Curated playlist

Island countries

JapanJapan sealed itself off from the outside world for more than two centuries.
United KingdomThe United Kingdom is one country made of four nations. Four capitals share the work.
The BahamasIn 1841, enslaved people who revolted on the US brig Creole steered it to Nassau in the Bahamas.
Marshall IslandsThe Marshall Islands is 98.62 percent water. No other sovereign state has so much ocean against so little land.
TuvaluA deacon caught in a storm drifted for eight weeks and brought Christianity to Tuvalu.
Antigua and BarbudaHurricane Irma forced nearly all of Barbuda's residents to flee in September 2017.
GrenadaGrenada put a nutmeg on its flag. The Caribbean island nation is nicknamed the Island of Spice.
Saint LuciaBritain and France fought over Saint Lucia fourteen times. The Caribbean island earned the nickname "Helen of the West."
DominicaDominica has had no standing army since 1981, after two coup attempts. The mercenaries' ship never left dock.
Saint Kitts and NevisSaint Kitts and Nevis is the smallest sovereign state in the Western Hemisphere. Its two islands are volcanic.
GuadeloupeFrance once gave up its Canadian colonies to get Guadeloupe back. The sugar island was that valuable in 1763.
MauritiusMauritius had no people at all until sailors, thought to be Arab, reached it around 975.
PalauPalau is an island country made up of roughly 340 islands in the western Pacific Ocean, with a total land area of only 466 square kilometres. That makes it the sixteenth smallest nation in the world. Its own name for the islands is Belau,…
American SamoaIn 1918, American Samoa's governor quarantined the islands and stopped the flu. No one there died in the pandemic.
BermudaA Boer prisoner swam a mile and a half from Bermuda in 1902. He later led the largest U.S. spy ring ever uncovered.
Federated States of MicronesiaThe Federated States of Micronesia has about 702 km2 of land but nearly 3 million km2 of ocean.
GuamA German raider exploded in Guam's Apra Harbor in 1917 after its captain refused to surrender it.
Isle of ManThe Isle of Man gave women the vote in 1881, though not married women. It has never been part of the United Kingdom.
CuraçaoCuraçao is a Dutch Caribbean island country about 65 km north of Venezuela, and in 1929 that short distance proved dangerous. A Venezuelan rebel commander named Rafael Simón Urbina arrived with 250 soldiers and captured the island's fort.…
NiueNiue is a self-governing island country in the South Pacific, and its 2022 census counted fewer than 1,700 people. Its nickname is The Rock, drawn from the traditional name Rock of Polynesia. It is among the largest coral islands in the…
VanuatuOn the island of Tanna in Vanuatu, villagers of the Yaohnanen tribe revere Britain's Prince Philip as a god. Their belief rests on an ancient story about the pale-skinned son of a mountain spirit. According to the tale, he ventured across…
NauruIn May 2026, the Parliament of Nauru voted to change the country's English name to Naoero, the spelling used in the Nauruan language. The amendment takes effect only if voters approve it in a referendum. Nauru is an island country in the…
Norfolk IslandNorfolk Island, an external territory of Australia, had 2,188 inhabitants at the 2021 census. They share roughly 35 square kilometres of land in the Pacific Ocean. The island lies 1412 kilometres due east of Evans Head on the Australian…
Cook IslandsThe Cook Islands runs its own foreign policy but is not a United Nations member.
HaitiHaiti is the only country in history established by a slave revolt.
MaltaMalta was once handed to a religious order for the rent of one falcon. Emperor Charles V made the deal in 1530.
