South Atlantic Ocean
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British possessions in the South Atlantic, underlined in pink.

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The island was discovered by the Portuguese navigator Joao da Nova on Ascension Day 1501. It remained uninhabited until it was taken possession of by the British in 1815 who stationed a small garrison there after Napoleons incarceration on St. Helena. The island is used as a telecommunications centre and an air base by the USAF and RAF. It is incorporated with St. Helena and is a British Dependent Territory.

Discovered in 1502 by Joao da Nova and named by him, the Portuguese imported livestock some agriculture and used it as a sick base, but they formed no permanent settlement. The island fell into disuse and was occupied by the Dutch for a short time, which ceased in 1651. The British ‘East India Company’, who built a fort named after James II, thus founding the capital of Jamestown appropriated it in 1658. It became the place of detention of Napoleon Bonaparte where he died in 1821 and a crown colony in 1834. The island is fertile and used slaves in its plantations as well as imported Asiatic labour. With the advent of the steam ship, Suez Canal and the withdrawal of the garrison in 1906, visits by vessels declined and with it the island’s prosperity to become an Imperial backwater. The British government’s attitude towards this Dependent Territory seems to be one of indifference. Successive enterprising schemes to enhance the prosperity of the island and its 5,700 population have drowned in the quagmire of government bureaucracy.

A group of three small volcanic islands discovered in 1506 by the Portuguese admiral of the same name. Tristan, Inaccessible and Nightingale islands became a British possession in 1816 being annexed to Cape Colony. A small garrison was maintained for a year, but Corporal William Glass chose to stay with his wife and two children, thus began the present settlement. The Glass family grew and brides were brought from St. Helena for the sons. By 1909 the population was 95. They survived (and still do) by subsistence farming and fishing. The islands, along with Gough Island 250 miles south of Tristan, became a dependency of St. Helena in 1938 and remain a British Dependent Territory.
In 1961 the island’s volcano erupted and the population of 264 were evacuated to Britain. Most of them rejected the chance to stay in Britain and chose to return home after the island was declared safe again two years later.

The islands were discovered by English navigator John Davis in 1592 and visited by Sir Richard Hawkins in 1594. The French explorer De Bougainville took possession on behalf of France and founded the settlement of Port Louis in 1764. The British who claimed them on the grounds of their previous discovery dislodged the French in 1765. The French sold their rights to Spain who yielded the islands to Great Britain by convention in 1771. Argentina became independent from Spain in 1806 and laid claim to the islands in 1820, as they had not actually been colonised by Britain. The British retaliated with counter claims and declared the islands a crown colony in 1832 backed up by a Royal Navy squadron. With the increase of settlers, predominately Scottish, a town was laid out at Port William, to be renamed Port Stanley, which became the capital in 1843. Argentina continued to dispute British sovereignty for over the next century and a half.
To shift Argentine attention away from the corrupt military regime and faltering economy of General Galtieri the islands were invaded on 2nd April 1982 causing the Falklands War. Britain retaliated, retaking the islands and routing the Argentineans who surrendered on 14th June1982. This war resulted in the downfall of the military junta of Galtieri and a democratic government for Argentina, who still dispute sovereignty of this British Dependent Territory.

A Falklands dependency 800 miles to the East. There is no permanent settlement although the base at Grytviken was once a whaling station. A few Royal Marines were stationed at the base when Argentine troops landed there prior to the invasion of the Falklands. Supposed Argentine ‘scrap dealers’ had landed illegally at the disused whaling station of Leith and hoisted the Argentine flag on 19th March 1982. The island was retaken on 25th April 1982 and remains a British Dependent Territory.

A group of small islands lying 470 miles south-west of South Georgia under British administration and as such a British Dependent Territory.

B.A.T.  Alternative

That part of Antarctica claimed by Britain, administered as part of the Falkland Island Dependencies until 1962. It includes 150,058 square miles of the continent as well as the South Orkney and South Shetland Islands.