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Almost in the middle of the Indian Ocean lies the Chagos Archipelago, a place which visually comes fairly close to the image most people have of paradise. Unfortunately for its inhabitants, the islands are also very conveniently located, a fact which led the United States and United Kingdom to expel these people from their apparent paradise into abject destitution in order to turn the place into one of the world's most important military bases. Vine's book is the best account of this sordid tale so far.
The islands were originally unpopulated and eventually annexed by France in the eighteenth century. From 1783 onwards African slaves were brought to the islands to work on coconut plantations, eventually supplemented by Indian indentured labourers. Their descendants inhabited the islands until forcibly expelled in the late 1960s. The islands were ceded by France to Great Britain in 1814 and until the mid 20th century there was little to differentiate the islands from similar remote places so aptly described by Jean-Claude Guillebaud as essentially worthless confettis de l'empire. This bucolic simplicity changed dramatically in the late 1950s through the US Marines' so-called Strategic Island Concept. Based on its experience in the Pacific war against Japan, the military recognized the value of strategically located island bases throughout the world's oceans. In order to forestall the negative influence of unreliable independent governments in the decolonizing world, the concept called for the installation of US bases in territories under complete US control. In execution of this policy, the US military leadership identified a number of, preferably uninhabited, islands (Danish Virgin Islands, Thule on Greenland, Keflavik on Iceland, parts of the Bahamas, Aruba, Turcs and Caicos, Cocos Islands, etc.) which were subsequently fully or partially bought or leased from friendly Western governments. Likewise, the US took over �
