Netherlands.

Which Pacific island group with its capital at Avarua shares citizenship with New Zealand?

The Cook Islands run their own government from Rarotonga, the main island, while most islanders also hold New Zealand citizenship.

Niue governs itself but shares citizenship with New Zealand under which constitutional arrangement?

Free association lets Niue, nicknamed the Rock of Polynesia, run its own government while Niueans remain citizens of New Zealand.

Which Australian territory in the Indian Ocean is famous for the annual mass migration of red crabs?

Christmas Island was named by Captain William Mynors, who came upon it on Christmas Day 1643. Its crabs carpet the ground in their millions on the way to the sea.

Which Australian territory in the Pacific, once a convict settlement, has a pine tree on its flag?

Norfolk Island served as a penal settlement until 1855. The evergreen pine on its flag is native there and now grows in parks and gardens around the world.

Which British Caribbean island lost its capital, Plymouth, to volcanic eruptions that began in 1995?

Montserrat saw two-thirds of its people forced to flee between 1995 and 2000. It is nicknamed the Emerald Isle of the Caribbean for its Irish heritage.

Which British South Atlantic island is considered the most remote inhabited place in the world?

Tristan da Cunha has a single settlement, Edinburgh of the Seven Seas. All 264 islanders were evacuated when a volcano erupted right beside it in 1961.

On which remote British island is the polar explorer Ernest Shackleton buried, at Grytviken?

South Georgia was a whaling and sealing base, and Shackleton once crossed it on foot to fetch help for his stranded crew. He died there in 1922.

Which uninhabited Norwegian dependency in the South Atlantic is Earth's most remote piece of land?

Bouvet Island became a Norwegian dependency in 1930, once a dispute with the United Kingdom over the claim was settled. It is now a protected nature reserve.

Which US island territory in the North Pacific gave its name to a decisive naval battle of June 1942?

Midway Atoll housed a US naval air base, and the battle fought around it in June 1942 was a turning point of the Pacific campaign.

From which island, now part of the US Northern Mariana Islands, did the Enola Gay take off in 1945?

Tinian's North Field was the departure point for both atomic bomb missions, flown by the B-29 bombers Enola Gay and Bockscar.

Which currency has the British Virgin Islands used since 1959, despite being a UK territory?

The US dollar was adopted because of close economic ties with the neighbouring US islands. Tourism and financial services now dominate the economy.

Which Asian country was a US territory until its independence was recognised on July 4, 1946?

The Philippines had been a Spanish colony until the war of 1898, and from 1935 it was governed as a commonwealth on the road to independence.

The Ross Dependency is the name of New Zealand's territorial claim on which continent?

Antarctica is also claimed in part by Britain, France, Norway and others, but a treaty in force since 1961 holds every one of those claims in abeyance.

Which disputed African territory, a Spanish colony until the 1970s, is mostly controlled by Morocco?

Western Sahara has sat on the United Nations list of non-self-governing territories since 1963. The Polisario Front proclaimed a republic there as Spain left.

The UN's Committee of 24 keeps a list of non-self-governing territories as part of which process?

Decolonization is the committee's only business. It was set up in 1961 and earned its nickname because for much of its history it had 24 members.

Which US legal term, born of the Insular Cases, describes a territory not on a path to statehood?

Unincorporated territories are those where the Constitution may apply differently. Congress treats incorporated ones as future states, and there it applies in full.

Which Pacific nation, the last United Nations trust territory, became fully sovereign in 1994?

Palau had voted in 1978 against joining the Federated States of Micronesia, and it stayed under US administration years longer than its neighbours.

Which Pacific nation was the New Hebrides, ruled jointly by Britain and France until 1980?

Vanuatu was run from 1906 as an Anglo-French condominium, with the two powers managing the islands together. An independence movement arose in the 1970s.

Which Central American country was the colony of British Honduras before independence in 1981?

Belize took its present name in 1973, eight years before it left British rule on 21 September 1981.

The British territory of Akrotiri and Dhekelia consists of two military base areas on which island?

Cyprus became independent under a 1960 treaty that let Britain keep the two base areas, which had been part of the old colony.

Which special territory of Chile in the Pacific is renowned for its giant stone statues called moai?

Easter Island has nearly 1,000 of the statues, carved by the early Rapa Nui people. Chile annexed it in 1888.

In the Channel Islands, the British monarch is traditionally referred to by which medieval title?

Duke of Normandy is the title because the islands have belonged to the Duchy of Normandy since the 10th century. Even Elizabeth II was often called by it.

Mayotte chose to remain French when which nearby island nation declared its independence?

The Comoros broke away after a 1974 referendum, but Mayotte voted the other way and in 2011 became the 101st department of France.