A Union Territory of more than 800 islands, islets and rocks in the Bay of Bengal and Andaman Sea, stretching roughly north to south, separated into the Andaman group in the north and the Nicobar group in the south by the Ten Degree Channel; the capital is Sri Vijaya Puram (formerly Port Blair).
The islands are the exposed tops of a submarine mountain chain, a southward continuation of the Arakan Yoma ranges of Myanmar, which in turn link to the folds of the eastern Himalaya. They were formed where the Indian plate dives beneath the Burma microplate along the Sunda subduction zone. This tectonic setting explains the steep hills, the active volcano on Barren Island, the mud volcanoes of Baratang and the great 2004 earthquake and tsunami, which lifted parts of the northern islands and sank parts of the south.
Human history on the islands is ancient. The Andamanese peoples, including the Great Andamanese, Onge, Jarawa and Sentinelese, are believed to descend from some of the earliest migrations out of Africa, while the Nicobarese and the Shompen of Great Nicobar have different origins. The British set up a penal settlement at Port Blair after 1857, and the Cellular Jail, completed in 1906, became a symbol of the freedom struggle. During the Second World War the islands were occupied by Japan, and Subhas Chandra Bose hoisted the national flag at Port Blair in December 1943.
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