British Overseas Territories

this right here is the UK it may not look like much right now but at one point this 250,000 square kilometer area of land control approximately 25% of the world including the likes of India Australia and South Africa a British overseas territory is an area that while not part of the UK is owned by the UK and is thus subject to the same jurisdiction there are to this day only 14 territories that remain under the ownership and legislation of the UK most of these places come with their own unique quirks that makes them interesting and we are going to go over them one by one [Music] the first pass of this journey starts at the island of Cyprus although this is an independent nation there is something pretty interesting about it it is divided up across the middle of the island there is a buffer zone separating the Turkish and the Greek sides but here's the thing right now we are only interested in two regions and these two regions make up the first territory Akrotiri and Dhekelia Akrotiri makes up the western region with the cleanest borders and the territory capital Epis kopi cantonment lying to the west Daqi lea sits at the eastern side and the borders are a tad messy to say the very least this place does not exist without the reason as it serves the purpose of being a British military base with over half of the population being bakes there as either military personnel or family of military personnel while the remaining 7,500 of the 15,000 500 people being ethnic Cypriots next we take a jump about nine thousand three hundred kilometers to the Caribbean where we will find our next place on this list that's being angular a smaller island territory of about fifteen thousand people located not far north of st. Kitts and Nevis and just east of both the British and US Virgin Islands the capital names the valley sits almost directly in the center of the island generally speaking the region is a tourist hotspot taking full advantage of its physical geography of being located in the Caribbean with a typical scenery you would associate with a Caribbean islands the most significant recent event that occurred here is the passing of Hurricane Emma which also later desecrated Puerto Rico in Florida the largest export of this island and subsequently the largest portion of the income is from the sale of alcoholic beverages comprising 21% of the economy the economic standing is not bad although it isn't fantastic either with the GDP per capita being 8800 u.s. dollars per person which puts it roughly in line with Brazil and Russia so what makes this place stand out not much really the region typically remains obscure and not really talked about and nothing really major has happened to set this place apart to sum it up it is an island in the Caribbean with pretty much what you would expect from a Caribbean islands which in turn makes it a considerable tourist destination if you plan to take a holiday heading further north we come across Bermuda and yes I do mean that Bermuda located approximately 1400 kilometers east of South Carolina whether you believe the conspiracies behind it is totally up to you however let me just explain the general premise of the conspiracies the Bermuda Triangle is a very loosely defined region in the North Atlantic Ocean there's straddles Miami the u.s. territory of Puerto Rico and of course the aforementioned Bermuda within this region there have been claims of planes and ships disappearing with no explanation of where they went people have attempted to formulate numerous explanations as to why this is happening but to no avail if you are interested there are plentiful videos elsewhere explaining it's more in-depth but if we look beyond the Bermuda Triangle stories what is so special biases well it is the most populated British overseas territory at 65,000 people population which is closely followed by the Cayman Islands the economy in proportion to the population is extremely good with the GDP per capita being most recently published at 85,000 dollars per person in 2013 this peaked at 93 thousand in 2008 inherently with statistics like that accommodation in general living costs are extremely high with a simple apartment costing 5,000 just to rent otherwise if you can afford to pay these expenses this place is pretty much a paradise the British Antarctic Territory is by far the largest and least populated out of all of them which effectively takes a piece of slice like shape from Antarctica the chunk claims includes the Antarctic Peninsula which is based directly south of Argentina while Sur is not a permanent population the area is extensively used for scientific research with an estimated 250 scientists working in the region at a given time the rather a research station is the most noteworthy one being based on the Antarctic Peninsula at approximately 67 degrees south making it just about within the Antarctic Circle as for the climates you had expected to be cold all year round and in saying that you would be totally correct the coldest month that's the rather a Research Station is July averaging at negative 11 point 6 degrees Celsius and the warmest month is January as barely above freezing or 0.8 degrees Celsius as previously mentioned this is by far the largest piece of territory making up approximately 1.7 million square kilometers or between the sizes of Libya and Iran which are respectively 16th and 17th place the Indian Ocean Territory is probably one of the more obscure ones as this one is pretty much exclusively military and it comes with a tad bit of controversy the territory consists of the Chagos archipelago with quite a large portion of the land being atolls not rising far above sea level altogether land only makes up 0.1 1% of the area or just over 60 square kilometers the reason this territory is slightly controversial is due to the force depopulation of the island natives in 1966 the various islands were leased to the UK and the natives were located to nearby island nations such as Mauritius and the Seychelles as you would imagine the legality of this move has been put into question numerous times with the Islanders assessing their right to return to Diego Garcia speaking of race the British Indian Ocean Territory is one of the only two to drive on the rates the other one being Gibraltar who drives on that side to align with most of mainland