VIRGIN ISLANDS

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VIRGIN ISLANDS. Caribbean dependencies of Britain and the US in the Lesser Antilles. Their languages are English and CREOLE. The British Virgin Islands consist of four large islands (Tortola, Virgin Gorda, Anegada, Jost Van Dyke) and numerous small islands, with their capital Road Town on Tortola. The Dutch settled the islands in 1648 and gave way to British planters in 1666. They became part of the colony of the Leeward Islands in 1872 and a separate colony in 1956. The US Virgin Islands (official title Virgin Islands of the United States) consist of more than 50 neighbouring islands formerly known as the Danish West Indies, the three main islands being St Croix, St Thomas, and St John. In 1671, the Danish West Indies Company colonized St Thomas and St John and in 1733 bought St Croix from France. The islands were Danish for 200 years, with a short break in Napoleonic times. The US purchased them in 1917 as part of a strategic passage to the Panama Canal and they are an unincorporated territory of the US, with a republican-style democracy.

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