Curated category
Island countries
- JapanThe name Japan appears in English for the first time in a book published in 1577, where it was spelled Giapan. This spelling came from a translation of a…
- United KingdomStonehenge in Wiltshire stands as a ring of stones, each about 13 feet high and weighing 25 tonnes. These massive structures were erected between 2400 BC and…
- The BahamasChristopher Columbus made his first landfall in the New World on the 12th of October 1492 when he landed on an island he named San Salvador.
- Marshall IslandsRadiocarbon dating suggests that Bikini Atoll may have been inhabited as early as 1200 BCE. Archaeological digs on other atolls found evidence of human…
- TuvaluThree thousand years ago, Polynesians began a great migration across the Pacific Ocean. They arrived in what is now Tuvalu using double-hulled sailing canoes…
- Antigua and BarbudaHunter-gatherers settled the islands starting around 3000 BC. They arrived on canoes from Central and South America. Carbon dating has established the…
- GrenadaChristopher Columbus sighted the island of Grenada during his third voyage to the Americas in 1498. He named it La Concepción in honour of the Virgin Mary.
- Saint LuciaArchaeological evidence places the first proven inhabitants of Saint Lucia, the Arawak people, on the island between 200 and 400 CE.
- DominicaDominica first emerged from the sea during the Oligocene Epoch approximately 27 million years ago. It stands as one of the last Caribbean islands to be…
- Saint Kitts and NevisThe Kalinago people called the island Liamuiga, which translates to fertile land. They arrived around 1300 CE and displaced earlier agricultural societies…
- GuadeloupeChristopher Columbus set foot on the island in November 1493. He named it Guadeloupe after a shrine to the Virgin Mary located in the Spanish town of…
- MauritiusIn 1507, Portuguese sailors blown off course from their route to India via the Mozambique channel landed on an uninhabited island.
- American SamoaAmerican Samoa sits fourteen degrees below the equator, making it the southernmost territory of the United States. The land area covers slightly more than…
- BermudaIn 1505, a Spanish explorer named Juan de Bermúdez sighted the islands that would bear his name. The first written record appeared in 1511 within Pedro…
- Federated States of MicronesiaThe Federated States of Micronesia stretches across 2,900 kilometers of the western Pacific Ocean. This island nation comprises 607 individual islands and…
- GuamAround 1500 to 1400 BC, migrants from the Philippines arrived on Guam and began a long journey of settlement. These people were part of the Austronesian…
- Isle of ManThe first human footprints on the Isle of Man appeared before 6500 BC. Hunter-gatherers and fishermen arrived by sea when rising waters cut the island from…
- Cook IslandsThe Cook Islands sit in the South Pacific Ocean, north-east of New Zealand. Fifteen islands spread across a vast stretch of water form this nation.
- HaitiOn the 6th of December 1492, Christopher Columbus landed on the northeastern coast of Hispaniola and named the area Môle-Saint-Nicolas.
- MaltaThe Maltese archipelago has been inhabited since at least 6500 BC, during the Mesolithic period. Archaeological discoveries at Latnija Cave by researcher…
- Puerto RicoIn 1493, Christopher Columbus arrived on the island he named San Juan Bautista. The Taíno people had already lived there for centuries before his arrival.
- GreenlandIn the summer of 986, a Norwegian exile named Erik the Red set sail from Iceland with his family and thralls. He explored an icy land to the northwest that…
- JamaicaChristopher Columbus first set foot on the island in 1494 during his second voyage to the Americas. He claimed the land for Spain and named it Santiago.
- Solomon IslandsArchaeological evidence from Kilu Cave on Buka Island reveals human presence in the Solomon Islands between 30,000 and 28,000 BC.
- TaiwanThe island of Taiwan lies in a complex tectonic area between the Yangtze Plate to the west and north, the Okinawa Plate on the north-east, and the Philippine…
- Faroe IslandsThe Faroe Islands rise from the North Atlantic Ocean as a rugged archipelago of 18 major islands. Their terrain is dominated by basalt cliffs and deep fjords…
- New ZealandThe South Island rises sharply along the Southern Alps, a mountain range formed by compression of the crust beside the Alpine Fault.
- IndonesiaThe name Indonesia derives from the Greek words indos and nesos, meaning Indian islands. This term dates back to 1850 when English ethnologist George Windsor…
- SingaporeIn 1365, the Javanese eulogy Nagarakretagama recorded a place called Temasek, meaning Sea Town, as a trading port under the influence of the Majapahit Empire.
- EnglandThe name England derives from the Angles, a Germanic tribe that settled in Great Britain during the 5th and 6th centuries.
- WalesThe name Wales derives from an Old English root that referred to the Gauls known to the Romans as Walha. Anglo-Saxon settlers used this term to describe…
- ScotlandThe earliest known evidence of human presence in Scotland dates to the Bølling, Allerød Interstadial warm period, approximately 14,500 to 14,000 years ago.
- PhilippinesThe first human bones found in the Philippines date back 709,000 years to a site now known as Callao Cave. These remains suggest an unknown species of early…
- IcelandThe island of Iceland sits directly on the Mid-Atlantic Ridge, a geological fault line where the Eurasian Plate and North American Plate drift apart.
- CubaCuba is an archipelago of 4,195 islands, cays and islets located in the northern Caribbean Sea at the convergence of the Gulf of Mexico and the Atlantic…
- Sri LankaIn 380 BCE, Pandukabhaya established the Anuradhapura kingdom, marking the beginning of a capital that would endure for nearly 1,400 years.
- MaldivesThe Maldives stretches across the equator from Ihavandhippolhu Atoll in the north to Addu Atoll in the south. This chain of 26 atolls covers roughly 90,000…
- ElbaThe island of Elba rose from the ancient Tethyan seafloor through violent tectonic shifts. Slices of rock once submerged in that prehistoric ocean now form…
- Northern IrelandOn the 3rd of May 1921, the Government of Ireland Act 1920 came into force and officially created Northern Ireland. This legislation divided the island of…