Europe although there is not a definitive reason as to why the Indian Ocean Territory drives on that particular site given that the UK drives on the left there is also a little reason for there to even be roads in the first place given that most of the region is consistent of tiny atolls that you can walk across there is not really a permanent population like the Antarctic Territory although it is usually soft with 2,500 military personnel jumping back to the Caribbean now we're here greeted with another tourist hot spots the British Virgin Islands those place comprises of over 60 islands the largest one being Tortola which houses the capital of Rotel collectively the population is at around 28,000 which is decently large for a territory obviously being based just 18 degrees north from the equator has a major perk subjectively of course the climate is always warm with VLE a verge temperatures barely varying between months the coldest is January with an average of 26 degrees C and an average low of 20 on the flip side the hottest month is July or August with the average highs of 31 and average lows of 23 seems like yet another tropical paradise yes the owner suffers from the complete opposite yes I'm looking at you Britain by Caribbean standards the islands are very strong in terms of being able to maintain low crime rates and keeping their economy strong however the distribution of said wealth is fairly uneven a huge contributor to the thriving economy of the Caribbean islands in general is the tourism the Virgin Islands are no different to this with 45% of the income being generated from this as the name would suggest Richard Branson has had some part to play in the territory although it isn't anything too special he just lays claim over two islands mosquito and sneaker island both located just north of the island of Virgin Gorda if you haven't gotten the hint yet the you cave really liked sticking flags down in the Caribbean the next one is absolutely no exception to that trend the Cayman Islands is located between Cuba and Honduras although it leans much closer to Cuba there are three islands Grand Cayman which is the fatter island and the two small islands to the East Little Cayman and Cayman Brac the vast majority of the population obviously live on the Grand Cayman which unsurprisingly hosts the capsule of Georgetown which is the same name as a capsule of Guyana which was formerly under the British rule I never knew my own country were so trash at naming things as previously mentioned this is the second most populated British territory by only a small margin approximately 60,000 people live here tourists usually come here due to the fact that has a fantastic region for scuba diving which includes the novelty of swimming with stingrays especially in the aptly named Stingray City one thing that's really sets the Cayman Islands from the rest of the Caribbean is the fact that it has an extremely large banking center which ranks fifth in the world which for a population barely larger than a town that's a pretty large achievement 36% of the population is employed into this sector which is a major factor in making this sector as powerful as it is the Human Development Index in this area is also huge at a score of 0.9 83 which surpasses the highest ranked independent country Norway so to sum it up the Cayman Islands is a developmental Haven which also seems to go very much unnoticed compared to other highly developed places now we are beginning to move on to the territories that I find extremely interesting the chances are you have heard of the Falkland Islands before an archipelago located fairly far south of the equator to the east of the southernmost tip of Argentina there are two main land masses with a number of islets as a result of rugged and pretty messy terrain the capital named Stanley sits on the eastern coast of the territory and is the residence of over half of the population the Falkland Islands are extremely sparse in population with only 3,300 people being based on the territory of over 12,000 square kilometers this makes a population then this is he 0.275 people per square kilometre there are two main things this place is generally known for the first thing is the fact that there is more sheep than people by a substantial amount with around five hundred and seventy thousand sheep and that is where they make a fair portion of their economy as would be safe to assume of course over 80 percent of the land mass is used for agriculture as the population density is virtually next to nothing the climate is pretty miserable and similar to that of the UK which is probably why they decided to settle there in the first place winters generally dip to around 0 degrees Celsius while summers usually barely make its above 14 degrees with the highest recorded temperature being only 24 degrees Celsius so yeah definitely not somewhere I would want to live the second thing that the Falklands are known for is a dispute between the UK and Argentina over it to put it simply in 1982 both Argentina in the UK wanted the islands to themselves and as a result there was a conflict between the two nations the conflict lasted about ten weeks and about 650 Argentinians 250 British and free Falkland Islanders dies during that time period to this day the region remains under the role of the UK although Argentina is still a tad salty over it's believing it's rightfully theirs the next territories undoubtedly my favorite out of all of them Gibraltar is a 6.8 square kilometer peninsula on the southern tip of Spain at the Strait of Gibraltar the area is characterized by a large 400 foot rock overlooking the area the only settlement is crowding the base of says Rock approximately 34,000 people live here which makes the population density close to that of London or 5,000 people per square kilometre making it the single most densely populated territory in the world so how did such a small chunk of land end up in British hands well sir put it simply in 1704 the region was captured by Anglo Dutch forces in the war of the Spanish Succession and nine years after the region was ceded to Britain the rock was also used as a military base during World War two in which the population of Gibraltar were temporarily evacuated many of whom being sent to Morocco the region is Pressy importance due to having a vantage point over