Chagos Archipelago

Chagos Archipelago, also Oil Islands, group of small islands, constituting the British Indian Ocean Territory (a dependency of the United Kingdom), in the central Indian Ocean, south of India. In the 1970s, Diego Garcia, an atoll at the southern end of the group, became the site of a communications center and naval base used by the military forces of the United Kingdom and the United States. The islands were administered from Mauritius until organized as the British Indian Ocean Territory in 1965. Area, 60 sq km (20 sq mi).