ELI5: Explain Like I'm 5

Potemkin Island

Okay kiddo, imagine you have a really cool toy that you want to show to your friends. But, you don't have a good space to play with it. So, you decide to make a pretend play area to make your toy look really awesome. That's kind of like what a Potemkin Island is.

A long time ago in Russia, there was a powerful leader named Potemkin who wanted to impress his queen. He decided to make fake villages out of wood just to make it look like there were more buildings around. This was done to show that Potemkin was a good ruler and that he was providing people with plenty of homes.

Today, a Potemkin Island is when someone or a group of people try to make something look better than it actually is. They might make fake buildings or people in order to fool others into thinking they have a lot going on.

So, it basically means they're pretending or putting on a show to make something seem better than it is. But, just like your toy, it's not all real!