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Indian Ocean

Introduction

Islands of Paradise

The Indian Ocean covers about 20% of water surface on Earth, making it the third largest ocean in the world, after the Pacific Ocean and Atlantic Ocean. It is at its widest in the southern area between Africa and Australia and narrows bit by bit before reaching the Arabian Peninsula, Southeast Asia and the Indian subcontinent.

Modern history could be started from 1497, depending on the way you look upon it. During that same year, Vasco da Gama rounded the Cape of Good Hope in modern day South Africa, finallly to reach India. He became the first European to reach India over water and it was the starting point of the traderoutes between India and several other Asian countries, and both Europe and Africa. Portugal and then the Netherlands, France and the UK all had their periods of power and wealth regarding these traderoutes and the domination of strategical areas along the Asian coastline.
This period lasted for almost 400 years, before the opening of the Suez Channel in 1869. Routes around Africa were replaced by routes through the Red Sea to the Gulf of Aden, finally reaching the big waters of the Indian Ocean.

Nowadays, most of the countries in the Indian Ocean region are autonomous and few colonial relationships exist. Both the UK and the US though have some strategically located navy bases right in the centre of the Indian Ocean at Diego Garcia and there are still several French territories as well.

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Geography

In general, the western and eastern boundaries are formed by the 20º East Meridian and the 147º East Meridian respectively. The former acts as the unofficial border with the Atlantic Ocean at South Africa's Cape Agulhas, the latter with the Pacific Ocean.

st denis in the morning

The northern and southern borders are less easy to define. The 30º North Latitude in the Persian Gulf is usually believed to be the northern edge. Since 2000, there has been a fifth world ocean, the Southern Ocean. The border of this ocean coincides with the 60º South Latitude, coinciding again with the Antarctic Treaty Limit.
Moreover, the southern borders of the Indian Ocean sometimes are still drawn south towards Antarctica. Therefore, also the islands in that region are listed below under 'islands'.
Generally, also the main bodies of waters of the Gulf of Aden, Andaman Sea, Arabian Sea, Bay of Bengal, Great Australian Bight, Laccadive Sea, Gulf of Mannar, Mozambique Channel, Gulf of Oman, Persian Gulf, Red Sea and others are included in the territorial boundaries of the Indian Ocean.

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Islands

Although of course the coastlines of many countries located on the main continents all form borders of the Indian Ocean, it is sufficient to only name the islands in the Indian Ocean proper. Only just over a handful of these are actually independent countries.