British Overseas Territories: Why Does the UK Have Fourteen Territories & How They Work - TLDR News

[Music] hello and welcome to another tldr uk video we often write videos about politics in the uk whether this is in relation to brexit coronavirus parliament or otherwise however so far we've not really looked at the complicated subject of the nations that make up the uk the crown dependencies and the british overseas territories well today seems as good a day as any to dive into one of these specifically british overseas territories before we start though if you're interested in topics like this we're going to be releasing videos about the us and french territories dotted around the world those videos will be coming out on the tldr us and tldr eu channels respectively in the weeks ahead so make sure you've subscribed over there so you don't miss a thing also while we're quickly plugging our channels we just recently launched the tldr global channel where we're obviously discussing international news you can check out all of those channels by clicking the link in the description britain has a total of 14 overseas territories they're located all over the globe from the falklands islands off the coast of south america the british antarctic claim islands like ascension in the middle of the atlantic ocean islands in the indian ocean or even gibraltar off the south coast of spain each of the territories has a slightly different relationship with britain based on its history and its people so before we dive into the politics of the overseas territories it seems best to explain the history of at least some of the major ones one of the most controversial overseas territories is the falklands islands as many of you will know this is controversial due to the fact that argentina claims they actually have rights to this land this came to blows in 1982 when the argentinians tried to take back the island the british government then headed by margaret thatcher refused to let this happen and went to war with argentina over it argentina tried to present an argument that the falklands islands should be theirs because of a treaty that split south america between spain and portugal that was signed in 1493 along with its proximity to the islands the uk argued that they'd occupied the islands since 1833 and thus had a historic claim the british actually used his argument quite a lot though with many of the british overseas territories justified due to the fact that british inhabitants have been there from earlier periods for example antigua first saw british settlers in 1650 bermuda saw british settlers as the result of a ship being blown off course in 1650. the cayman islands were controlled by the british formerly since 1670. you get the picture britain has been holding onto these places for a long time some though have a more recent history for example the british indian ocean territory which was established in 1965 due to ongoing tension between the us and the ussr the u.s surprisingly backed britain in the creation of the territory so the islands could be used for military purposes in the region specifically to counter the ussr in fact that's something that many british overseas territories have in common and is one of the benefits they present to the uk many of the territories are used for military purposes for example gibraltar sits on the south side of the iberian peninsula and has been used on many occasions for military conflicts most notably during world war ii when it was used as a refueling station for the allied nations ascension island was also used during world war ii as a way to refuel allied ships and this was also its purpose during the falklands war again similarly bermuda has large military bases largely due to its position in the north atlantic ocean so clearly there's a military benefit to the uk maintaining these territories they allow britain to operate effectively around the globe and it can be argued help britain maintain its international presence in return britain offers the territories their military protection after all britain has its own large militaries and the territories wouldn't be able to make a military of their own of this size i mean the total population of all the territories combined is about a quarter of a million and the uk armed forces employ 144 000 people so on the military front it seems fair to say that britain and the british overseas territories help each other out it's a if you scratch my back i'll scratch yours kind of scenario okay so this explains the military aspect but what about governance well as we explained britain reserves the right to make decisions about the defense of these territories and this is done through the executive of the overseas territories many of the territories such as antigua have a governor appointed on the behalf of the british sovereign so while the queen is still the head of state the governor acts on her behalf in the territory the power of the governor varies slightly territory to territory for example in gibraltar the governor selects the speaker of their parliament and in antigua they can appoint members to the parliament itself however aside from this each of the territories can elect their own representatives who function in a similar way to mps in britain they're elected normally for a five-year term and aside from defense they can legislate on whatever they want they also have their own judicial systems however final appeals will be heard at the privy council back in britain the exception to these are territories with no permanent population for example the british antarctic territory and the british indian ocean territory in these areas a commission or governor simply runs the territory on behalf of the british government if you want a more comprehensive explanation of the british antarctic territory then you'll probably be interested in the videos we've made over on the tldr global channel where we set out exactly what's happening in antarctica there's a link to the channel and the video in the description so it's clear that while the overseas territories do enjoy some freedom from britain britain is inherently ingrained in their political systems and is able to exercise huge amounts of powers in the legislatures of some of the territories which brings us back to the question we asked earlier what exactly do the countries get out of the arrangement we've explained how the military aspects may affect them but this isn't necessarily a huge benefit that is unless the 50 people living on the pitcairn islands suddenly decide to get mouthy with the neighboring well no one granted it's useful to have this military defense but not always 100 necessary especially considering the political price they have to pay for it which means it's fair to ask if they anything else back in return for the loss of sovereignty as you can probably tell from the way that rhetorical question was asked of course they get something else primarily money and citizenship the citizenship element is fairly simple to explain every citizen of a british overseas territory is eligible for british citizenship by virtue of their british overseas territory citizenship which not only gives them automatic entry to the uk but also is a pretty powerful though decreasingly influential passport when traveling abroad on the financial side although not all territories receive money the british government does provide funds through the department for international development the only territories that receive direct funding are saint helena pitcairn and monserrat in a paper produced by the department for international development the government states that due to a combination of physical inaccessibility undiversified economies and declining populations three of the territories have long-term financial dependency with substantial budget deficits there are other funds that are available to the other overseas territories though such as the good government fund which can be used to tackle drug trafficking among other things these are not given to all territories but are used when needed the british government though does take responsibility for certain aspects of the overseas territories in a paper published in 2012 they specifically claim that the main six areas in relation to territories are defense security and the safety of territories and their people successful and resilient economies cherishing the environment making government work better vibrant and flourishing communities and productive links with the wider world therefore the british government will effectively step in and help when it feels like it's needed in relation to one of these key policy areas so it seems like largely the uk government has a hands-off approach and there are some benefits to their relationship for both the uk and the territories but do the populations of the territories agree do they want to have their relationship with britain or do they want their independence well it's worth discussing the two most controversial british overseas territories first gibraltar and the falkland islands as other nations claim rights to them in gibraltar in 1967 there was a vote for whether the inhabitants wanted to be part of britain or spain 99.64 voted britain then in 2002 there was a referendum about whether gibraltar wanted to be both british and spanish even this smaller change was rejected by 98.97 percent of the population so overwhelmingly gibraltar sees itself as british and is seemingly content with the arrangement they have in the falkland islands in 2013 there was a referendum that was even more explicit the public were asked whether they wanted to remain a british overseas territory and 99.8 percent of the population voted yes with only three singular votes against it it doesn't get much clearer than that other overseas territories have also held referendums to ensure that their populations want to maintain their relationship with the uk for example the cayman islands voted on a new constitution that was drafted with the u.s government this was backed by 63 percent of voters in bermuda in 1995 74.1 percent of voters turned down independence in a referendum some overseas territories such as antigua have previously indicated that they want independence although this was a long time ago and there's no evidence that the wishes are still the case that being said though 99.7 percent of voters voted for a new independent state in 1969 but the british army was sent in to restore control so clearly not all british overseas territories are happy with their relationship with britain but it seems on the whole they're largely content arguably this could be down to historic links to britain and the fact that britain has occupied the territories for usually centuries what do you think though does the relationship seem fair and if you live there do you think you'd want your independence let us know your thoughts in the comments below especially if you happen to live in one of the overseas territories be sure to subscribe the channel for more updates as we release videos on topics like this also a special thanks to our patreon backers who make videos like this one possible and if you want to see your name at the end of videos then you too can back us on patreon the link to that's in the description

Channel: TLDR News

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Length: 11min 49sec (709 seconds)

Published: Tue Jan 19 2021