the Strait of Gibraltar it has a watch over exactly what enters into the Mediterranean Sea the entry point is so thin that you can see the coast of Morocco on the other side with the gap only measuring 21 kilometers there has been dispute from Spain during the recent years with claims that it is attached to Spain and the SAS is their land however the Gibraltarians strongly disagree a referendum was held as to whether the Gibraltarians wanted to reign british or identifies Spanish and the results were absolutely astounding 17900 people voted to remain British while a new 187 people wanted the territory to become Spanish or 1.03 percent however the brexit vote left Gibraltar in a confusing place unsure of what will happen after the UK officially leaves the EU in 2019 however more is leaning of them remaining British as being ceded back to Spain would only hurts them economically not to mention the people professor remain British by an absolutely overwhelming margin apparently I have to mention the victory Salem in Gibraltar which can hold 2,000 people otherwise I'll be a huge disappointment to flax so I guess I'm no longer a disappointment while I'm on the topic when they check the reviews for the stadium there are a few one-star reviews with the additional remark of Gibraltar espanol see ya a Spanish minority really aren't letting this slang go are they also one final fact Gibraltar is the only place in the whole of Europe that has monkeys the Barbary macaques these things whilst being adorable are also simultaneously notorious for stealing from the bags of locals and tourists if you ever plans visit Gibraltar keep your bag zipped at all times unless she wants your shiny new Galaxy s8 in the hands of a monkey and then subsequently smashed into pieces by being drops off the side of the rock once again the journey heads back to the Caribbean to a very small island known as Montserrat located right between st. Kitts and Nevis and the French territory of Guadeloupe the island is characterized by an active volcano in the south and the old capsule of Plymouth also sits at the southwest the population is currently just under 5,000 but it was much higher beforehand as around 12,000 the eruption of the sufer Hills volcano in 1995 caused a mass evacuation mostly to the UK the aforementioned previous capsule of Montserrat was directly in the destructive path of the volcano's eruption and as a result the entire town was submerged in volcanic ash of which 19 people died from the current de facto capital is at the town of braids in the Northwest as it took this title in 1997 after Plymouth was completely abandoned currently a new capsule is being constructed going by the name of little Bay located further north of braids and of course further away from the exclusion zone which engulfs the south of the island you could actually view the destruction of the old capital from the Garibaldi Hill Inn Isles bay however visitors are usually not permitted to cross glutens own for obvious reasons of course the volcano is still active and it is the most of serve volcano in the world most observance is done from the Montserrat's volcano observatory the Pacific Ocean is home to a range of interesting places including Hawaii Micronesia Easter Island and the 11th territory the Pitcairn Islands which is undoubtedly one of the most isolated places on earth the Pitcairn Islands are located 5,000 kilometers northeast of New Zealand and roughly 25 degrees south of the Equator and when I say this place is isolated I really do mean that it's isolated they consist of three islands a larger Henderson Island the tiny Ueno Island and the one in between called Pitcairn Islands both Henderson and Ueno islands are uninhabited and as a results the only settlement here is on the Pitcairn Island Adams town is home to the entire population of just 50 people recently the island has been attempting to pull in some migration to increase the population to little success marketing the fact that the island now has Wi-Fi of which there is an article claiming that it has doubles to only 512 kilobits per second across 48 users their focal point in their government website is immigration with a full list of fa Q's most of this desperation for immigration to the island is in the hope that the population can be bolstered slightly higher as it is currently decreasing from migration to other countries from the Pitcairn Island itself however one big thing likely stifled any chances of getting people to migrate to the islands in the foreseeable future and that is a huge underlying rape culture that was discovered in 2004 when seven men or in other words a third of the male population were convicted of rape and sexual assault this included the current mayor of the islands Sean Christian and his father Steve Christian the problem with the island is that every single person on there is assigned a particular job to keep everything running every person on the island is responsible for building the houses and general infrastructure as a results these men still had to continue with their given jobs and this of 2009 only one of these men remained in the islands prison which the seven men all contributed to build the rest of them remain under home detention status when they are not working the residents aim to put that reputation far behind them in order to attract tourism migration which has stated numerous times on PDF documents found on the official Pitkin Island websites the island has one shop which is open a mere three times a week and electricity which is only on between specific times due to outdated electricity generators there is a very interesting history behind this Island as it was colonized by mutineers from the HMS Bounty who stranded themselves and destroyed the ship of which the wreckage can still be seen from bounty Bay on the far eastern side the population reached a high point in 1937 at 233 people however that number felt over the years due to the aforementioned migration away from the islands mostly to New Zealand and Australia Henderson Island is one of the largest waste deposits in the world where they're being reportedly 38 million pieces of trash washed up on the beaches which roughly totals to over 17 tons of pure waste this includes a likes of plastic figure heads and bags some of the local crabs have even started to use empty beauty product