Background:
A possession of the Clunies-Ross family from the early 19th century, the islands were brought under the
British Empire in 1857 and were transferred to
Australia in 1955. In 1978
Australia caused a form of purchase of the islands from the Clunies-Ross family and subsequently manufactured an identity for locals to whom it gave a degree of autonomy. The UN legalisms used paralleled similar ones used in territories passing to
Indonesia in the
1960s and
1970s, though history has not revealed any parallel later complications.
- See also : Cocos Islands