NationMaster - Encyclopedia: Background to the Falklands War

The Falklands consist of two main and many smaller islands in the South Atlantic Ocean east of Argentina. Ownership of the group had long been disputed. The Falklands were probably first discovered in the 1520s by the Spanish. The first British claim dates from 1592. In 1690, the British named them after the Treasurer of the Navy, Viscount Falkland. On April 5, 1764, France established a settlement on East Falkland and claimed the islands, which the Spanish offered to buy as they were concerned about disrupting the balance of power in the region. In 1765, the British established a settlement on Saunders Island, and in 1767 France transferred its settlement to Spain. In 1770, the Spanish captured the British settlement, but in 1771 it was handed back. In 1774 and 1806-11, respectively, the British and Spanish left the islands, each maintaining a claim over them. It is in this general period that the confusion lies. The Falkland Islands are an overseas territory of the United Kingdom in the South Atlantic consisting of two main islands known as East Falkland and West Falkland and a number of smaller islands. ... A small island in the Adriatic sea An island is any piece of land smaller than a continent and larger than a rock, that is completely surrounded by water. ... For other uses, see Atlantic (disambiguation) The Atlantic Ocean is Earths second-largest ocean, covering approximately one-fifth of its surface. ... Argentina is a country in southern South America, situated between the Andes in the west and the southern Atlantic Ocean in the east. ... Centuries: 15th century - 16th century - 17th century Decades: 1470s 1480s 1490s 1500s 1510s - 1520s - 1530s 1540s 1550s 1560s 1570s Years: 1520 1521 1522 1523 1524 1525 1526 1527 1528 1529 Events and Trends Fall of Tenochtitlán and conquest of Spanish. ... Events January 30 - The death of Pope Innocent IX during the previous year had left the Papal throne vacant. ... Events Giovanni Domenico Cassini observes differential rotation within Jupiters atmosphere. ... A notable office in British government between the 16th and early 19th centuries, the Treasurer of the Navy was responsible for the financial maintenance of the Royal Navy. ... The title Viscount Falkland was created in 1620 for Sir Henry Cary, in the Peerage of Scotland, along with the subsidiary title of Lord Cary. ... April 5 is the 95th day of the year in the Gregorian calendar (96th in leap years). ... Events January 19 - John Wilkes is expelled from the House of Commons for seditious libel February 15 - The American city of St. ... Events March 9 - Judges in Paris find Jean Calas innocent, (after having been tortured and executed in 1762) of murdering his son, Marc-Antoine, who had committed suicide), mainly because Voltaire wrote a series of articles calling for the case to be re-opened. ... Saunders Island is one of the Falkland Islands, lying north west of West Falkland. ... Events The Burmese army captures the Thai capital of Ayutthaya, and destroys the city. ... Events March 5 - Boston Massacre: 5 Americans killed by British troops in an event that would help start the American Revolutionary War 5 years later. ... Events January 22 - Spain cedes the Falkland Islands to England. ... Events January 21 - Mustafa III, Sultan of the Ottoman Empire dies and is succeeded by his brother Abd-ul-Hamid I. May 10 - Louis XVI becomes King of France. ... Events January 8 - Cape Colony becomes a British colony January 10 - Dutch in Cape Town surrender to the British January 19 - The United Kingdom occupies the Cape of Good Hope February 6 - Royal Navy victory off Santo Domingo - see:Action of 6 February 1806 March 23 - After traveling through the... 1811 was a common year starting on Tuesday (see link for calendar). ...

Argentina gained independence from Spain in 1816 and thus control over the Falklands (Islas Malvinas). In 1829, Argentina established Luis Maria Vernet as the first governor of the islands. Finally, in 1833 the British occupied the islands by force and ejected its inhabitants to the Argentine mainland. (For more details on the origin of the dispute see History of the Falkland Islands.) Events March 25 - Friedrich Karl Ludwig, Duke of Schleswig-Holstein-Sonderburg-Beck dies and is succeeded by the later Friedrich Wilhelm, Duke of Schleswig-Holstein-Sonderburg-Glücksburg, his son and founder of the Schleswig-Holstein-Sonderburg-Glücksburg. ... Events January 8 - Hanging of body-selling murderer William Burke - his associate William Hare, who testified against him, is released January 19 - Johann Wolfgang von Goethes Faust premieres March 4 - Andrew Jackson succeeds John Quincy Adams as the President of the United States of America. ... Events January 3, Britain seizes control of the Falkland Islands in the South Atlantic. ... Background: The Falkland Islands were uninhabited when first discovered by Europeans, but the recent discovery of the remains of a wooden canoe is strong evidence that they had previously been visited, most probably by the Yaghan people of Tierra del Fuego. ...

With the late 20th century absorption of the British Colonial Office into the UK Foreign and Commonwealth Office, successive British governments had come to see the dispute with Argentina as a minor problem from which they would have been happy to relieve themselves. Despite their government's neglect, the 1,800 or so inhabitants of British origin steadfastly refused to become part of Argentina, citing Article 73 (http://www.un.org/aboutun/charter/chapt11.htm) of the United Nations charter to support their position. In 1965, under UN Resolution 2065, Britain and Argentina started negotiations on the islands' future, but seventeen years later little had changed. While the idea of a 'leaseback' of the islands was proposed, under which Britain would cede sovereignty to Argentina after fifty years, nothing materialised. (19th century - 20th century - 21st century - more centuries) Decades: 1900s 1910s 1920s 1930s 1940s 1950s 1960s 1970s 1980s 1990s As a means of recording the passage of time, the 20th century was that century which lasted from 1901–2000 in the sense of the Gregorian calendar (1900–1999 in the... The Secretary of State for the Colonies or Colonial Secretary was the British Cabinet official in charge of managing the various British colonies. ... The Foreign and Commonwealth Office (FCO) is the United Kingdom government department responsible for promoting the interests of the United Kingdom abroad. ... The United Kingdom is a unitary state and a democratic constitutional monarchy. ... The United Nations, or UN, is an international organization made up of 191 states established in 1945. ...

