African Islands Still Controlled by Europe

Africa looks pretty normal when you look at it on a map. But things start to get a bit strange when you zoom in a bit closer and look at its islands. There seems to be a lot of land that's part of Europe that's on the wrong continent in Africa’s territorial waters. Both Spain and France retain possession of a number of territories in Africa in the form of islands in the Mediterranean Sea, in the Atlantic Ocean in the case of Spain, and in the Indian Ocean in the case of France. Italy, the United Kingdom and Portugal also retain possession of small islands in the Atlantic Ocean.

We already know the story of how Europe scrambled Africa and how African countries gained their independence but the primary question of this video is not what happened on Africa’s mainland or even on its seaboard but rather what happened on its oceans that resulted in this oddity so in this video i will go through the list of these awkward places which despite being on African coasts are actually owned by European countries and answer these questions

Stay tuned and remember to subscribe

[Hiro-ebzx]

I believe the majority of people in Mayotte voted to remain under France in the democratic referendum.

[LittleSpiderman]

Hello, I'm from Canary Islands 🇮🇨

I have some things to point out, first of all, the archipelago was never part of Morocco, so there's nothing to "Return" second of all, I acknowledge that we, the canarian people never had the opportunity to decide if we wanted to be part of Spain or not, we were colonized and treated unfairly for over 400 years until Spain was forced to abandon the Sahara desert and its other colonies (btw this was relatively not so long ago, there's still a lot of racism, hate and poverty in the islands and even if other Spanish or even canarian who don't wanna admit it, there's still a colonial features you can acknowledge in the way of the economy, status and social classes works in the archipelago, one example of this is that the richest ppl are the descendants of the landlords and ppl of power that exploited the canarian ppl during and after the colonization, another one is that after the Spanish government realized they could lost the Canary islands they changed the way they referred to us on the media (the latest example was during the event of the Volcano in La Palma, they referred to this volcano as an European event even though we are talking about a geographic event which is really stupid bc obviously the Canary islands are African islands, but also on a more personal level, I remember hearing while growing up ppl from the peninsula being racist/xenophobic to us by calling us "Africans" or "Moros" as a curse, seeing us as inferior but now every time I say I'm African they rush to say "No, you're a Spanish, European!!" So basically our identity would only serve whatever fits their word)

There was a big independent movement during the 70s but it lost a lot of strength after the Spanish government shoot Antonio Cubillo, the "creator" of this movement.
Right now the situation on the islands is not good for young people, there's no job offers with a decent payment, most of the canarian youth have to leave their homes meanwhile European rich people buy our land and make their millionaire resorts destroying the nature and making life for Canarians even more difficult, (similar in a way to what it's happening in Hawaii) and this is not something new, it has been like this since the beginning due to being a colony (even if some ppl don't want to admit it)

If you want to know my opinion on all of this as a Canarian person, I think the opportunity and decision on whatever we want independence or not should be granted bc I believe every nation has this right, but what I know for sure is that not even one canarian wants to "belong" to Morocco bc our culture is beyond far from theirs even though they are our neighbors, that's like asking a Mexican if he wants to belong to the USA.
I also want to point out as someone who has grown up here, there's a lot of Canarians who identify as Spaniards, or feel close to them culturally, some other feel even closer to other countries like Venezuela or Colombia due to our connection to latinoamerica and some other will feel absolutely nothing to Spain and only feel "canarian" and I totally understand this three ways of thinking, ours history is complicated and big

As for me, I identity myself only as a canarian bc I don't feel deeply emotionally or culturally connected to Spain (peninsula) and I have family in both, peninsula and latinoamerica.
I see myself as a canarian, this means that yes, my nationality is Spanish, but I'm not European and I will never be, you cannot tell me I'm European when not even one of my fingers have step on the European continent in my 20 years of life.
If there was a vote about this, I don't know if I would choose to still be part of Spain or not, I don't hate Spain at all (even after having this sad history with them), actually it's one of my favorite countries BUT, if I look at the facts, they have not treated us the best they could have, right now The Canary islands is the poorest Autonomic Community of Spain, how do they want us to feel Spaniards if they don't do anything about this issue or others like ppl in risk of social exclusion, unemployment, destruction of nature, economy based only in tourism (you can only imagine the disaster after covid in my home bc of this tourism based economy) and the list go on. I think most Canarians wouldn't mind being Spanish if Spain improve our quality life, but if this doesn't change soon... the people who live in canarias will be only rich Germans, Italians and ppl from the peninsula.

