Montserrat is a British Overseas Territory in the Caribbean, and as such its Head of State is the monarch of the United Kingdom. It is part of the Leeward Islands, the northern portion of the Lesser Antilles chain of the West Indies. Montserrat is about 16 km long and 11 km wide, with roughly 40 km of coastline. It is nicknamed "The Emerald Isle of the Caribbean" both for its resemblance to coastal Ireland and for the Irish ancestry of many of its inhabitants.
Montserrat was part of a British colony called the British Leeward Islands; it became a separate colony on 31 May 1962. Queen Elizabeth II was its first monarch. |