dependent territories

Term used as a means of referring collectively to colonies, protectorates, protected states, and trust territories for which Britain remains responsible. The term ‘dependencies’ is normally used to refer to territories placed under the authority of another; for example Ascension Island and Tristan da Cunha are dependencies of St Helena.

In 1998 there were 11 inhabited British dependent territories: Anguilla; Bermuda; British Virgin Islands; Cayman Islands; Falkland Islands; Gibraltar; Montserrat; Pitcairn Islands; St Helena; South Georgia and the South Sandwich Islands; and the Turks and Caicos Islands. There were also two offshore Crown dependencies: the Channel Islands and the Isle of Man.