Name examples of British Overseas Territories

The British Overseas Territories include Gibraltar, the Falkland Islands, Bermuda, the Cayman Islands, the British Virgin Islands, the Turks and Caicos Islands, Anguilla, Montserrat, Saint Helena, Ascension and Tristan da Cunha, the Pitcairn Islands, the British Indian Ocean Territory, the British Antarctic Territory, South Georgia and the South Sandwich Islands, and the Sovereign Base Areas of Akrotiri and Dhekelia on Cyprus, together with the Bailiwick of the Cayman Islands and the British territory of Antarctica, making 14 territories in total.

The British Overseas Territories are territories under the jurisdiction and sovereignty of the United Kingdom but which are not part of the UK itself. They are the remnants of the British Empire that have chosen, at referendums or through long political tradition, to retain their constitutional link to the Crown rather than take independence. The King is head of state in each, represented in most territories by a Governor appointed on the advice of the British government. Each territory has its own constitution, its own elected legislature, and its own government responsible for most domestic matters. The UK retains responsibility for defence, foreign affairs, internal security in some cases, and good governance.

Gibraltar, at the southern tip of the Iberian peninsula, has been British since 1713 under the Treaty of Utrecht and remains a point of diplomatic dispute with Spain. Its population of around 34,000 voted overwhelmingly to remain British in referendums in 1967 and 2002. The Falkland Islands, in the South Atlantic, were the subject of the Falklands War in 1982, in which British forces recovered the islands after an Argentine invasion. Bermuda, the Cayman Islands, and the British Virgin Islands are internationally important financial centres. Saint Helena is the remote Atlantic island to which Napoleon was exiled in 1815 and where he died in 1821. The British Antarctic Territory covers a large sector of Antarctica, subject to the Antarctic Treaty System.

Residents of most Overseas Territories gained full British citizenship, with the right to live and work in the United Kingdom, under the British Overseas Territories Act 2002.

The Overseas Territories are constitutionally distinct from the Crown Dependencies, which are the Isle of Man, Jersey, and Guernsey. Crown Dependencies are self-governing possessions of the Crown that are not part of the United Kingdom and are not Overseas Territories either. Commonwealth realms, where the King is head of state but which are fully sovereign independent countries, are a third distinct category.