Have any countries given up territory eagerly?

[Sitnam]

@Peter_Morris

Britain essentially does not like, want or need the Falkland Islands. They would have been happy to hand over the territory to Argentina decades ago. But the Islanders have refused, wishing to stay British, and the government can’t lose face by going against their wishes.

Ditto, I suspect, for Gibraltar. And for the French, Martinique and French Guiana.

[Donnerwetter]

@Sitnam

Ditto, I suspect, for Gibraltar. And for the French, Martinique and French Guiana.

Concerning French Guiana, France has very strong interests to keep it. They have a considerable military presence there (Foreign Legion, with a training center for jungle warware).

And Kourou in French Guiana is also the site where the European rocket Ariane is launched into space.

The French tend to stick to their overseas territories (for instance St. Pierre & Miquelon off the coast of Canada).

[Harmonious_Discord]

The USA transferred to Panama the Panama Canal Zone which was a USA territory.

[Sitnam]

@Donnerwetter

Concerning French Guiana, France has very strong interests to keep it. They have a considerable military presence there (Foreign Legion, with a training center for jungle warware).

And Kourou in French Guiana is also the site where the European rocket Ariane is launched into space.

The French tend to stick to their overseas territories (for instance St. Pierre & Miquelon off the coast of Canada).

They do, for what purpose other than pride?

[Colibri]

@Harmonious_Discord

The USA transferred to Panama the Panama Canal Zone which was a USA territory.

The Panama Canal Zone was never officially US territory. The Hay-Bunau-Varilla Treaty gave the US the right to the “use, occupation, and control” of the Zone, and the right to act as if it were sovereign there, but the area technically remained part of the Republic of Panama. Children born there to non-US citizens were regarded as Panamanian citizens.

[SCAdian]

@Raguleader

Without Hawaii, the Philippine islands were useless to the US, for distance-related reasons already mentioned (one concern that is kind of funny to look back on today is that they wouldn’t be able to defend isolated overseas territories against the British if war broke out). As an interesting historical footnote, the US and Germany almost got into a fight over them right before WWI (German had significant colonial possessions in the Pacific at the time), but the two naval forces got distracted by a hurricane that blew through the area and other issues came to the front soon after.

That’s Samoa you’re thinking of there…

[Raguleader]

@SCAdian

That’s Samoa you’re thinking of there…

Is it? My apologies. It’s amazing what you can think you know if you don’t fact-check yourself. :eek:

[Leo_Bloom]

@phreesh

I see what you did there.

So did I, but I wasn’t sure if I should give it a knowing smile. I should’ve.

[Donnerwetter]

@Colibri

The Panama Canal Zone was never officially US territory. The Hay-Bunau-Varilla Treaty gave the US the right to the “use, occupation, and control” of the Zone, and the right to act as if it were sovereign there, but the area technically remained part of the Republic of Panama. Children born there to non-US citizens were regarded as Panamanian citizens.

This became an issue (sort of…) in 2008 with regards to Presidential candidate John McCain who was born in the Panama Canal Zone:

https://www.nytimes.com/2008/02/28/us/politics/28mccain.html

[Colibri]

@Donnerwetter

This became an issue (sort of…) in 2008 with regards to Presidential candidate John McCain who was born in the Panama Canal Zone:

Many people assumed that McCain’s birth within territory that was controlled by the US was what made him a US citizen. It was actually his birth to US citizen parents that did so. However, because of a technicality in the law, at the time of his birth McCain would not have been a US citizen exactly because he was born in the Canal Zone. But because of a retroactive law passed shortly after he was born, he was considered to be have been a citizen from birth.