These mini-islands are divided by curious national borders

Some islands cover less than half a square kilometer, are uninhabited, or completely isolated. Nevertheless, they still have room for a national border, which has often been, or continues to be, the cause of years of dispute between countries.

The islands tell unique stories of power and diplomacy. They bear witness to colonial pasts, unresolved territorial conflicts, or, as in the case of Hans Island, surprisingly peaceful and quite curious solutions. The travel reporter introduces you to some of the world's divided islands.

The first of these curious islands lies in the middle of the northern arc of the Lesser Antilles. The Caribbean island of St. Martin – a volcanic island, with an area of ​​only 87 square kilometers, is nevertheless geopolitically remarkable: It is one of the smallest inhabited islands in the world, divided by an international border. The northern, larger part of St. Martin belongs toFrance and is part of an overseas territory of the European Union.

On the Caribbean island of St. Martin there is a border between France and the Netherlands.

Source: IMAGO/Addictive Stock

The southern part forms the autonomous country of Sint Maarten, which belongs to the Kingdom of the Netherlands . This unusual division has a centuries-old history. According to legend, in 1648, French and Dutch prisoners of war expelled the Spanish occupiers and officially divided the island between themselves in the Treaty of Concordia.

The division continues to shape everyday life to this day. Two capitals, Marigot in the French north and Philipsburg in the Dutch south, each administer their own part, with cultural and economic influences merging. The euro dominates in the north, while the Caribbean guilder is the official currency in the south, with the US dollar widely accepted on both sides. Despite the border in the middle, there are no conflicts between the countries, and St. Martin is also extremely popular with Caribbean travelers.

Pulau Sebatik lies off the east coast of Borneo and is one of the world's lesser-known islands. Historically, however, the approximately 452-square-kilometer island has several interesting stories to tell. A border between Indonesia and Malaysia runs down the middle of the island. This separation dates back to an 1891 agreement between the then colonial powers, Great Britain and the Netherlands.

The island of Pulau Sebatik is divided between Indonesia and Malaysia.

Source: IMAGO/Dreamstime

Despite the established border, tensions continued to arise on the small island even after Indonesia's independence and the founding of Malaysia. In the 1960s, these tensions escalated during the so-called Konfrontasi (Confrontation), leading to military clashes. In the following decades, economic interests due to the suspected oil and natural gas deposits in the region continued to lead to disputes.

Security factors also complicated the situation on Pulau Sebatik. In the early 2000s, extremist groups such as the Indonesian "Jemaah Islamiyah" exploited the island's remote, inaccessible topography to create safe havens. While Pulau Sebatik is not particularly suitable for a relaxing vacation, the island's history is nevertheless extremely interesting.

Germany also has an island divided by an international border: Usedom. The island in the Baltic Sea belongs mostly to Germany and a small part to Poland . Of its total area of ​​445 square kilometers, approximately 72 are Polish. The official division took place after the end of World War II at the Potsdam Conference in 1945.

The border between Germany and Poland runs on the island of Usedom.

Source: IMAGO/imagebroker

After agriculture and fishing, tourism has always been one of the island's most important economic sectors. The climate is largely responsible for this. Because Germany's second-largest island enjoys around 1,906 hours of sunshine a year, it is also known as the "Sun Island" and attracts more than a million visitors annually.

Kataja is a tiny, uninhabited island in the Gulf of Bothnia – yet of geopolitical importance. With an area of ​​just 0.71 square kilometers, it would be easy to miss if it weren't for an international border. Kataja marks the easternmost land area of ​​Sweden and is also divided between Sweden and Finland .

The larger part of the island belongs to Sweden, the smaller part to Finland. This unique border location is not the result of political renegotiations, but rather a consequence of geological processes. When the border between Sweden and the then Russian Empire was drawn in 1809 – Finland was under Russian control at the time – the dividing line still ran in the water between two separate islands: the Swedish Kataja and the Finnish Inakari. Over time, however, post-glacial land uplift connected the two islands – two became one, and the border suddenly ran over land.

In the middle of the icy Nares Strait between Greenland and Canada's Ellesmere Island lies an inconspicuous rock: Hans Island. Only about 1.3 square kilometers in size, uninhabited, and poor in natural resources – yet for decades it was the trigger for a remarkably protracted territorial dispute between Denmark and Canada . The island was simply ignored in a bilateral border agreement in 1973, after which both countries began to claim it for themselves.

The Danish Foreign Minister and the Canadian Foreign Minister agreed on the official division of Hans Island.

Source: IMAGO/ZUMA Press

What followed was a symbolic and amusing "war": Whenever Danish or Canadian teams visited the island, they tore down the other's flag, raised their own, and left behind a bottle of their country's liquor. This friendly ritual soon became known as the "Whisky War" and is considered arguably the most peaceful war in the world.

After nearly 50 years of diplomatic sparring, Canada and Denmark finally agreed to divide the island in 2022. This created a new international land border – right in the middle of the Arctic. For both sides, the long dispute also carried a political message: In a time of global tension, this compromise demonstrates that territorial conflicts can also be resolved peacefully and based on rules. With a symbolic exchange of liquor bottles, what was arguably the most polite border conflict in world history was ceremoniously brought to an end.

With an area of ​​just 0.033 square kilometers, Märket is considered one of the smallest divided islands in the world and represents a true geographical curiosity in the Baltic Sea. The flat, jagged rock lies between the Swedish mainland and the Finnish Åland Islands. It rises only a few meters above sea level and is completely submerged in heavy seas.

After the end of the Russo-Swedish War in 1809, Sweden ceded parts of Finland to Russia . This also divided Märket—a previously purely Swedish territory. In the mid-19th century, the Russians built a lighthouse there, but accidentally on Swedish territory.

This historical inaccuracy was only resolved in 1985 through a precise territorial swap between Sweden and Finland. Since then, the border has run in a strange zigzag line across the cliffs, taking into account the location of the lighthouse. Today, the lighthouse can be visited by boat during the summer months.

Koiluoto is a tiny, approximately 200-meter-long island in the northern part of the Gulf of Finland, near the Finnish-Russian land border. Despite its small size of only about 0.02 square kilometers, it is politically significant: Since the end of World War II, an international border has run across the rocky island.

The western part belongs to Finland, while the eastern part to Russia. The division of the island dates back to the post-war settlement of 1945, which resulted in many border lines between the Soviet Union and Finland being redrawn. Unlike some other divided islands, there were never any publicly known disputes over the border in Koiluoto. The island is uninhabited today.

The Liancourt Rocks – Dokdo in Korean, Takeshima in Japanese – are a small, uninhabited group of rocks in the Sea of ​​Japan that have been at the center of an unresolved territorial dispute between South Korea and Japan for decades. The rocks are located about halfway between the east coast of Korea and the Japanese prefecture of Shimane, reports Nippon-Info .

The Liancourt Rocks are causing controversy between Japan and South Korea.

Source: IMAGO/Newscom / Yonhap News

Although the rocks offer only a small area, both states claim the territory for themselves. South Korea has exercised de facto military control over the islands since 1953, maintains a small coast guard station there, and rejects any negotiations regarding their ownership. Japan, on the other hand, views Takeshima as a historically legitimate part of its territory and is seeking legal clarification before the International Court of Justice – so far without success.

The conflict also has a symbolic character and is accompanied by nationalist overtones on both sides. The potential gas deposits are of particular political importance. Large quantities of methane hydrate, methane gas trapped in ice, are said to be found on the seabed, making it a lucrative business. To this day, the dispute remains unresolved and is considered an example of how even the smallest islands can be responsible for complex historical and political tensions.

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