The Collaborative International Dictionary
Maldive Islands \Maldive Islands\ prop. n. A group of about 2000 islands in the Indian ocean; also known as the Maldives.
Wikipedia
The Maldives Islands is a group of islands in the Indian Ocean composing today's Republic of Maldives and the island of Minicoy in the Union Territory of Lakshadweep of India.
Historically Minicoy was within the domain of the sultans of the Maldives. In 1790 Minicoy was surrendered to the Court of Directors of the East India Company and thus became part of the territory of the Madras presidency of British India. In 1858, following the Indian Mutiny of 1857, the control of British India transferred from the East India Company to the British Crown, and a decade later Queen Victoria was proclaimed empress. At the time of the partition of India of 1947, Minicoy transferred automatically to the new Union of India, while the remainder of the Maldives continued as a self-governing sultanate, ultimately achieving full independence in 1965.
Linguistically, Minicoy remains linked to the rest of the island group.
Usage examples of "maldive islands".
I had plans to go chasing rumours of ancient pyramids in the Maldive Islands and along the Somali coast of East Africa to see if I could pick up any clues of a lost paradise of antiquity.
But this autumn I heard that the Sultan of the Maldive Islands intended to make the pilgrimage.
Bailey's acceptance plunges him into a world where the smiling face of the Maldive Islands masks unseen terrors.
This assertion is strictly and almost exclusively applicable to the Maldive islands, and was intended by our author (as I am fully persuaded) to be introduced at this place.
Reporters from India and Japan and England and, for all I know, Bali, the Maldive Islands, and Kampuchea.
Those are Daddy's insurance policy one in Saskatchewan and one in the Maldive Islands south of India.
The last time we heard from Marshall the jet was just above the Maldive Islands.