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Where is Diego Garcia? -

Diego Garcia is an island anchored in the central Indian Ocean. More accurately, it's a coral atoll, the largest and southernmost of the 60 islands of the Chagos Archipelago.

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British Indian Ocean Territory -

The island, which occupies just 44 square km (17 square mi), falls within British Indian Ocean Territory (BIOT). And it's the UK that represents the territory internationally, even though one of the United States' most secret and controversial military installations is based on Diego Garcia.

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Unknown island -

Before European discovery of Diego Garcia, nothing was known of the island. While the Maldives' chain of 26 atolls are clearly visible on the Cantino planisphere (pictured), a manuscript Portuguese world map drawn up in 1502, it does not show any islands to the south that can be identified as the Chagos Archipelago.

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Pedro Mascarenhas (1480–1555) -

In 1512, however, Portuguese navigator Pedro Mascarenhas made landfall on the atoll. He likely named his prize Dom Garcia, in honor of his patron, Dom Garcia de Noronha.

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Diego García de Moguer (1496–1544) -

But some historians dispute this, reminding academia that Spanish explorer Diego García de Moguer rediscovered the island in 1544 (ironically while in service of the Portuguese Crown) and promptly named it after himself.

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Finally mapped -

The first map that identified and named the "Los Chagos" archipelago was published in 1550. But the first map to pinpoint an island called "Don Garcia" appeared on Theatrum Orbis Terrarum (Theatre of the World), in 1570. The Theatrum Orbis Terrarum is considered the first true modern atlas. It was made by the celebrated cartographer Abraham Ortelius in Antwerp, then part of the Duchy of Brabant, a state in the Holy Roman Empire.

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Colonial land grab -

The Chagos Archipelago remained uninhabited until the late 18th century. The French, who had earlier colonized Mauritius, eventually claimed Diego Garcia in 1778. The island changed hands again in 1814 when it became a colony of Great Britain after the Napoleonic Wars. London administered the tiny atoll from Mauritius (pictured), whose possession had also been ceded to the British. Mauritius remained a British colony until 1965.

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Under British government control -

In November 1965, the Chagos Archipelago was excised from Mauritius to form the aforementioned BIOT: Diego Garcia immediately fell under administrative control of the British government. In 1966, a formal agreement was signed between the governments of the United Kingdom and the United States, making the atoll available for the defense needs of both.

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Expulsion of the Chagossians -

Implementing this protocol effectively marked the beginning of one of the most shameful episodes in UK/US colonial history. Before America could start building its military installations, the native Chagossians had to be removed from the entire archipelago.

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A "mass kidnapping" -

The UK, at the request of the US, began expelling the inhabitants of the Chagos Archipelago in 1968. The Chagossians were forced onto cargo ships that were heading to Mauritius (pictured) and the Seychelles.

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Livelihoods destroyed -

Coconut plantations, worked by the Chagossians for generations, were closed down. The production of copra and oils from coconut palms—a vital source of income—abruptly ceased.

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Arrival of the Seabees -

In 1971, United States naval construction battalions arrived on Diego Garcia. Known as the Seabees, these units were tasked with construction of the communications station and an airfield.

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Restricted access -

Following the eviction of the native population and, incidentally, every last pet dog, the only inhabitants of Diego Garcia were US and British military personnel and associated contractors. Access to the island by others, including the Chagossians, was strictly forbidden.

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The US Navy Support Facility -

By 1973, construction of the communications station was completed. Diego Garcia was now one of the most strategically important hubs for US pre-positioned air and naval forces in the Indian Ocean region, and was known as the US Navy Support Facility.

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A dangerous decade -

The 1970s proved an extremely volatile decade for the United States. The fall of Saigon, victory of the Khmer Rouge in Cambodia, and the closure of several US-controlled listening posts in Africa and Central Asia prompted Washington to request, and London to approve, permission to build a fleet anchorage and enlarged airfield on Diego Garcia.

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Huge buildup of arms -

Following the overthrow of the Shah of Iran in 1979 and the subsequent Iran hostage crisis, Diego Garcia witnessed the greatest buildup of arms of any US military location since the Vietnam War.

