🇸🇭 Saint Helena, Ascension, and Tristan da Cunha

Saint Helena, Ascension Island and Tristan da Cunha were separately discovered by several Portuguese navigators in the first years of the sixteenth century. The Portuguese found Saint Helena uninhabited and well watered, and introduced livestock, fruit trees and vegetables, building a chapel and one or two houses. Though no permanent settlement was formed, the island became crucially important as a provisioning and rendezvous point for homebound voyages from Asia.

The English privateer Francis Drake very probably sighted Saint Helena on the final leg of his voyage around the world. Further English visits followed, and once the island's position became more widely known English warships lay in wait there to attack Portuguese carracks returning from India.

Developing their Far East trade, the Dutch began frequenting Saint Helena and formally claimed it in 1633. They never established a settlement, and by 1651 had largely abandoned the island in favour of their colony at the Cape of Good Hope, leaving the field open to English colonisation.

The English East India Company received authority to govern the island, and the following year decided to fortify it and colonise it with planters. This marked the beginning of continuous English administration of Saint Helena.

The first governor's arrival began permanent settlement; a fort was completed and a number of houses built. St Helena dates from this year its claim to be Britain's second oldest remaining colony after Bermuda.

After the Restoration of the British monarchy the Company was confirmed in exclusive control of Saint Helena. The fort was renamed James Fort and the town Jamestown in honour of the Duke of York, later King James II.

Napoleon was held on Saint Helena from October 1815 until his death on 5 May 1821, making the island internationally famous. The exile fixed Saint Helena's place in European strategic and imperial history.

Ascension was garrisoned on 22 October 1815, shortly after Napoleon's arrival on Saint Helena. As the Age of Sail ended, its awkward position in the equatorial doldrums mattered less than its value as a centrally placed naval coaling station.

Tristan da Cunha was annexed on 14 August 1816 at the settlement of the Napoleonic Wars, for strategic reasons similar to those behind the Ascension garrison. Shortly before, the group had briefly been inhabited by a private American expedition that called it the Islands of Refreshment.

A dedicated copper halfpenny was minted for use on Saint Helena. It marked an early step towards a distinct local currency alongside sterling.

Under the Government of India Act 1833, administration of Saint Helena passed from the East India Company to the Crown in 1834, making the island a British crown colony under direct British governmental control rather than chartered company rule. The island, administered by the East India Company from 1659 and famous as Napoleon's place of exile from 1815 to 1821, later had Ascension and Tristan da Cunha attached as dependencies.

On 12 September 1922 letters patent attached Ascension to Saint Helena, beginning the political union of the scattered South Atlantic colonies. It created the administrative structure that would last until 2009.

On 12 January 1938 the lightly populated Tristan da Cunha group followed Ascension in becoming a dependency of Saint Helena. The three island groups then shared a single constitutional relationship for over seventy years.

On 14 October 2017 the new airport handled its first scheduled commercial service, ending the island's reliance on sea access. A 118-metre permanent wharf at Rupert's Bay was built as part of the same airport project for cargo and passenger landings.

Potholes on the runway of the military airfield led in April 2017 to the cancellation of all but essential personnel and supply flights, including medical evacuations. The airfield is jointly operated by the United Kingdom and the United States and also hosts one of only four GPS satellite ground antennas.

The flag of Ascension Island was adopted on 11 May 2013, having previously used the Union Flag. It followed the constitutional elevation of the island to equal status within the territory.

From 2013 telephone numbers became five digits, with fixed lines beginning with 2 and mobiles with 5 or 6. Ascension made a comparable change in 2015.

The St Helena, Ascension and Tristan da Cunha Constitution Order 2009 came into effect on 1 September 2009, elevating Ascension and Tristan da Cunha from dependencies to equal constituent parts under the Crown. The territory's name changed from Saint Helena and Dependencies to Saint Helena, Ascension and Tristan da Cunha.

Britain asked the UN Commission on the Limits of the Continental Shelf to extend Ascension Island's shelf limit beyond 200 nautical miles. In 2010 the Commission recommended against extension on the basis of scientific surveys, leaving the standard limit in place.

From 2006 Tristan da Cunha was brought into the +290 telephone code used by Saint Helena, while Ascension retained a separate code, +247. Improved telecommunications integration linked the remote settlement more closely to the wider territory.

On 20 October 2002 the governor proclaimed a distinct flag for Tristan da Cunha under a Royal Warrant granted by Queen Elizabeth II. It gave the southern group its own official emblem for the first time.

The flag of Saint Helena was adopted on 4 October 1984 and was updated in 2018 to show a more realistic wirebird. It served as the official flag in Tristan da Cunha as well until 2002.

Local coinage was introduced in 1984, following the banknotes issued from 1976. It completed the establishment of a separate island currency at par with sterling.

Having used United Kingdom sterling until 1976, the territory started issuing local notes pegged to sterling. This gave Saint Helena a distinct monetary identity while retaining currency stability.

During the Battle of the Atlantic and the subsequent U-boat campaign, both islands hosted patrolling anti-commerce-raider and anti-submarine forces against Axis naval units. Long-range flying boats were used first, and air strips were later built to support land-based aircraft complementing PBY Catalina patrol planes, permanently transforming the islands' infrastructure.