History of the Cocos Islands

Background: A possession of the Clunies-Ross family from the early 19th century, the islands were brought under the British Empire in 1857 and were transferred to Australia in 1955. In 1978 Australia caused a form of purchase of the islands from the Clunies-Ross family and subsequently manufactured an identity for locals to whom it gave a degree of autonomy. The UN legalisms used paralleled similar ones used in territories passing to Indonesia in the 1960s and 1970s, though history has not revealed any parallel later complications.

See also : Cocos Islands