RéunionRéunion holds the world records for the heaviest rainfall over periods of 12, 24, 72 and 96 hours, including 1.8 metres in 24 hours. This small island in the Indian Ocean lies about 679 km east of Madagascar and 175 km southwest of…
SamoaSamoa, officially the Independent State of Samoa, once deleted a whole day from its calendar. Friday, the 30th of December 2011, never happened there. At the end of that month the island country moved its clocks from UTC-11 to UTC+13. The…
CyprusIn March 2008, a wall that had cut across Ledra Street in the heart of Nicosia was demolished. The wall had stood for decades, and it had come to symbolise a division of the island that lasted 32 years. On the 3rd of April 2008, Ledra…
Pitcairn IslandsThe Pitcairn Islands had a permanent population of just 35 people in 2023, which made them the smallest territory in the world by number of permanent residents. Four volcanic islands make up the group: Pitcairn, Henderson, Ducie and Oeno.…
Dominican RepublicThe Dominican Republic holds both the tallest mountain peak in the Caribbean and its lowest point. Pico Duarte rises 3098 metres above sea level, and snow has been seen on its summit on rare occasions. Lake Enriquillo, a salt lake, lies 45…
Puerto RicoPuerto Ricans have been U.S. citizens since 1917, yet they cannot vote for president.
KiribatiKiribati has only 811 square kilometres of land, yet its islands are scattered across such a vast stretch of the central Pacific that the country reaches into all four hemispheres. No other nation can say that. Its islands straddle both…
GreenlandThe United States secretly tried to build nuclear missile sites inside Greenland's ice cap.
BahrainBahrain, officially the Kingdom of Bahrain, is an island country in West Asia, close to the western shore of the Persian Gulf. In 2024 its population stood at 1,588,670 people. Of these, 848,934 were expatriates, or 53.4 percent, and only…
MadagascarMadagascar appears on a map drawn by Muhammad al-Idrisi in 1154 under the name Gesira Malai, Arabic for Malay island. That is a strange label for a place off the southeastern coast of Africa. Today the Republic of Madagascar is the world's…
BarbadosOn the 30th of November 2021, Barbados swore in its first president, Sandra Mason, at a ceremony in Bridgetown. Prince Charles, then heir to the Barbadian crown, attended at the government's invitation. With that oath, the island stopped…
JamaicaJamaica has sometimes been called the world's least populous cultural superpower. Reggae and Rastafari began there.
Solomon IslandsThe Solomon Islands are named for a biblical king who had no connection to them. Mapmakers imagined Bible gold there.
TaiwanPortuguese sailors passing Taiwan in 1542 wrote just two words on their maps: Ilha Formosa. It means beautiful island.
Faroe IslandsThe Faroe Islands voted for independence in 1946 by just 161 votes. Denmark annulled the result days later.
New ZealandNew Zealand was the last large habitable land on Earth to be settled by humans.
ZanzibarZanzibar holds the record for the shortest war in history. On the morning of the 27th of August 1896, the Royal Navy destroyed the Beit al Hukum Palace on this Tanzanian island chain off the coast of East Africa. A cease-fire was declared…
Trinidad and TobagoTrinidad and Tobago is the southernmost archipelagic country in the Caribbean, yet its larger island counts geologically as part of South America. Trinidad rests on that continent's shelf, and in ancient times it was physically joined to…
IndonesiaMore than half of Indonesia's people live on one island, Java. It is the most heavily populated island in the world.
SingaporeIn 1965, Malaysia's Parliament voted 126 to 0 to expel Singapore from its federation. It had joined in 1963.
EnglandEngland's break with Rome in 1534 was more political than religious. Henry VIII wanted to settle his divorce dispute.
WalesWales was united under one ruler for only about seven years. Gruffydd ap Llywelyn held it all until 1063.
Cape VerdeCape Verde, officially the Republic of Cabo Verde, is a nation of volcanic islands scattered across the central Atlantic off the coast of West Africa. Its 2021 census counted 491,233 people. Nearly one million Cape Verdeans live abroad,…
BruneiBrunei, officially Brunei Darussalam, may owe its name to a shout of recognition. According to local tradition, a ruler named Awang Alak Betatar left Garang, in the Temburong District, and moved to the estuary of the Brunei River around AD…