Argentina was going through a devastating economic crisis. There was also massive social unrest against the Military Junta which had murdered thousands of Argentines for political opposition to the unelected Junta. Between 1976 and 1983—under military rule—in the middle of the "Dirty War", supposedly waged against communism, thousands of people, most of them dissidents and innocent civilians unconnected with terrorism, were arrested and then vanished without trace. Many of these people simply 'disappeared'. Death squads struck with impunity, terrorizing working class union members and anyone opposed to the corruption which infested the country's higher ranks. Economics is the social science studying production and consumption through measurable variables. ... Augusto Pinochet (sitting) was an army general who led a military coup in Chile in 1973. ... A Dirty War (in Spanish: Guerra Sucia) is a program of violent repression of rebels and dissidents conducted by government forces, characterized by the use of disappearances, torture, murder, and other covert practices, massive violations of human and civil rights, and often including innocent bystanders among its victims. ... Communism is a term that can refer to one of several things: a social and economic system, an ideology which supports that system, or a political movement that wishes to implement that system. ... A dissident is a person who actively opposes the established order. ... Terrorism refers to the use of violence for the purpose of achieving a political, religious, or ideological goal. ... Desaparecidos means literally the disappeared in Spanish, and is a reference to people who were arrested by various South American military governments and then vanished without a trace. ... A death squad is an extra-judicial group whose members execute or assassinate persons they believe to be politically unreliable or undesirable. ... The term working class is used to denote a social class. ... A union (labor union in American English; trade union, sometimes trades union, in British English; either labour union or trade union in Canadian English) is a legal entity consisting of employees or workers having a common interest, such as all the assembly workers for one employer, or all the workers... This article is about political corruption. ...

The oppression of the Argentine people continued under a succession of dictators from General Jorge Videla to General Roberto Viola and then General Leopoldo Galtieri for a short while. Before he started the Falklands War, Galtieri was subject to growing opposition from the people. The actual dictatorship of General Galtieri lasted only eighteen months but he was a key player in the slaughter and oppression of his own people for years previous. Throughout 1981, Argentina saw inflation climb to over 600%, GDP went down to 11.4%, manufacturing output down to 22.9% and real wages by 19.2%. The Unions were gaining more support for a general strike every day and the popular opposition to the Junta was growing rapidly. Oppression is the arbitrary and cruel exercise of power. ... Dictator was the title of a magistrate in ancient Rome appointed by the Senate to rule the state in times of emergency. ... General is a military rank, in most nations the highest rank, although some nations have the higher rank of Field Marshal. ... Jorge Rafael Videla Redondo (born August 2, 1925 in Mercedes) is a former Argentine soldier and politician. ... Roberto Eduardo Viola Prevedini (October 13, 1924 – September 30, 1994) was a military officer who briefly served as interim president of Argentina from March 29 to December 11, 1981 during a period of military rule. ... President Galtieri Leopoldo Fortunato Galtieri Castelli (July 15, 1926 - January 12, 2003) was an Argentinian general and dictator. ... Inflation rates of five core members of the G8 from 1950 to 1994. ... In economics, the gross domestic product (GDP) is a measure of the amount of the economic production of a particular territory in financial capital terms during a specific time period. ... Manufacturing is the transformation of raw materials into finished goods for sale, or intermediate processes involving the production or finishing of semi-manufactures. ... A wage is the amount of money paid for some specified quantity of labour. ... A general strike is a strike action by an entire labour force in a city, region or country. ...

Argentine President Galtieri

Critics of the invasion by Argentina claim that the Junta sought to use the patriotism of war to quell unrest in the working classes, hoping that whilst engulfed in a patriotic fervour, the Argentines would forget about the crisis, and the crimes of their military. Likewise, critics of the British government of Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher claim that she sought to use the war to bolster her flagging popularity—another "splendid little war." The Royal Navy maintained a military presence in the area in the form of a small group of forty Royal Marines known as Naval Party 8901, and HMS Endurance, an aging patrol vessel which was on the verge of decommissioning. Invasion is a military action consisting of troops entering a foreign land (a nation or territory, or part of that), often resulting in the invading power occupying the area, whether briefly or for a long period. ... Patriotism is a feeling of love and devotion to ones own homeland (patria, the land of ones fathers). ... for other uses please see Crime (disambiguation) A crime is an act that violates a political or moral law. ... The Right Honourable Margaret Hilda Thatcher, Baroness Thatcher, LG, OM, PC, FRS (born 13 October 1925) is a British politician and the first woman Prime Minister of the United Kingdom, a position she held from 1979 to 1990. ... Royal Navy Ensign The Royal Navy is the navy of the United Kingdom. ... HMS Endurance HMS Endurance (1967-1991) HMS Endurance, ex-Anita Dan, was built in Denmark in 1956 by Grogerwerft for the Lauritzen Lines. ...

See Also