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Strategic and logistical importance -

By 1986, Diego Garcia was fully operational, its position in the middle of the Indian Ocean the last link in a long logistics chain supporting vital US and British naval presence in the region and North Arabian Sea.

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Island war footing -

Numerous air operations were launched from Diego Garcia during the Persian Gulf War (1990–91). The island also provided the departure point for US-led strikes on Afghanistan in 2001, and the initial phase in 2003 of the Iraq War. The archipelago was on a war footing!

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Plea for nonmilitarized status -

The development of Diego Garcia had evoked bitter resentment from littoral states of the Indian Ocean area, who argued for the preservation of a nonmilitarized status in the region.

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Questions began to be asked -

Questions began to be asked about the exact status of Diego Garcia. A 2008 exposé in Time magazine claimed that a secret War on Terror prison had existed on the island from 2002 to 2006. United States authorities denied the allegations.

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What exactly is the island's role? -

The Time article went on to allege that the island location served as a CIA black site and that the United States had imprisoned and interrogated "high-value detainees."

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Shocking revelations -

Reports published as early as 1975 in the Western press had highlighted ill treatment of the Chagossians, which The Washington Post described as a "mass kidnapping." Then, in 2009, 'Island of Shame: The Secret History of the U.S. Military Base on Diego Garcia' was published. Written by David Vine, the book revealed in more detail the shocking truth of how the United States conspired with Britain to forcibly expel Diego Garcia's indigenous people.

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The mystery of Malaysian Airlines Flight 370 -

Diego Garcia again found itself under the media spotlight after the mysterious disappearance in 2014 of Malaysian Airlines Flight 370.

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What happened after the plane vanished? -

Malaysia Airlines Flight 370 departed Kuala Lumpur International Airport in Malaysia on March 8, 2014, bound for Beijing. About 40 minutes later, the aircraft vanished from radar screens.

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Conspiracy theories -

As the search for the missing plane continued, numerous conspiracy theories began to surface.

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Did the plane land on Diego Garcia? -

One of the more fanciful claims suggested that several days after its disappearance, some passengers on the fateful flight had contacted relatives using the Chinese Tencent QQ messaging app. Conspiracy theorists believed the plane had landed somewhere in the Indian Ocean, perhaps after being hijacked.

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The cell phone photo hoax -

This claim was fueled by the emergence of an email apparently sent from Diego Garcia by IBM employee Philip Wood, the only American on the flight, who supposedly took a cell phone photograph of the base and attached it to a text message before hitting "send." However, forensic examination of the email revealed it as a hoax perpetrated by a person or persons unknown.

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Was Malaysian Airlines Flight 370 shot down? -

Others came to the conclusion on social media that rather than having landed, the plane was instead shot down after straying into the island's restricted airspace.

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Diego Garcia today -

Despite these wild and ultimately unsubstantiated claims, plus the very real facts uncovered in David Vine's book, the US and UK governments have issued a joint statement confirming there are no plans to discontinue use of the military base on Diego Garcia, adding that "the agreement remains in force until 2036."

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Wreckage found -

Debris from an unidentified aircraft found in the coastal area of Saint-Andre de la Reunion, in the east of the French Indian Ocean island of La Reunion, was later recovered. To date, though, the fate of Malaysia Airlines Flight 370 remains unresolved.

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The fate of the Chagossians -

So where does that leave the indigenous people of the Chagos Archipelago? In the late 1990s, islanders from the archipelago sued for the right to return home. Much later, in 2006, a group of Chagossians were allowed limited access to Diego Garcia. They dedicated a memorial stone to mark their visit.

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Continued demands for repatriation -

To date, however, and despite demonstrations in Britain and America highlighting their cause, the Chagossians' demands for full repatriation to their homeland have fallen on deaf ears. Human Rights Watch continues to lobby the governments of both countries on their behalf.

Sources: (Time) (The Washington Post) (Princeton University Press) 

See also: The most dangerous countries for female travelers

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