Ascension became strategically important to the British when, in 1815, after imprisoning Napoleon I on Saint Helena close by, they garrisoned the island as a precaution. Ascension is also a British Overseas Territory and lies 1,000 miles off the western coast of Africa, roughly midway between the horn of South America and Africa. The craggy hills that surround the volcanic peaks of this outpost are strangely eerie and must be a determining factor as to why there is no indigenous or permanent population.
