Diego Garcia

Diego Garcia coral island, 11 sq mi (28 sq km). Indian Ocean, largest island of the Chagos Archipelago, SW of Sri Lanka. Part of the British Indian Ocean Territory , the island was leased (1970) to the United States and later developed as a joint U.S.-British naval base to guard the Persian Gulf oil routes and to counter increased Soviet military activities in S Asia and Africa. Some 3,000 islanders were removed to Mauritius and the Seychelles in the late 1960s prior to the construction of the naval base.

Diego Garcia the largest island of the Chagos Archipelago in the middle of the Indian Ocean, site of a strategic Anglo-American naval base established in 1973.

Diego Garcia, British Indian Ocean Territory An island discovered by the Portuguese in the early 16th century, it was a dependency of Mauritius under French rule and then under British rule when Mauritius was ceded to the UK in 1814. As part of the Chagos Archipelago it joined the British Indian Ocean Territory when that was created in 1965. The name comes either from the surnames of the captain and navigator of the Portuguese ship, or from the name of the captain or navigator of that ship, or from the captains of two separate ships who both claimed the discovery.