I love my home, that's why I took the time to write this long ass comment 😂 if you took the time to read it I really appreciate it, if any of you have doubts about this little archipelago you can ask me no problem, I speak both Spanish and English

[bfdiepictennisballbfdi]

But the UN itself doesn't consider Ceuta and Melilla as colonies, While considering Gibraltar a colony, you should have actually done a bit of research before talking. Also, it is simply impossible to return any more land to Morocco since they never held it

[brontewcat]

It’s a bit of a stretch claiming the territories of St Helena, Tristan de Cunha and Ascension Islands as African. They are all in the mid Atlantic and well over 1000kms from the African coast. They were uninhabited before Europeans arrived.

Further at least one of the Italian islands looks to be halfway between Italy and the African continent, so again a bit of a stretch claiming it as African.

[mikeybarboza]

Cape Verde where I was born (my parents were on vacation there and I happened to pop out in 1987) only gained their freedom in 1975. All of my grandparents where born there while under Portuguese control.

[muhammadasruni]

Why you put Indonesia map as the thumbnail background?
Indonesia isn't in africa!
+ Niue actually in oceania.

[stocactus]

So following this reasoning trans continental countries shouldn't exist. Turkey should give half Istanbul to greece, egypt should give back asian part, russia should renounce to either asian or european part and so on. This is just wrong on so many ways.

[nanaofficial]

I pray Africa will be free indeed. Thanks for always keeping us updated 💯👍

[wabi-sabi]

I was born in the archipelagos of Cape-Verde which was uninhabited until the Portuguese arrived and the same thing applies to Madeira and Azores. The Portuguese even gave us, the Cape-Verdeans, independence in a peaceful way but they could have just kept us since half of the population also wanted to remain, while Madeira and Azores are autonomous regions and always had a large majority Portuguese population.

[UniquelyCritical]

Self determination, exclusive economic zones and the ability to place military bases are what drive these claims. Also, domination of the sea is power projection.

[jayjay]

If the Arab league hadn't backed Morocco..that island wouldn't be declared a no man's land

[tomasfinzi]

The pelagie islands are inhabited by italian people, hence why they are part of Italy. I like your channel, 'cause it gives a different point of view on global issues, but stating that a region should be part of another nation just for being on the same continental shelf and not the will of its inhabitants seems foolish to me

[clementhudson]

Would it be possible for you to start putting citations in your video descriptions so that we can do further reading? Wonderful work anyhow!

[MrLarso]

The people on the canary islands right now would NOT appreciate being part of Morocco or any other African country for that matter.

The claims are somewhat stretched, for example the Canary Islands were never Moroccan, and as exactly said in the video have been in spanish control (not occupation cause there was no country there, ) for over 500 years. The inhabitants are basically Spanish. In Spain it's not considered a colony and it's actually seen as a very amazing and special place.

[Alex]

Hello! Any plans on releasing any new videos in the future? I love your channel and the work you do!

[revolvernariope]

love this channel and hope your doing well.

[svenmarkert]

Woohoo! Congratulations to 100, 000 subscribers! I hope you are doing alright. I haven't seen any updates in four weeks. Wishing you all the best!

[pedrosousa]

i dont know you talking about you are mixing europe with africa and Asia.

[JAYFULFILMZ]

The Island of Saint Helena in the south Atlantic about 1200 miles off the coast of Angola was also used by the British as a holding post during the Atlantic slave trade in the 1800’s

[JustFluffyQuiltingYarnCrafts]

"African lands should be in African hands." Period.