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Top-level
 5/ in the late 1950s-early 1960s there was a short-lived effort to unite all the various π¬π§ British Caribbean territories into the "West Indies Federation" which it was hoped would become independent as a single state https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/West_Indies_Federation However the group could not agree how it would be governed or function viably and was eventually abandoned 8 comments
7/ Not far away is the French π«π· territory of Saint BarthΓ©lemy π§π±, purchased from Sweden πΈπͺ in 1878 as we covered in our #geoweirdness thread about Sweden. 8/ Saint Martin unlike Saint BarthΓ©lemy π§π±, but like the other π«π· French Caribbean territories of Guadeloupe π¬π΅, Martinique π²πΆ, and French Guiana π¬π« - is part of the European Union πͺπΊ and is on the maps on the Euro notes πΆ https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Special_territories_of_members_of_the_European_Economic_Area 9/ Nearby we have the tiny islands of Saba and Sint Eustatius, which are part of the Netherlands π³π± (though they use the US dollar π΅). They are municipalities of the Netherlands, NOT constituent countries of the Kingdom of the Netherlands. Saba is famous for being home to Mount Scenery, the highest point in the Kingdom of the Netherlands at 887 meters. 11/ Last up is Barbados π§π§. The easternmost island in the Caribbean is a continental island that is grouped culturally and politically with the Windward Islands despite not being a part of the volcanic arc. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Barbados in 2021 Barbados removed the Queen of England π¬π§ as head of state and became a republic 12/ Of course, we could go on - there are dozens more islands worth writing about - but we had to stop somewhere. Weβll share the link to the Caribmap archive we used to find some of the wonderful old maps shared in this thread and in the Greater Antilles thread (be prepared to lose a few hours browsing) http://www.caribmap.org/index.php?id=gada&link=1851-gre-philip 13/ Thanks for reading and sharing. What did we miss in our look at the #geoweirdness of the Lesser Antilles? Weβll be back soon with more geoweirdness! Donβt forget to check out our previous threads (including threads about the Greater Antilles and British Overseas Territories) over on the blog: https://blog.opencagedata.com/geothreads Enjoy the weekend! |
Gregory's Server
6/ Moving on we have the case of Saint-Martin/Sint Maarten.
Saint-Martin is part of France π«π·. Sint Maarten πΈπ½ is a "constituent country" of the the Kingdom of the Netherlands π³π±, as are Aruba π¦πΌ and CuraΓ§ao π¨πΌ in the Leeward Antilles.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Collectivity_of_Saint_Martin
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sint_Maarten
#geoweirdness