By the time Mauritius gets them, they'll be under water...
this post was submitted on 20 Jan 2026
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Why did we give them up? Cost-cutting measure?
(No I'm not agreeing with the orange fatball, I'm just wondering)
I believe the stated reason was to avoid the possibility of the court ruling against the UK owning the islands leading to the base needing to be shut down. The agreement with Mauritius includes a 99 year lease to secure the base at Diego Garcia.
ah so base-loss mitigation, thanks
An international court put forward an opinion stating that the £3million purchase of the Chagos Islands was illegal, as the UK made it a condition on granting Mauritius independence.
I looked into this (just on Wikipedia). Before granting Mauritius independence, the UK split the territory into Mauritius and the British Indian Ocean Territory in order to have a place to put the base that's there now. But the UN takes a dim view on such shenanigans and tends to say that such territories should be reconstituted. (See also: controversy over the Partition of India, which was less brazenly self-interested, but very consequential)
So I believe the UN had actually already decided it was no bueno. I don't know why Mauritius was granted independence though; it was uninhabited when settled by the french, then ceded to Britain after the defeat of Napoleon. I assume expense had something to do with it though, since in the mid 20th centuries many colonies were money pits.
Irony.
These are International Powers who only recognize STRENGTH
The only reason we stopped messing with the DPRK was because they got nukes, the only reason we overthrew the Libyan government was because they didn't, the only reason Iran is still and will continue to be under threat is because they don't; China and Russia have proven themselves to be true to their word and good allies; we've betrayed our allies for decades and take pride in crushing them WHAT'RE YOU TALKING ABOUT
Russia have proven themselves to be true to their word
Ukraine literally gave up its nuclear arsenal because Russia promised not to invade them in 1994, what are you on about.
