I'm not saying that this couldn't have happened with a gTLD But why put your brand at the mercy of a government like that?
Dodged a bullet there given that .io is at risk of being discontinued altogether. It hasn't been decided yet, but better to not have that dangling over your head.
You guys want to kick indigenous people off their land for military bases? Enjoy your new bill for .io domains.
And Mauritius have treated the Chagossians like dirt for decades, with no signs of that changing.
None of this is to deny the Chagossians were extremely ill treated by the British, but the idea that the Mauritanians have any interest in the welfare of the Chagossians is ridiculous.
A lot of Pacific islands territories have complicated histories like this (e.g. Hawaii, New Zealand), but the focus usually ends up on whatever bastards most recently took over from the previous bastards (relative levels of bastardy notwithstanding).
The thing with the island of Diego Garcia is quite strange and I strongly suspect there is corruption involved. The UK wishes to divest itself? Instead of holding an auction where the rest of the planet can bid on purchasing the territory, the UK decided that Mauritius would take it (who doesn't really want it) and to entice them, the UK is going to PAY Mauritius to take the territory and leave the base alone. The amount is £90 million annually, adjusted for inflation for 99 years.
This is a lot of money, why not just NOT turn it over and not have to give away £90 million a year for a century? So, it begs the question.. is someone from the UK side benefiting from this no-bid deal?
Give the island to me, and I won't charge the UK to have the base.
As I understand it there were no Maori before NZ was settled, that culture formed there from the Polynesian"moa-hunters". Some descendants of those settlers became the Maori, but that a different claim.
Furthermore, there are just generally very few records so I think it's very difficult to make definite claims like you or GP do.