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Member states of the Commonwealth of Nations

  • TanzaniaA 1.8-million-year-old stone chopping tool sits on display at the British Museum, recovered from Olduvai Gorge in Tanzania's Ngorongoro Conservation Area.
  • 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.
  • 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…
  • MauritiusIn 1507, Portuguese sailors blown off course from their route to India via the Mozambique channel landed on an uninhabited island.
  • ÍndiaModern humans arrived on the Indian subcontinent no later than 55,000 years ago, making it one of the earliest places outside Africa where Homo sapiens…
  • KenyaIn 1984, paleoanthropologist Richard Leakey and his assistant Kamoya Kimeu uncovered the Turkana Boy fossil at Lake Turkana.
  • MaltaThe Maltese archipelago has been inhabited since at least 6500 BC, during the Mesolithic period. Archaeological discoveries at Latnija Cave by researcher…
  • AustraliaThe Madjedbebe rock shelter in Arnhem Land holds evidence of human presence dating back 50,000 to 65,000 years. This site marks one of the earliest known…
  • GuyanaThe name Guyana comes from an indigenous Amerindian language and means land of many waters. This vast territory lies between latitudes 1° and 9°N, and…
  • CanadaIn 1534, French explorer Jacques Cartier planted a cross on the shores of Gaspé Bay and declared possession of New France in the name of King Francis I.
  • 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.
  • PakistanIn the Soan Valley of northern Pakistan, stone tools dating to approximately 2 million years ago mark some of the earliest human activity in South Asia.
  • MalaysiaThe name Malaysia emerged from a combination of the word Malays and the Latin-Greek suffix -ia, translating to 'land of the Malays'.
  • Solomon IslandsArchaeological evidence from Kilu Cave on Buka Island reveals human presence in the Solomon Islands between 30,000 and 28,000 BC.
  • New ZealandThe South Island rises sharply along the Southern Alps, a mountain range formed by compression of the crust beside the Alpine Fault.
  • 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.
  • South AfricaArchaeologists have recovered extensive fossil remains from a series of caves in Gauteng Province. The area, known as the Cradle of Humankind, is a UNESCO…
  • NigeriaOn the 8th of January 1897, a British journalist named Flora Shaw coined the name Nigeria for the territory along the Niger River.
  • BangladeshThe word Bangladesh first appeared in a political song by Rabindranath Tagore in 1905. Kazi Nazrul Islam used the term again in his own patriotic composition…
  • IndiaModern humans arrived on the Indian subcontinent from Africa no later than 55,000 years ago. Their long occupation, predominantly in isolation as…
  • 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…