Colonized

Chatting with Alejandra about The Congo, an interesting question came up: are there any present-day colonies? Is Venezuela a colony now? Is Greenland, either now or soon? What exactly is the difference between being occupied and being a colony? What exactly IS a colony?

It turns out that the UN has a definition (which may or may not be authoritative). They call them "non-self governing states", "territories whose people have not yet attained a full measure of self-government", and by their analysis, today, there are 17 of them. Nothing about this list is obvious and all of it is "mildly interesting". Here we go:

1. The biggest, by far: Western Sahara (pop. 632k). Also the only neo-country whose name starts with W. Its status is in ongoing dispute between Morocco and Spain, the former(?) colonial power.

2. Colonial power that still has the most colonies: unsurprisingly, UK. Most surprising to me entry on this list: Cayman Islands and Bermuda, which I would have said are independent (they mostly are), and Turks & Caicos (for the same reason). Others: Montserrat, British Virgin Islands, Saint Helena, Anguilla. Honorable mention for obvious reasons: Falkland Islands. Dishonorable mention for having been involved in a huge sex scandal despite, or probably due to, having by far the smallest population (42) of anywhere on this list: Pitcairn Islands.

3. Oh and let's not forget Gibraltar, also UK, which, along with Western Sahara, is one of 2 countries that aren't basically puny little islands.

4. Several American ones: American Samoa, Guam, US Virgin Islands. Not entirely clear how Puerto Rico is different.

5. France has a couple: New Caledonia and French Polynesia.

6. And lastly, New Zealand has a place called Tokalau (pop. 1647).

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