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Saint Helena

zh-cn:圣赫勒拿岛

This is an article about the island of Saint Helena. For the person see Saint Helena of Constantinople


Saint Helena is an island in the Atlantic Ocean 2,800 km off the west coast of Africa belonging to the United Kingdom. It is also the name of this island together with Ascension, Gough Island, Inaccessible Island, Nightingale Island, and Tristan da Cunha Island.

The island served as a strategic island for ships on their way to the Indian Ocean before the Suez Canal was built.

St. Helena has a small population that remains loyal to Britain. However, the island's dimunitive size and geopolitical insignificance has led many Islanders to accuse the British Government of ignoring the island. The island's economy was a one crop economy for many years, but is now very weak, and is almost entirely sustained solely on aid from London.

Napoleon Bonaparte ended his life in exile on St. Helena, and the St. Helena tourist industry is heavily based around the promotion of this particular aspect of the island's history.

From the CIA World Factbook 2000. Not Wikified.

External link

The homepage of Saint Helena in the South Atlantic Ocean