Saint Helena

A newer version of this article is available: see Saint Helena at Schools Wikipedia

Alternative meanings: Helena of Constantinople Another Saint Helena island is in the North Atlantic, a barrier island that is a center of Gullah culture, near Beaufort, South Carolina in the United States.

Saint Helena is an island in the Atlantic Ocean 2,800 km off the west coast of Africa belonging to the United Kingdom. It is also the name of this island together with Ascension, Gough Island, Inaccessible Island, Nightingale Island, and Tristan da Cunha Island.

The island served as a strategic island for ships on their way to the Indian Ocean before the Suez Canal was built.

St. Helena has a small population that remains loyal to Britain. However, the island's dimunitive size and geopolitical insignificance has led many Islanders to accuse the British government of ignoring the island. The island's economy was a one crop economy for many years, but is now very weak, and is almost entirely sustained solely on aid from London.

Napoleon Bonaparte ended his life in exile on St. Helena, and the St. Helena tourist industry is heavily based around the promotion of this particular aspect of the island's history. Prominent Anglo-Boer War prisoners, including General Piet Cronje were detained on St. Helena

Image:st_helena.gif

External link

The homepage of Saint Helena in the South Atlantic Ocean

Africa

Other areas

Overseas territories of the United Kingdom
Anguilla \| Bermuda \| British Antarctic Territory \| British Indian Ocean Territory \| British Virgin Islands \| Cayman Islands \| Falkland Islands \| Gibraltar \| Montserrat \| Pitcairn Islands \| Saint Helena \| South Georgia and the South Sandwich Islands \| Turks and Caicos Islands
Sovereign Base Areas