containers as shells and no I'm not even joking when I say that on the other side of South America there is another incredibly isolated place although it leans much closer to Africa st. Helena Ascension and Tristan da Cunha is not only a mouthful to say but this is also a territory 1,900 kilometers west of Angola there are three separate regions to this territory saint helena is the middle islands and the closest ones for the African mainland and not only is it the most populated but it has by far the most residents of the territory being base here and it is thus regarded as the main island and of course this is where the capsule Jamestown lays Ascension Island is located 1,300 kilometres northwest with the main town being named Georgetown it's not like we haven't heard that name before and finally the last of the free regions and by far the most isolated is Tristan da Cunha an extremely remote archipelago with the main settlement being located on the largest islands Edinburgh of the seven seas if you can tell already this territory's full of mouthful names the settlement only has a population of 268 people making its isolation comparable to the previously mentioned Pitcairn Islands Tristan da Cunha embraces how remote they are even having a sign at the main ports with the words welcome to the remotest islands with a few pictures online of tourists taking photos next to this sign where they commonly shared please look on their face that they managed to somehow make it to Tristan da Cunha the journey takes 18 days of sailing from Cape Town South Africa so it certainly isn't the easiest place to get to as there is not a single airstrip in sight much like Montserrat's they too have a volcano right at the centre which is also active the volcano erupts in 1961 and was mere meters away from touching the village the climates are vary between islands ascension is the houses due to being only seven degrees south of the equator with the weather being virtually the same all year round with very little seasonal variation on the other hands Tristan da Cunha only succeeds 20 degrees Celsius during the summer and shows very mild seasonal variation the climate is described as oceanic or heavily dependent on the ocean Ascension Island was occupied by the British RAF during World War two during the Battle of the Atlantic this airfield is still operated both by the USA and the UK the main islands Saint Helena recently opened in airports and finally had the first commercial flight on October of last year despite the Pitcairn Islands having a population of just 50 it is not the territory of the lowest population that title goes to South Georgia and the South Sandwich Islands with a population of just 30 this main island called South Georgia is located far east and slightly further south of the Falkland Islands with rugged mountainous terrain all settlements are typically scattered around the northeastern coast with the largest of these being grits vacant with a population of only 20 or in other words less than a typical secondary school classroom this place comes complete with a church a museum and a whaling station which is by the way pretty decrepit the remainder of the population lives in the king edward's point grits vacant cemetery is the burial site of the Explorer Ernest Shackleton and another place at Taurus place photos with an eager grin on their face most people live here due to scientific research with the King Edward point research station being just down the cove from grits vacant most of these buildings in assessments are very Asian rusted including ships that have been used in decades and the aforementioned whaling stations there are a few new buildings in places that have been built to look new and not as dilapidated such as a church museum and a research station on the side note if you go there expect to see a ton of penguins and seals and that springs up to our final territory of the video and that is the Turks and Caicos Islands located just above Haiti and the Dominican Republic they consist of 40 coral islands that almost never raise more than a few metres above sea level the three biggest islands are all connected by bridges which are the North's middle and East Caicos however the capsule Cockburn town isn't on any of those islands in this actually on a small island to the southeast in fact it takes up most of this island and it consists of a church hospital prison restaurants and of course and airports the population is almost exactly the subji browser which is 34,000 people for whatever reason the Brits had an affinity to nabbing Caribbean islands and they make up a fair portion of this video but that doesn't really make France or the Netherlands any less greedy with them either the islands are extremely safe pretty much comparable to Miami and New York in terms of safety much like angular they market themselves to be a typical Caribbean islands with similarly not much success some of parts and this is where the journey ends the British overseas territories are some of the most unique places on earth from the isolation of the Pitcairn Islands in Tristan da Cunha to the 400 foot Rock of Gibraltar that overlooks the entryway to the Mediterranean Sea in this video I aim to show what sets each territory apart and try to stray away from the numerical data as that does not seem to appeal much to most people hopefully you like this video and if you did maybe leave a like and subscribe for more and if you wish you can even leave suggestions for other videos to do in the future there will most likely be two upcoming travel videos one to dalaman in Turkey and one to San Sebastian in Spain so please stay tuned for those anyway thank you so much for watching my first geography video and goodbye

Channel: DuoGetsRekt

Views: 198,305

Keywords: British Overseas Territories, Akrotiri, Dhekelia, Cyprus UK military base, Anguilla, British Territories, British Autonomous Regions, Bermuda, Bermuda Triangle, British Antarctic Territory, Indian Ocean Territory, British Virgin Islands, US virgin Islands, Virgin Islands, Cayman Islands, Grand Cayman, Falklands, Falkland Islands, Falkland Islands War, Antarctica, Turks and Caicos, Gibralitar, Gibraltar is British, Gibraltar espanol, Saint Helena, Ascension Island, Tristan da Cunha

Id: U7v_WC_0lhQ

Length: 28min 18sec (1698 seconds)

Published: Mon Mar 19 2018