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Chagos Is.
Perhaps now the native Hawaians will be able to reclaim their Kingdom from the American settlers who squatted then overthrew the legal government. Here's hoping...
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The colonised may have had a level of happiness beforehand because humans are good at accepting whatever is their norm; but that is likely to be because they didn't realise how much better life could be if they had sorted themselves out as the invaders had. Indeed being dragged into the modern world will have been a benefit in the longer term. Except where the natives refused to accept the new ideas; and/or when the local areas held many "tribes" than refused to get on with each other and so spent much of their resources smiting each other.
"...but that is likely to be because they didn't realise how much better life could be if they had sorted themselves out as the invaders had."
The difference here is that the Chagos Islands were not "invaded" as such. In fact they were not colonised in the traditional sense at all. They were discovered and occupied.
When the first French settlers arrived there (from Mauritius) to set up their coconut plantations the islands were uninhabited. In fact Mauritius itself was uninhabited in the early 1700s when the French arrived. It had been previously occupied by various settlers from both the Middle East and Europe but had been abandoned, with the most popular reason given for that being that the island was overrun with Macaque monkeys which destroyed everything the settlers tried to establish.
The only people living on the Chagos Islands when Mauritius gained its independence in 1965 and when the UK relocated them when the base at Diego Garcia was established were descended from freed slaves (who worked on the original plantations set up by the French) and from workers subsequently contracted to work there by the plantation owners.
There was never an indigenous population who could lay claim to the islands and the only link any of them had with Mauritius is if they or their ancestors came from there under contract to work.
I mentioned a Guardian article in another thread. It is interesting to note that in their "timeline" describing the history of the islands, it says (under the year 1814) "Britain formally takes possession of the Chagos Islands and nearby Mauritius from France."
However, under the heading 1968 to 1973 it says "The entire population of the Chagos Islands are forced to leave their homes, with most moving to the main island of Mauritius or to Seychelles, thousands of kilometres away."
Mauritius is not the "main island" of the Chagos archipelago. If it has a main island it is Diego Garcia (which is certainly the largest). But it is "thousnds of kilometres away" (more than 2,000, in fact). But Mauritius conveniently changes from being "nearby" when the islands were ceded from France to the UK, to being "thousands of kilometres away" when the relocation of the residents is being discussed.
In fact many of the former residents and their families are even more thousands of kilometres away now, having made their way from Mauritius and the Seychelles to Crawley in Sussex. But that doesn't get much of a mention as I imagine it would not fit the left-wing narrative being promulagated by the Guardian.
The entire story of the Chagos Islands and their inhabitants is being completely distorted and their relationship with Mauritius being made to appear as something it certainly is not.
"One wonders whether the Chaggosians at present living in the hell of being in the UK will be flocking back to their tropical paradise?"
I shouldn’t think so. Apart from Diego Garcia – where they will certainly not be allowed to set foot – the islands have been uninhabited for more than fifty years. I cannot imagine too many of them living comfortably in Crawley in Sussex will be queuing up for the first flights.. Many of them, together with their parents and possibly even their grandparents, will have never set eyes on the place.
On that topic, I don’t know how they will get there as the only air base is the heavily restricted US installation and there is nowhere else to build one.
Of course there is always the possibility that the UK will send a task force out there to renovate what’s left of the buildings and infrastructure, but I can’t see much demand.
One thing is quite certain – they won’t be heading for Mauritius. Here’s their own account of their treatment there:
https:/
Chagossians in Mauritius
“Chagossians encountered numerous problems in their removal to Mauritius by the UK Government, which to most was an unfamiliar and distant territory with a way of life very different to their own.
Mauritius is a majority Hindu country with 60% of the population of South Asian origin. The Chagossians are mainly of Afro-Creole origin and Christian (mainly Roman Catholic). Most Chagossians experienced structural and personal discrimination due to their race, origins, appearance, accent and ethnicity throughout their time in Mauritius, putting them on the margins of society economically and socially.”
There is no demographic, cultural or religious connection between Mauritius and the Chagos Islands. Many of the articles which support the idea that the UK should “return” the islands to Mauritius seem to want their readers to believe there is. The Guardian refers to Mauritius as the “nearby main island” (until the islanders’ forced eviction is mentioned – then it becomes a hostile, distant place). Others speak of the cultural history between the two. There is none whatsoever.
There is no justification for ceding the islands to Mauritius and there is only one reason why that nation wants control of them – to lease or sell all or part of them to the Chinese. Our stupid politicians, consumed with demonstrating their own virtue to show they want to divest the UK of all its “wicked colonial past”, are simply too blindfolded to see beyond that.
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