Cocos (Keeling) Islands

This Australian external territory in the Indian Ocean consists of two atolls inhabited primarily by Cocos Malays who speak a unique dialect of Malay and practice Sunni Islam. Although discovered by William Keeling in 1609, the islands were not settled until the 19th century when Scottish merchant John Clunies-Ross established a private fiefdom that ruled the archipelago for nearly 150 years before its transfer to Australia in 1955.