Curated playlist

Small Island Developing States

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.
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.
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.
United States Virgin IslandsDenmark's 1902 sale of the Virgin Islands failed after opponents carried in a 97-year-old man.
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…
New CaledoniaNew Caledonia lies 16,100 kilometres from Metropolitan France, yet its residents vote for the French president and live under French law. The territory is a group of islands in the southwest Pacific Ocean, 220 kilometres southwest of…
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…
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.
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…
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…
GuyanaGuyana's economy grew 49% by 2020, after offshore oil was found in 2015.
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…
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.
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…
SingaporeIn 1965, Malaysia's Parliament voted 126 to 0 to expel Singapore from its federation. It had joined in 1963.
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,…
Papua New GuineaPapua New Guinea is home to about 840 known languages, more than any other country in the world. Most are spoken by fewer than a thousand people, and the typical language has only around 7,000 speakers. That one figure hints at how many…
Timor-LesteOn the 20th of May 2002, Timor-Leste became the first new sovereign state of the 21st century. Its official name is the Democratic Republic of Timor-Leste, and many people still call it East Timor. The country is oddly assembled. It holds…
CubaIn 1956, Fidel Castro and about eighty supporters landed in Cuba from the yacht Granma to start a rebellion.
MaldivesOne Maldives president held a cabinet meeting underwater. Mohamed Nasheed did it in 2009 to raise climate awareness.
FijiFiji is a country where the map was bent to suit the clock. The 180th meridian normally marks the place where one calendar date gives way to the next. In Fiji it runs through the island of Taveuni. The International Date Line swerves…
SeychellesSeychelles, a country of tropical islands scattered across the Indian Ocean, was almost seized by mercenaries in 1981. A team of 43 South African mercenaries, led by Mike Hoare, flew in disguised as holidaying rugby players. Their goal was…